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Sephardic journeys:Travel, Place andConceptions of IdentityJESSICA VANCE ROITMAN

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To cite this article: JESSICA VANCE ROITMAN (2009): Sephardic journeys:Travel, Place and Conceptions of Identity, Jewish Culture and History, 11:1-2,208-228

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PART IV: JOURNEYS AND FAMILIES

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Sephardic Journeys: Travel, Place and Conceptions of Identity

JESSICA VANCE ROITMAN

This essay will discuss two kinds of journeys - one actual and one metaphorical. The journeys made by Sephardic merchants between Europe, West Africa and the Spanish American colonies will be examined, along with the concept of journeying itself within the context of the early modem world. What will also be discussed is the manner in which two specific Sephardic merchant families originally from Portugal- the Fidalgo and the Gramaxo - acted and reacted to the stigmatising factor of jewish ancestry. One family made a journey towards the open practice of judaism while the other journeyed away from their Jewish ancestry and toward incorporation into the Catholic Christian elite. The factors that led to these very different responses to issues of cultural and religious identity will be explored.

The Portuguese pass without cease . . . in all the fleets, galleons, and mail-ships. They come by way of Brazil, Guinea, the Canary Islands and Santo Domingo.1

In 1610, Diogo ¥.is de Sousa and Estevao Rodrigues Pen~o, both Sephardic merchants, declared that they lived on the coast of Guinea in West Africa, but were visiting Amsterdam for business.2 Manoel Carvalho, a Jewish merchant living in Amsterdam, swore to a Dutch notary in 1612 that he had lived in Brazil for 18 years before moving to the Netherlands.3 These three merchants' migratory journeys were hardly exceptional between 1580 and 1640. In fact, it was nearly a universal pattern for Sephardic merchants to live in four, five or more cities throughout their lives, while also visiting numerous locales for the furtherance of their business interests, not to mention journeys made to escape direct harassment by civil or ecclesiastical authorities, or to prevent the inquisitorial confiscation of goods.' Two Sephardic merchant families in the Early Modem Atlantic - the Fidalgo and the Gramaxo - illustrate this propensity for movement. The members of these families were highly mobile merchants who made numerous journeys from one locale to another, as economic or political imperatives dictated.

Despite the fact that journeying was not uncommon in the early modem period, especially for soldiers, sailors, diplomats, and merchants, the proclivity for movement on the part of the Portuguese was exceptional. 5 The Sephardim, due to political and religious factors were, as a specific subgroup of the larger movement of Portuguese across the globe, particularly mobile. They were categorised by their Jewish descent yet, often, accepted into the larger whole of constructed Portuguese nationhood,

Jewish Culture and History, Vol.ll, No.1&2 (Summer/Autumn 2009) pp.209-228 PUBLISHED BY YALLENTINE MITCHELL, LONDON

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210 JEWISH CULTURE AND HISTORY

especially vis-a-vis the Spanish. The movement of these Sephardim in particular was, at some level at least, deeply challenging to accepted social norms. The prevailing wisdom of the time valued fixity, and excessive movement was viewed with distrust as being irreconcilable with loyalty to and, concomitantly, control by, higher authorities such as the state and the church. 6 The Sephardim were especially suspect because they were fixed neither geographically nor religiously.

This angst over fiXity versus fluidity and loyalty versus infidelity was transferred to religious identity as well. For European Jews, the late sixteenth century was a time of unprecedented changes in how collective identity was constituted. As the historian Jonathan Israel puts it, this was a period in which 'Jewish society, indeed Jewish nationhood' as 'something distinct from Jewish religion' was emerging 'as much more definite realities than before' .7 Israel goes on to say, 'The whole hitherto fixed pattern of restricted interaction between western Christendom and the Jews was transformed'." This total transformation in the concept of what constituted 'nationhood' and religious versus cultural identity was part and parcel of the massive conversion of Jews to Christianity, mosdy in Iberia, from the late fourteenth century onward. These conversions, many of which were forced, had not only created a separate religious, legal, and ethnic category known as 'New Christians' within the larger population, it had uncovered a problem with the idea of determining religious identity in terms of either assent or by descent.9

Thus, the Sephardim were hardly static or fixed in any sense of these words. The Sephardim were a sub-group of the larger Portuguese Diaspora and, as such, could be found in all corners of the expanding European world. In addition, they were, whether by choice or circumstance, part of the larger reconsideration and reorganisation of personal identity as separate from religious or national identities and loyalties - a process which had begun with the Protestant Reformation. This dynamic of movement on all levels can be seen in the Fidalgo and Gramaxo families. Despite the fact that only two families will be treated in this article - a choice made in order to prevent it from becoming a massive history of the Sephardic Diaspora - the extent of their journeying and the divergent paths they took with regard to their identity were relatively representative of Sephardic merchant families during this time. In this article, the geographic dispersion and the actual journeys some members of these families made will be considered within the context of the Portuguese Diaspora. This geographical dispersion went hand in hand with these families' trading networks. However, a detailed analysis of the Fidalgos' and Gramaxos' webs of commercial enterprises is not the intent of this article. 10 Therefore, the discussion of the physical journeys will receive relatively short and cursory treatment. What will be examined is the tension between fixity and fluidity in the early modem world, especially as it related to the Sephardim. Part of this friction between fixity and fluidity centred on categories of religious and cultural identity. Therefore, the journeys some of the members of these families made from one category of religious and cultural identity to another will also be explored.

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SEPHARDIC JOURNEYS 211

The Fidalgo Family- Journeys between Madeira, lisbon, Pernambuco, Angola, and Amsterdam

In 1595, Monso and Rodrigo Fidalgo, brothers who were originally from Funchal on the island of Madeira, took passage on a ship sailing to Angola in order to buy slaves to sell in Pemambuco. 11 Another brother, Diogo Mendes, was already established in Angola. 12 Diogo Mendes would hardly have been the only Sephardic merchant in the Angola/Congo region at the time. In 1607, for example, the Portuguese Ambassador to the King of the Congo noted the presence of Portuguese Sephardim in the Congo.ll In 1618, a visiting Cardinal wrote to the King of Portugal that

the complaints (about the Portuguese) by the King of the Congo are fomented by some resdess people of the Hebrew Nation who, because they were afraid of the Inquisition, absented themselves from Portugal and now live in these parts, and by various means try to gain a place in the court of the King, and they help him with his correspondence.14

The subtext of this complaint is three-fold. It illustrates a fear of collusion with a foreign power - in this case, the Kingdom of Congo with which the Portuguese had hoped to cultivate a strong relationship, and the concomitant fear that the Sephardim were undermining Portuguese political and economic goals in this region. It also illustrates a fear of the 'Hebrew Nation' of}ews (or potential Jews) in the Portuguese imperial orbit. Lasdy, the Cardinal's comment also perfectly illustrates the misgivings that Iberian officialdom held for the Sephardim who were 'resdess' and travelled to the far reaches of the globe, seeking their own fortune and who were not, therefore, fixed in their loyalties to a place - loyalties maintained by generations of residence and accumulated reciprocal obligations.

Part of the capital for these expeditions to Angola and the Congo was given by the Fidalgo brothers' maternal uncle, Henrique Pereira Tenorio, who resided, at least temporarily, in Amsterdam. Tenorio also sent wine from Madeira to Pernambuco, where Rodrigo Fidalgo had been sent some years before to handle his family's businesses there. The proceeds from the sale of these wines were then applied to the purchase of slaves. The profits from the sale of slaves were, in tum, applied to the purchase of sugar. In a letter dated 8 May 1595 he ordered his nephews in Olinda to 'send me good sugar, above all white of exceedingly good quality' .15 This sugar was to be handed over to Manuel Lopes Homem in Amsterdam. 16 Monso Fidalgo was arrested by the Inquisition in Pernambuco and was sent from Recife to lisbon in 1595, as had been his brother, Rodrigo Fidalgo, earlier in 1594. This was a particularly unpleasant journey - a journey that was unique to Jews, those of Jewish ancestry suspected of being Jews, and the small numbers of suspected bigamists, witches, Moors, and homosexuals who made the journey to the prisons of the Inquisition.

Both before and after their arrests (they were eventually released from the Inquisition's prisons and allowed to go free with the forfeiture of some property and

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212

FIGURE 1

JEWISH CULTURE AND HISTORY

Henrique Pereira Tenorio, Manuel Lopes Homem, Ruy Lopes, Afonso Fidalgo, (Amsterdam)

a ritual penance), the Fidalgo brothers also did business with Gravid Pais, their uncle, who was a Sephardic merchant located in Lisbon, and Duarte Fernandes and Lopo Sanches, both in Amsterdam. One-third of the share from the profit of the above­mentioned expedition belonged to Henrique Pereira and Ruy Lopes, who were located in Amsterdam, as was Afonso Fidalgo for at least a few years in the early seventeenth century. 17 There was also a branch of the Fidalgo family on Ribeira Grande in Cape Verde, though how closely they were related to the branch of the family under discussion is unknown.18

Figure 1 depicts visually what the visiting Cardinal to Angola so succinctly put in words: the Fidalgos were a 'restless' family. They were scattered along the nodes of the expanding Portuguese Diaspora trade networks. Not only were they dispersed geographically, however; they moved frequently, spending a few years here, a few years there. Afonso and Rodrigo, within the span of five years, were in Madeira, Lisbon, Cape Verde, Guinea, Angola, Pernambuco, and Amsterdam. Considering the sometimes painfully slow travelling times in the early modern period, this indicates a tremendous amount of time spent journeying from one place to another. They journeyed for their economic gain, and as part of a learning process. Travelling was a way for the next generation in merchant families to learn the tools of the trade, as well as to show business associates that these young men were trustworthy heirs of the family enterprise. They also journeyed, though, for political and religious reasons, as their respective arrests by the Inquisition demonstrate. We know of the Fidalgo family's multiple journeys because of surviving inquisitorial documentation, but there

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SEPHARDIC JOURNEYS 213

is no reason to think that they were particularly extraordinary for a Sephardic merchant family during this time, either in terms of the number of journeys they made, or even for the extent of their network.

The Fidalgos: Journeys toward Jewishness

The Fidalgo family, as has been shown above, were merchants, trading in slaves and sugar. They were not, as far as can be ascertained, a particularly prominent family in Portugal, which accounts for the far scantier documentation regarding their lives and concerns in comparison with the Gramaxo family, unfortunately making for an uneven comparative structure in this article. What this scanty documentation does bring to the fore, however, is how the categories of identification and belonging in the Iberian colonial fold seem to have worked against the Fidalgo family.

From the existing sources, it seems that the Fidalgos were viewed as Jews or potential Jews by the surrounding society. They may, in fact, have been crypto-Jews and therefore there could have been some accuracy to the numerous denunciations made for Judaising against the family. Or, on the other hand, after the first denunciation made by an unfriendly neighbour or business rival, they could have been stigmatised and therefore an easy target for subsequent denunciations. Several members of the Fidalgo family settled, after many journeys, in Amsterdam and became practising Jews. Whether this journey towards the open practice of Judaism was due to a 'push' from the surrounding society, since they were so frequently categorised as Jews, or due to a 'pull' from the inherited traditions within the family itself which maintained and preserved the belief in, and practice o( Judaism, may never be known.

What is known is that the Fidalgo family originally hailed from the island of Madeira, which may, in and of itsel( have been a category of difference and exclusion within Iberian society. They were a family cursed by denunciations for Judaising. Though it is entirely likely that denunciations against the family were made long before those found during the course of research for this article, the earliest recorded one seen to date was made in 1588. This denundation was made against the aunt of Afonso and Rodrigo Fidalgo, Ana Dias, who was the widow of their uncle, Rodrigo Fidalgo. She was denounced by her sons Diogo Alvares and (confusingly) Afonso Fidalgo, the cousins of the brothers most closely examined in this article. She was to be taken on that particularly Jewish journey described above - a journey to the prisons of the Inquisition in Lisbon with her son Diogo, to be tried - but the ship wrecked and everyone drowned. She was burned in effigy at an auto-da-re on 3 September 1600.19 Her two daughters, Caterina Dias and Beatriz Mendes, were also tried and, subsequently, convicted by the Inquisition, as was their half-sister, Isabel Rodrigues, the illegitimate daughter of the elder Rodrigo Fidalgo. All three women were imprisoned in Funchal on the island of Madeira on 20 August 1591.20 Rodrigues participated in an auto-da-fe on 13 February 1594.'1 Caterina Dias partidpated in an auto-da-fe on 23 February 1597," and Beatriz Mendes was forced to take part in an earlier auto-da-re on 13 February 1594.23 The Fidalgo brothers' mother,

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214 JEWISH CULTURE AND HISTORY

Justa Pereira, had been denounced by one of her sons, most likely because she had just died. She could, therefore, be denounced without any harm coming to her, and her son could appear to be cooperating with the inquisitorial process. She was tried after her death and her bones were burned at an auto-da-fe in 1600.'4

Monso Fidalgo was convicted by the Inquisition of Lisbon and sentenced to work on the galleys. This sentence was commuted, however, due to his ill health. Monso appears again in the records in Antwerp in 1604 where he had reached an agreement with his uncle, Manuel Lopes Homem, regarding his goods which had been confiscated by the Inquisition.'5 Monso is known to have taken the Hebrew name 'Jehudah' at some point before 1614, an act that was a proclamation of}ewish identity and affiliation, and was later buried in the Portuguese Jewish cemetery in Oudekerk near Amsterdam in 1619, a right given to those who had become members of the Jewish synagogue.'6 Clearly, then, Monso had made a journey of affiliation to identifiable Judaism, as had many of his uncles, both maternal and paternal, who moved to Amsterdam by the early 1600s. Manuel Lopes Homem, Miguel Lopes Homem, Henrique Pereira Tenorio, and Gaspar Lopes Homem were all members of the early Jewish community in Amsterdam.'7

In fact, Gaspar Lopes Homem had been denounced by Rodrigo Fidalgo when Lopes Hom em was already imprisoned. 28 Rodrigo had been denounced for practising Judaism as well as for 'unnatural' acts with a slave. He was sentenced to pay 30 cruzados and participate in an auto-da-fe in Pernambuco in October 1594. After the auto-da-fe, he is known to have travelled to Peru. Ironically, it is in distant Peru, one of the most remote places to which a merchant-Jewish or otherwise - could journey, that the Fidalgo and Gramaxo families, heretofore separate, intertwined. Rodrigo Fidalgo is, in a letter from his uncle, Henrique Pereira Tenorio, mentioned as staying in the house of Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo, with whom he was 'conducting some business'.29

What business this was and what its outcome happened to be has not come to light. Whether Rodrigo Fidalgo became a trusted associate of Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo, and became integrated into the colonial society to the extent that the categories of difference by which he had been defined disappeared for the surrounding society, is not known. Equally likely is the possibility that he joined his brother and uncles in Amsterdam and became categorised as a Jew by both the Protestant host society and those who had chosen openly Jewish affiliation. In any case, what can be at least tentatively asserted is that the Fidalgo family were viewed by society in Madeira and in Brazil, both places in which they were denounced, as either Jews or potential Jews. Whether because of some kernel of truth to these allegations or because such allegations pushed them towards this affiliation, the Fidalgo family became, in Amsterdam, practising Jews.

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SEPHARDIC JOURNE\S

The Gramaxo Family- Journeys between Lisbon, the Cape Verde Islands, Guinea, Cartagena, Seville, Cadiz, and Maracaibo

215

Like the Fidalgo family discussed above, the Gramaxo family were also great travellers with an extensive network of correspondents placed in opportune locales along the existing and emerging trading routes of the Portuguese Diaspora. The younger generation of Gramaxos, as was the case with the Fidalgos, went on 'tours' of the family's business enterprises in order to gain experience. For example, Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo had lived in Portimao in Portugal, before leaving for Lisbon, then to Cabo Verde, and, afterwards, on to the Guinea Rivers region in 1588, where it seems that the family had at least some operations already in place. When Gramaxo arrived in 1588 the region was an optimal place to set up business as a slave trader.30

In fact, during the period in which the Spanish and Portuguese crowns were united between 1580 and 1640, the Crown was deluged with complaints that Portuguese Sephardim were monopolising the trade, mostly in slaves, between West Mrica and Mexico and PeruY Typical of these types of complaints was a letter written by Gregorio Palma Hurtado from Cartagena de las Indias to the Crown in 1610. He alleged that Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo was shipping contraband merchandise via Brazil, as well as in the licensed Portuguese slave ships from Cape Verde and elsewhere. Gramaxo, according to Hurtado, was at the centre of a commercial trading network whose agents were defrauding the Treasury of its duesY

Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo may have been the centre of this network, as Hurtado asserted, but he was certainly helped by his well-travelled family members, and this widely-dispersed network gave him a head start in the slave trading business. In fact, Iva Cabral asserts that it was Jorge Gramaxo's brother, Luis Fernandes, who was

the most important member of the family ... [he was a] merchant and resident of Lisbon next to the Church of S. Joao da Pra~a, who, together with his relative and business associate, Fernao Soares Ribeiro, dealt with wide-ranging endeavours ranging from the Canary Islands, Santiago, the Guinea Coast, Angola and the Spanish Americas.33

There was a third brother, Francisco Nunes Gramaxo, who was also a merchant in Lisbon and who dabbled in the slave trade.3

' The Gramaxo brothers' maternal uncle, Alvaro Gramaxo, moved to Maracaibo in the Spanish Americas (present-day Venezuela) some time in the late 1580s or early 1590s to dedicate himself to commercial activities, though later he was known to be living in Cadiz in SpainY Confusingly, there was also a cousin by the name of Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo on Santiago in the Cape Verde islands, 36 as well as another cousin, Antonio Nunes Gramaxo, factor in Rio Grande on the Azores, both of whom served as important links in the slave trade between Luis Fernandes Gramaxo in Lisbon, and the 'other' Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo who had moved to Cartagena de las IndiasY Much later, in 1646, Antonio Nunes Gramaxo was living in Seville in Spain.38

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216 JEWISH CULTURE AND HISTORY

Manuel Soares Ribeiro (Antwerp)

FIGURE 2

But it was Jorge Fernandes Grwaxo who was the greatest journeyer. Jorge had followed his uncle to the Spanish Indies, journeying by way of Brazil and Santo Domingo, and by 1590 had established himself in Cartagena, where he obtained a licence to 'trade and contract'.39 He was also a captain of ships who went back and forth to Ribeira Grande. 40 This is confirmed by a statement of accounts, received in 1604, which lists the voyages and was written by his brother, Luis Fernandes Gramaxo, and his associates from the Algarve and Cape Verde, who carried slaves to Cartagena.41

Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo was certainly finnly established in Cartagena de las Indias by 1593, when he was one of the first foreigners to pay a residence tax.42 Though he was not known to have travelled to Amsterdam himself (it is not out of the question, however), he appears twice in the Amsterdani notarial records. The first time in 1611, and again in 1612. Both contracts pertain to Gramaxo's power-of-attorney for Leonor Gutieres who lived in Amsterdani.'3

Despite most likely not having been in Amsterdam, Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo had journeyed, within ten years, across much of the Atlantic world. He had travelled from Portimao to Lisbon, to the Cape Verde islands and the Guinea coast of West Africa, and then onwards to Brazil, Santo Domingo, and lastly, to Cartagena de las Indias. His family members were journeyers as well, as his uncle travelled from West Africa to Maracaibo, and then ended his days in Spain - and these are the travels that simply come to light from existing documentation. There was, no doubt, far more journeying that remains unknown to modern scholars. The Grwaxos had a particularly widespread network of family members and, most likely, at least in the case of Jorge

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Fernandes Gramaxo who is documented as sailing back and forth to Ribeira Grande and the Spanish Americas, in addition to all his other travels, journeyed to and fro more than an average Sephardic merchant.

The Gramaxo: Journey toward the Status of Colonial Elites

The Gramaxo family also made a particularly New Christian journey - a journey away from their Jewish ancestry and a journey toward acceptance as Catholic colonial elites. Maria Mateus Ventura writes of the Gramaxo family that 'They received great notoriety in the colonial society', and this notoriety is well-documented . ., Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo had focused on the slave trade since his arrival in Cartagena and soon organised and monopolised the trade in the city. He maintained and developed his contacts in Lisbon, Seville, and the African slave trading ports, and became well­integrated into the colonial society. Gramaxo facilitated this integration by discharging civil and military duties, such as the defence of the city by the English privateer, Sir Francis Drake.45 He also fostered clientele networks by the skilful endowment of charity. For instance, in 1608 he sponsored the foundation of the convent of St. Diogo dos Recolhidos Descal~os where he was buried, with the habit of St. Francisco, almost 20 years later, in 1626. He also sponsored the construction of the church and convent.46

The fostering of these powerful networks was, perhaps, necessary to offset Gramaxo's status as an outsider- both as a Portuguese in the Spanish Indies, as well as a known descendant of Jews. Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo and his nephew, Antonio Nunes Gramaxo, were the object of various judicial proceedings. Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo was accused of dealing in contraband (1611), while his nephew, Antonio Nunes Fernandes, was charged with illegal residence (1626) in the city. However, they were never convicted, possibly due to the influence they had already accumulated with the civil authorities.'7 These arrests did not seem to have any repercussions on the Gramaxo's business dealings, nor did they seem to affect their social and political life.

Perhaps to offset future accusations of ill-conduct and to assert his status as an unassailable insider, Jorge Fernandes applied for a letter of naturalisation in 1613. In his application, he pointed out that he was entitled to become a naturalised resident due to his prominent service to the Crown, as well as because, 'being Portuguese, particularly from the Algarve which was always part of the Crown of Castile, and in consideration of the laws of the Casa de Contracion of Seville which allows the frigates and other ships of all the citizens of this Kingdom, without any special license needed'.'8

In fact, it was at least partially through the intercession of powerful elites, such as the Bishops of Cartagena (and his council) and Popayan, the Commissioner for the province of Santa Fe, and the testimony to the good character of Gramaxo by 40 witnesses, the majority of whom were Franciscan friars, that Jorge Fernandes received

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218 JEWISH CULTURE AND HISTORY

a letter of naturalisation, despite the legal restrictions surrounding the naturalisation of foreigners, especially Portuguese.49 This intercession on the part of such important personages in the city and surrounding colony demonstrates that Gramaxo was already perceived to be an insider by the colonial elite, and the letter was just the official recognition of reality, though it possibly offset any further accusations of illegal trade to the civil authorities.

Essentially, the letter of naturalisation signed by Phillip III in 1613 reinforced Gramaxo's power, recognised his services, particularly the defence of the city, as well as his contribution to the King's coffers. This letter also granted Gramaxo the legal right to continue trading in the West Indies, the Islands and the Atlantic, as well as to acquire further honours and be bound by the same rights and privileges as any other native of the Spanish Americas, including serving in whatever royal offices and public councils that were available, whether elected or nominated. And, importantly, it also made him a full tax-payer into the Crown's coffers. Basically, then, it bought him the right to be a colonial elite and acknowledged him as an assimilated Catholic Christian, thus completing his journey away from his Jewish ancestry and toward the status of colonial elite.

It is clear that Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo benefited from the protection of the most elevated personages of the Crown.l<l But this begs the question of why he was able to count on the cooperation of the local elite. Although there are no definitive conclusions to be had, one answer might appear to be a simple and direct one -money. The Grand Inquisitor himself; Arzas y Argos, lived in one of the houses rented by Antonio Nunes Gramaxo. The one-time treasurer for the Crown in the city of Cartagena, Captain Luis Gomes Barreto, and the city commissioner and treasurer, Captain Andres de Blanquesel, collaborated with Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo in the slave trade, as did the prominent doctor Bras de Paz Pinto and the wealthy merchant Joao Rodrigues Mesa. It would be in their interests to form a cordon of protection around someone with whom they did business and, perhaps, had formed a personal relationship. Moreover, Gomes Barreto, Bras de Paz Pinto and Rodrigues Mesa were, like Gramaxo, Portuguese living in the Spanish Americas and, though they were not of Jewish descent, were part of a larger 'nation' of Portuguese with shared traditions and affiliations quite apart from those of the Spaniards.

Tellingly, despite being Sephardim, only one member of the Gramaxo family was accused of 'Judaising', the standard accusation made to the Inquisition for the practice of Jewish rites and rituals against many Sephardim, who were an easy target based on their descent - a rather extraordinary circumstance for so prominent and visible a family. This shows how far from their Jewish ancestry the family had come in their journey of affiliation. A nephew of Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo, Luis Fernandes Soares, was accused by the Inquisition of practising Judaism but, after a complicated trial, was let off after being 'reconciled' and condemned to the loss of a quarter of his worldly goods which were forfeited to the Crown's coffers. He was exiled from the Spanish Americas for ten years.s1 He was let off so lightly possibly due to the infiuence of his

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SEPHARDIC JOURNEYS 219

uncles, Duarte Brandao Soares and Antonio Nunes Gramaxo, both of whom were creditors of the Crown. His arrest was in 1636 by the Tribunal of the Inquisition in Cartagena and was most likely an offshoot of the 'Grand Conspiracy' of the Portuguese in Lima, during which time there was particularly intense pressure on the ecclesiastical and civil authorities for arrests and convictions for the crime of Judaising. This pressure on New Christians came as a response to increasing unrest in both Portugal and Catalonia which threatened the unity of the Spanish Crown. Along with very real political influence and social status which could have made denunciations against the Gramaxo difficult, the surprising scarcity of accusations against the Gramaxo family for 'Judaising' could be because the Gramaxo were not only not practising Jews in any way, shape, or form, but also because they were not perceived to be Jews by the surrounding society, making a realistic denunciation for these alleged practices unbelievable and unlikely. This shows that their journey toward affiliation with and acceptance by the Catholic colonial elite was more or less complete.

The process of acceptance by, and integration in, the Catholic Christian elite was, however, not unique to the Gramaxo family members in the Spanish colonies. The family members on the West Coast of Africa were also integrated into the elite. The West Coast of Africa was considered to be a 'hotbed' of Sephardic activity. The Governor of Cape Verde declared that, 'in those parts, they practise Judaism publicly which causes great damage and scandal to the Christian faith'. 52 He continued by recommending that the King 'get rid of all the Jews in those parts which would be for the good of the people of the island as well as for the tax revenue of Your Majesty'. 53

Yet Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo, the confusingly named cousin of Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo in Cartagena, does not seem to have been counted among this number of publicly practising Jews 'causing scandal to the Christian faith'. This demonstrates, once again, how far he had come in his journey away from the 'taint' of his Jewish ancestry.

Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo, on the contrary, seems to have been an accepted member of the elite of Ribeira Grande. He became an official resident of Ribeira Grande in 1612. He was also a member of the Confraternity of Bem-Aventurado S. Jacinto.s.~ Being a member of a confraternity signalled not only membership in the elite, but recognition from the Crown. These sorts of organisations and institutions were key elements of Iberian society which were transferred to the colonies and reinforced collective affiliation, including social and business relationships. 55

It was widely known that there were tacit alliances for the circumvention of the payment (and collection) of taxes between the representatives of the King in the region and various Sephardim, such as the Gramaxo family, and these alliances were, it is speculated, one reason that, despite the frequency and voraciousness of the complaints against the Sephardic presence in the Guinea Rivers, little was ever done to address the 'problem' of the New Christians or Sephardim on the coast. 56 It seems, then, that the Crown's representatives in the region were willing to accept a smaller

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cut of the commercial transactions (smaller since the claims against the Gramaxo and other Sephardim were most likely true and they were trading illegally and siphoning off revenue that was designated for the Crown) since there were no real substitutes to be found for the Sephardim - traders with international connections willing and able to initiate business with the Spanish Americas. Moreover, the 'know how' of the Sephardim and the so-called lanfados was vital to the functioning of the Royal 'factory' (jeitoria) in the region, as they knew the area and where and how to acquire slaves and other trade goods. 57

It is difficult to say what rabbinical authorities would have made of the actions of men like the two jorge Fernandes Gramaxo and their family members. As active participants in ecclesiastical institutions of the Catholic Church, they might not have been considered Jewish at all. And, in fact, it seems that they were not viewed as Jewish by the surrounding society of the colonies, if not of Iberia itself Their reception by, and influence in, local elite society in the colonies seems to point to the fact that the Gramaxo, whether on the West Coast of Mrica or in the Spanish Americas, acted and were seen, above all else, as businessmen, not jews or potential jews. Therefore, their principal interest was in acquiring capital and in reducing the risks to their livelihood. They acquired capital and reduced risks by behaving like most other businessmen of the time - developing and maintaining powerful clientele networks formed by joint commercial interests and glued together by participation in collective institutions. In this case, that entailed a journey away from identification with their Jewish ancestry.

Conclusion

journeying across Geographical Boundaries At a time of unprecedented European expansion, travel was often, ironically, viewed with distrust in the early modem period. The positive view of the Medieval pilgrimage had given way to the fears inherent in a nascent awareness of regional or national identity which viewed those who journeyed away from the homeland as likely to be seduced and corrupted. 58 This fear of seduction and corruption could, of course, be religious, especially for the Sephardim, as exemplified by the Fidalgo and Gramaxo families, whose religious loyalty was considered dubious - at best - but the fear was also political and economic. In a period defined by early modern states which strove to centralise and close off their economies from their rivals, those who journeyed frequently and those who had economic and social relations outside the boundaries of the emerging nation-state were viewed as a threat to the ordered realm that mercantilist thought prescribed. Sephardic merchants such as the Fidalgo and Gramaxo families, by creating trading routes that punctured the seal of mercantilist boundaries were, subsequently, viewed with suspicion. 59

As has been noted thus far in this article, there were multiple complaints made to the Portuguese Overseas Council about the Sephardim doing business with foreign

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interests all over the Empire, especially in the West African coastal regions.60 These objections to the Sephardim which were voiced to the Overseas Council were generally couched in tenns of the undennining of Portuguese and, by extension during this period, Spanish imperial aims by working with foreigners. However, there is a strong undercurrent in the texts of dissatisfaction with, and fear of, the Sephardim for breaking (or at least circumventing) the royal monopolies and, thereby, cheating the King's treasury of its just rewards. Though tax dodging was almost universally accepted, it is possible that the Sephardim became a particular target of claims of tax fraud because they were a definable and visible, though threateningly amorphous, group.

In fact, as the journeys of the Fidalgo and Gramaxo families demonstrated, there was a substantial Sephardic presence in West Africa, the centre of the Atlantic slave trade during the seventeenth century, just as there was a notable number of Sephardim on the 'other side' of the Atlantic in both Portuguese and Dutch-controlled Brazil and in the Spanish Americas.6

' And, indeed, many of these Sephardim maintained both social and economic relationships with their brethren in the Portuguese and Spanish colonies, as well as with Sephardim (and non-Sephardim) in the 'home countries' of Portugal, Spain, and the United Provinces - in addition to other important European trading centres. The Fidalgo brothers had uncles in Portugal and Amsterdam, while the Gramaxo had relatives in Spain, West Africa, and Amsterdam. This meant, in practice, that they made numerous journeys for economic and, in some cases (such as if arrest was threatened or made by the Inquisition, as it was for the Fidalgos), for religious and political reasons.

These journeys mostly followed the maritime trading routes of the expanding Atlantic world, including the 'infonnal' contraband and smuggling circuits. It is almost impossible to know how many Portuguese emigres there were during the period under consideration, though 20,000 (excluding Asia) is given as a likely estimate.62 While the Portuguese Diaspora as a whole was comprised of sailors, artisans, adventurers, traders, bureaucrats, churchmen, and soldiers - in short, the whole swath of early modem occupations - the Sephardim, as exemplified by the Fidalgo and Gramaxo families, were a sub-group of the Portuguese Diaspora, and were overwhelmingly merchants.63 As such, their migrations were defined by the shipping routes that carried their economic livelihood. However, their choice of where to journey and where to sojourn was also detennined by the existing social networks in place, as well as the vagaries of the political situation. It is difficult to say if their choice to journey to a certain area was predicated upon business interests and, subsequently, family members followed or if, conversely, a family member ended up somewhere coincidentally and, afterward, built up a business. It is likely that both factors played a part and, for some families, one factor was more important than for the other family. Under any circumstances, numerous vessels were circulating in the Atlantic, putting into various ports of call, and it was rarely difficult to find a ship on which to take passage.

The physical act of moving from one geographical space to another - of journeying - is in itself interesting, especially in the early modem context in which

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journeying for economic gain and for the good of 'God and King' as a missionary, soldier, sailor, diplomat, or colonist could be both encouraged and, almost simultaneously, viewed with suspicion as a challenge to the accepted norms of society, which depended upon people staying in one place from generation to generation. These misgivings about travel could also be a product of the demographic of those who set out from their established place of residence. The majority of those who moved, temporarily or permanently, were young, poor, and looking for social mobility - all categories to inspire unease in the early modern context. In light of this, journeys across geographical boundaries are also interesting as a backdrop for the subder, less quantifiable, though, for all this, no less important journeys of social and cultural identification.

journeys of Affiliation The journeys of social and cultural identification made by the Fidalgo and Gramaxo families were typical of New Christians in the early modern world. However, the reconstruction of how people viewed themselves is an act fraught with difficulties and guesswork u; as is the case in the overwhelming majority of historical personages, there are no existing diaries, letters, or other records attesting to what they themselves thought and felt. However, what can be asserted based on the indications given by the available, admittedly scanty, surviving historical documentation is how at least some of the members of the Fidalgo and Gramaxo families were perceived and identified by the surrounding society. By shifting the question of identity from one of self­perception on the part of an individual to one of communal projection on the part of the society as whole, it is marginally more achievable to get some sort of insight into the overarching issue of identity, while also understanding the dynamics of cultural interaction. Turning the question of identity around from the solipsistic perspective to the collective viewpoint allows for the assertion that the Fidalgos made a journey towards 'Jewishness', at least as such a category was perceived by the society in Iberia and the United Provinces at the time. In contrast, the Gramaxo made a journey towards assimilation into and, therefore, acceptance by, the Catholic society of Iberia and its colonies.

The sociologist Michael Krausz distinguishes between 'being a Jew by descent from Jewishness by assent'.64 The first category is made up of those who believe themselves to be Jews. Since some people of Jewish descent do not identify with themselves as Jews, this category is not always clear-cut, especially in cases such as that of those who believe themselves to be Jews but are not considered as such by fellow Jews. The second group includes those whom other Jews accept as Jews, either because of their descent, or because they have converted. This category can be particularly ambiguous. The last category consists of those people whom non-Jews define as Jews. This category would include those who do not consider themselves to be Jewish, despite being of}ewish descent, but are perceived by others to be Jews. The best example would be the 'New Christians' in sixteenth and seventeenth century

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Iberia such as the Fidalgo and Gramaxo families whose ancestors (or they themselves) had converted, either willingly or under duress.

These 'New Christians' challenged prevailing notions of religious identity. It is unknowable how many of them thought of themselves as Jews. Some Jewish religious authorities did accept them as Jews while others did not. Moreover, Christians were often unsure of what their true religious status was. In the company of Christians, many New Christians assented, often vigorously, to being Christians. In the company of Jews, many reconnected with their Jewishness. It is largely unknowable what they thought themselves. Probably individual New Christians believed anything from devout Christianity to devout Judaism with all sorts of ambivalence and permutations in between. As the Inquisition proved, it was impossible to know what faith people really professed since it could be disguised. All that could be known was the way in which the society perceived one. For both Christians and Jews, then, demarcating cultural boundaries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was a progressively more difficult task. 65

As the literary historian James Shapiro points out, one thing that gready complicated the debate about the Jewishness of the New Christians was that so much depended on the manner in which difference was conceived of- religious, national, racial, professional, physical, or sexual. Furthermore, many of these categories overlapped, while also contradicting one another.66 For the elites of the Portuguese and Spanish colonies, the categories of similarity seemed to have outweighed the categories of difference in the case of the Gramaxo. For the Fidalgos, the categories of difference seemed to have played a larger role within Iberia, perhaps influencing their acceptance by the emerging Jewish community in Amsterdam.

The Fidalgo family were not particularly wealthy and traded mosdy within their own family networks. They could have been shut out of other networks because they were stigmatised as Jews - a stigmatisation that would make potential partners cautious not just on 'racist' grounds but also because of a fear that, if the Inquisition struck, goods would be confiscated and tied up, sometimes for years, which had the potential to seriously damage a trading network. They could have limited their trading relationships to family members out of choice, as well, believing that the trust inspired by, and the perceived safety o( a family-based network to be in their best interests. Or, equally likely, they could have been relatively unsuccessful merchants who simply could not buy their way into other networks.

The Gramaxo, too, depended heavily on family-based networks. However, as can be seen, they expanded their networks to include 'old' Christians to a large extent, incorporating partners based not so much on lineage, it seems, but rather on status and potential economic, social, and political utility. This was, as can be seen, a wise move. It could be that the Gramaxo were able to integrate themselves into these networks due to their wealth and, therefore, they became desirable business partners. This wealth then bought them the status of colonial elites.67 It could also be that they accumulated wealth that the Fidalgos were not able to because they were already seen

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not as jews or potential Jews, and therefore liabilities, but rather as colonial elites. It was a nearly universal pattern for Portuguese merchants and/or their family

members to live in four, five, or more cities and ports over the course of their lives. Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert writes that,

Their (the Sephardim' s] hyper-kinetic dispersal throughout the Atlantic would set its members at odds with Spanish (and Portuguese) imperial norms 000 (in which] the social order depended upon attachment and boundaries. 000 These affJ.I.iations were in tum reinforced, and preserved by, a secondary form of attachment: that of humans to territory. Occupying and sharing a specific space, and doing so over the generations helped foster higher and more encompassing forms of allegiance to city and state. Fixity rather than movement formed the normative criterion for political loyalty. 68

This movement can also be seen in the Sephardic merchants' journeys from the vague, amorphous category of 'New Christian' in the Portuguese and Spanish Empire to, in the case of the Fidalgos, practising Jews in Amsterdam or, as in the case of the Gramaxo family, colonial elites who, whatever their internalised belief system, accepted Catholicism and practised it openly.

NOTES

I. Pedro de Avendafto V'illela, Memorial sobre e/ comercio y administraci6n de las Indias (1608). British library, 1324.i.10 (1). Quoted in Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert, A Nation Upon the Ocean Sea: Portugal's Atlantic Diaspora and the Crisis of the Spanish Empire, 1492-1640 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), p.42. I am indebted to this rich and illuminating work, particularly Chapter 2, for my discussion of mobility in the context of the larger Portuguese Diaspora in the Atlantic.

2. Gemeente Archief Amsterdam (Municipal Archives of Amsterdam, hereafter GAA), Notarial Archives (hereafter NA) 62/206. Throughout this work, I use the terms 'Sephardim', 'Sephardic Jews', or 'Sephardic Diaspora', in their broadest sense, to indicate Jews and New Christians of Iberian descent, rather than the possibly more polemical terms 'New Christians', 'Conversos', and 'Marranos' unless I am specifically delineating between the Sephardim based on these defining monikers. This is a conscious choice to avoid all the ambiguity and inaccuracy, especially around religious belief and expression, which accompanies the use of other tenninology in a blanket fashion to incorporate such a diverse group. The term 'Jew' or 'Jewish' will not be used unless it is to refer to a person or group known to be practising Judaism. It cannot be assumed that all, or even most, Sephardirn were practising or believing Jews during the chronology under consideration. Moreover, it cannot be taken for granted that all those of Jewish descent were 'crypto-Jews'- a term used to denote a set of rituals and beliefs that continued the practice of Judaism in secret when it was not legally permitted. No doubt some Sephardim were crypto-Jews, but by no means all of them. Marrano was a derogatory term, used mostly in Spain, to refer to those of]ewish descent. 'New Christian' or converso are terms used to denote those who were 'new' to Christianity because of baptism, forced or otherwise. The term converso means 'converted' and was mostly used in Spain. These multiple, often confusing terms are used frequently in literature on the subject, sometimes inaccurately and interchangeably, in relation to those with Jewish ancestors from Iberia.

3. GAA, NA 197/173-174. 4. A note on language: not all Portuguese were Sephardim by any means, though, in the popular

imagination, 'Portuguese' and 'Jew' became so intertwined during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that the terms were sometimes used synonymously. See, for example, Frederic Mauro, 'La bourgeoisie portugaise au XVIIe siecle', in Etudes economiques sur /'expansion portugaise (1500-1900), Funda~ao Calouste Gulbenkian, 5erie Hist6rica e Uter.iria, I (Paris: Centro Cultural Portugues, 1970),

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p.24, reprinted from Le XVIJe siecle, 40 (1958), 235-57; Anita Novinsky, Cristdos novos na Bahia (Sao Paulo: Perspectiva, 1972), p.4l. In the seventeenth century, the terms genie da nacao ('people of the nation') and crlstao-novo ('new Christian') were also often used as synonyms for bomen de negocio ('businessman') and vice versa. See Antonio Jose Saraiva, lnquisicao e crlstdos-novos, Cole~o Civiliza~o Portuguesa, II (Oporto: Editorial Estampa, 1969), pp.197-9.

5. In addition to Studnicki-Gizbert,ANation Upon the Seas (see note 1), see MauritsA. Ebben, Zilver, brood en kogels voor de koning: Kredietverlening door Portugese bankiers aan de Spaanse kroon, 1621-1665 (Leiden: Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, 1996), for a discussion of the exceptional mobility of the Portuguese, particularly when under Spanish rule.

6. Studnicki-Gizbert, A Nation Upon the Seas (see note 1), p.42. 7. Jonathan Israel, European jewry in the Age of Mercantilism, 1550-1750 (Oxford: Oxford University Press,

1985), p.7l. 8. Ibid. pp.31, 35. 9. James Shapiro, Shakespeare and the jews (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), p.6. I am

indebted to Shapiro's ludd 'Introduction' for succinctly framing the debate about the identity of New Christians in early modern Europe. My explanation of New Christian identity in the following pages is drawn from Shapiro's work.

10. For more information about the networks of the Fidalgo and Gramaxo families, see J.V. Roitman, 'New Christians, Jews, and Amsterdam at the Cross-roads of Expansion Systems', in Migration, Trade, and Slavery in an Expanding World: Essays in Honor of Pieter Emmer, ed. by Wun Klooster (Leiden: Brill, 2009), pp.119-40.

11. GAA, NA 61/487-489. 12. Instituto dos Arquivos Nacionais, Torre de Tombo (hereafter, IAN/IT), Inquisi~ao de Lisboa (hereafter,

ldL), processes 11,743 and 12,223. To prevent the distracting prolikration of reference marks in the text, all information about the Fidalgo brothers can be assumed to have come from these two Inquisition trial records unless otherwise noted.

13. Father Antonio Duarte Br:isio, Monumenta Missionaria Africana: Africa ocidental (hereafter, MMA), Vol. V, 1st Series, (Lisbon: Agenda Geral do Ultramar, 1953), p.313.

14. Ibid. Vol.VI, 1st Series, p.324. 15. This letter is cited, though, unfortunately, not found, in the Inquisition trial record of Afonso Fidalgo,

IAN/IT, IdL, 11743. 16. GAA, NA/488. 17. GAA, NA/489. 18. Iva Cabral, 'Ribeira Grande: Vida Urbana, Gente, Mercancia, Estagna~o·, in Hist6ria Geral de Cabo

Verde, ed. by Maria Emilia Madeira Santos (Lisbon: Centro de Estudos de Historia e Cartografia Antiga and the Instituto de Investiga~ao Tropical, 1995), pp.225-73 (p.233).

19. IAN/IT, IdL, process 12,743. :Auto-da-fe' in Portuguese (or 'auto de fe' in Spanish) literally means 'act of faith' in both languages. This referred to a public penance involving a procession of those found guilty by the Inquisition. Although in the popular imagination torture and burning are involved, this very rarely happened in reality.

20. There was an inquisitorial visitation made to the island of Madeira in 1591 which would account for the timing of the arrests. See: IAN/IT, IdL, Ms. 144-1-3, 'Livro das ratifica~6es da VISita a ilha da Madeira feita por Jeronimo Teixeira em Abril de 1591 '; Ms. 144-1-36, 'Livro de Registro dos culpados resultants da VIS ita a ilha de Madeira'; and Ms. 148-6-287, 'Livro de Registro da Visita~o a ilha de Madeira em 1591'.

21. IAN/IT, IdL, process 4,633. 22. IAN/IT, IdL, process 12,775. 23. IAN/IT, IdL, process 1,663. 24. IAN/IT, IdL, process 4,382 and 12,223. 25. GAA, NA 61/487-9. 26. Wilhelmina Christina Pieterse, Livro de Bet Haim (Assen: van Gorcum, 1970), pp.94 and 133. 27. Ibid. See also: GAA, NA53/445-445v and NA 6l!477v. 28. IAN/IT, IdL, process 12,223. 29. IAN/IT, IdL, process 11,743. 30. Roitman (see note 10). 31. And monopolise the trade they did -legally. Duarte Dias Henriques, for example, held the monopoly on

the shipment of slaves from both Sao Tome and Angola for several years. During this time a system of

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asientos, or Crown-controlled contracts, for the supply of slaves to the Spanish Americas was in place. During the period between 1595 and 1640, the Spanish crown signed six major asientos with Portuguese Sephardic traders. The asentista could determine where he acquired the slaves (Angola, Guinea, Cape Verde, or Sao Tome) and who he placed as factors and agents, as well as how many of these employees he had in Africa and the Spanish colonies. The factors and agents were required, however, to be either Spaniards or Portuguese, as were the ships' crews. See Jonathan I. Israel, 'Portuguese Crypto-Judaism in New Spain, 1569-1649', in Diasporas Within a Diaspora: jews, Crypto:fews and the World Maritime Empires (1540-1740), ed. by Jonathan I. Israel (Leiden: Brill, 2002), pp.97-123 (p.l03); C.A. Palmer, Slaves of the White God. Blacks in Mexico, 1570-1650 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976), pp.l2-l3, and L. Garcia de Proodian, Los judios en America. Sus activldades en los Virrelnatos de Nueva Castilla y Nueva Granada, siglo XVH (Madrid: Ed. De Consejo, 1966), pp. 72-3. There were also multiple traders - Sephardi and otherwise - who circumvented the asiento system completely.

32. Charles Boxer, The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415-1825 (London: Hutchison, 1975), p.336. See also Arquivo Hist6rico Ultramarino [Portugal[ (hereafter AHU), Angola, Caixa l/14 for a further example of the complaints that rained in about Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo and his circumvention of customs duties.

33. Cabral (see note 18), p.250. 34. Maria da G141;a A. Mateus Ventura, 'Los Judeoconversos Portugueses en el Pen! del Siglo XVII: Redes de

complicidad', in Familia, religion y negoclo: el sefardismo en las relaciones entre el mundo iberico y los Paises Bajos en Ia Edad Moderna, ed. by Jaime Contreras, Bernardo]. Garcia Garcia and Ignacio Pulido (Madrid: Vdlaverde, 2002), pp.391-406.

35. IANm, IdL, process 2399. (Thanks to C:itia A.P. Antunes and Filipa I.R. da Silva for the use of the fruits of their research in the archives of the Inquisition of Lisbon for this reference.)

36. Unless otherwise stated, this article discusses the 'first' or elder Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo who was based in Cartagena de las Indias in present-day Colombia.

37. Maria Manuel Ferraz Torr:io, 'Rotas Comerdais, Agentes Econ6micos, Meios de Pagamento', in Madeira Santos, ed. (see note 18), pp.17-123 (pp.83 and 91).

38. AHU, Guine, 1/45. His presence in Seville is also attested to by the primary source documentation provided in Studnicki-Gizbert, A Nation Upon the Seas (see note 1), p.59.

39. Mateus Ventura, 'Judeoconversos' (see note 34), p. 396. 40. Maria da Gra~a A. Mateus Ventura, 'Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo, urn mercador algarvio en Cartagena das

indias [1590-1626]', Atlantica: Revista atlantica de cultura ibero-americana, 3 (2005ftl6), 14-18 (p.16).

41. Cabral (see note 18), p.250. 42. Mateus Ventura, 'Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo' (see note 40), p.17. 43. GAA, NA 62/237 and 238v. 44. Mateus Ventura (see note 34), p.396. 45. Maria Cristina Navarrete, 'Judeo-conversos en Ia audienda del nuevo reino de granada. siglos xvi y xvii',

Revista Hist6rica Critica, hnp://www.lablaa.org/blaavirtual!revistas/rhcritica/navarrete.hnn# _ ftn1, accessed June 2006.

46. All information about Gramaxo's legal status and his charitable endeavours, unless otherwise noted, is provided by Mateus Ventura, 'Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo' (see note 40), p.16.

47. Mateus Ventura, 'Judeoconversos' (see note 34), p.396. 48. Archivo General de Indias (Seville), Escribaria, 589b, ll/24, quoted in, Mateus Ventura, 'Jorge Fernandes

Gramaxo' (see note 40), p.l7. 49. Mateus Ventura, 'Judeoconversos' (see note 34), p.396. 50. Mateus Ventura, 'Jorge Fernandes Gramaxo' (see note 40), p.l6. 51. Mateus Ventura, 'Judeoconversos' (see note 34), p.405, n.12. 52. Br:isio, MMA, Vol.IV, 2nd Series, p.699. 53. Ibid. p.704. 54. Maria Emilia Madeira Santos and MariaJoao Soares, 'Igreja, Missiona~ao e Sociedade', in Madeira Santos,

ed. (see note 18), pp.359-508 (p.473). 55. See A.J.R. Russell-Woods, Fidalgos and Philanthropists: The Santa Casa da Misericordia of Bahia,

1550-1755 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968) for insight into how such institutions operated.

56. Ferraz Torr:io (see note 37), p.74. 57. Ibid. See also Br:isio, MMA, 2nd series, Vol. IV, pp.573-6. The lan~ados (derived from the Portuguese verb

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meaning 'to throw out') were settlers of Portuguese origin in Senegambia, the Cape Verde Islands and other areas of the West Africa. Many intermarried with local African groups, and their descendants were sometimes also known as lan~ados. There were most likely few lan~ados, but they are considered to have been important as intermediaries between the Portuguese state and nationals with the native African tribes, as well as being important economic agents. For more about the lan~ados, see: A.C. Metcalf; 'lntermediarios No Mundo Portugues: Lan~ados, Pombeiros e Mamelucos Do Seculo XVI', Revista da SBPH: Sociedade Brasiletra de Pesquisa Historica (Brazil), 13 (1997), 3-13, Antonio Carreira, 'Lan~ados ou Tangomaos. Cristiios-novos, Fidalgos', in Cabo Verde: FormllfliO e extiru;ao de uma sociedade escra!'atura, 1460-1878 (Bissau: Centro de Estudos da Guine Portuguesa, 1972), pp.53-78, and John K. Thornton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp.60-{)2.

58. Sara Warneke, Images of the Educational Traveller in Early Modern England (Leiden: Brill, 1995). 59. Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert, 'The Nation and the Empire in the Seventeenth-Century South Atlantic',

unpublished paper. 60. The documentation of the Portuguese Overseas Council is overflowing with complaints that the

Sephardim were trading with the French, the English, the native Africans, as well as the Dutch on the West Coast of Africa, not to mention in Brazil. For one example regarding the Dutch, see AHU, Guine, 1/27, appendix 4.

61. See Tobias Green, 'Further Considerations on the Sephardim of the Petite Cote', History in Africa, 32 (2005), 165-183 and his 'Amsterdam and the African Atlantic: The Role of Amsterdam Sephardim in Senegal in the Early Seventeenth Century', in Proceedings of the Fourteenth British Conference on judea­Spanish Studies (26-28 june 2006), ed. by Hilary Pomeroy, Christopher J. Pountain and Elena Romero (London: Department of Hispanic Studies, Queen Mary, University of London, 2008), pp.85-94 for more information on the Sephardic presence in West Africa. I am grateful to Dr. Green for sharing with me his article on 'Amsterdam and the African Atlantic' prior to its publication. In addition to Green's work, see Peter Mark and Jose da Silva Horta, 'Two Early Seventeenth-Century Sephardic Communities on Senegal's Petite Cote', History in Africa, 31 (2004), 231-56 for more on the Sephardic presence in West Africa. For information on the Sephardic presence in Brazil, see Arnold WIZnitzer, Osjudeus no Brasil Colonial (Sao Paulo: Pioneira, 1960); Jose Antonio Gonsalves de Mello, Gente da N«flio: Cristaos-novos e judeus em Pernambuco, 1542-1654 (Recife: Editora Massangana, 1996); David Grant Smith, 'The Mercantile Class of Portugal and Brazil in the Seventeenth Century: A Socioeconomic Study of the Merchants of lisbon and Bahia' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Texas at Austin, 1975); Stuart B. Schwartz, Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985); Oliveira Fran~a, 'Engenhos, Coloniza~ao, e Cristiios-Novos', Colonizafao e migra¢o: Anais do IV Simp6sio Nacional dos Professores universitarios de Hist6ria (Sao Paulo: Universidad de Sao Paulo, 1969); and David Grant Smith and Rae Flory, 'Bahian Merchants and Planters in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries', The Hispanic American Historical Review, 58.4 (November 1978), 571-94.

62. Studnicki-Gizbert, A Nation Upon the Seas (see note 1), p.41. 63. This is not to say that they were exclusively merchants (a fluid term in and of itself during the early

modern period). There is ample documentation that there were Sephardim in a variety of professions. However, the majority were oriented towards commerce. See, for example, Appendix 2 in Novinsky (see note 4), p.176, in which 31 per cent of New Christians are listed as merchants. See also Grant Smith(note 61) and Daniel Swetschinski, 'The Portuguese Jewish Merchants of Seventeenth-century Amsterdam: A Social Profile' (unpublished Ph.D. manuscript, Brandeis University, 1979).

64. Jewishness by assent is understood, according to Krausz, in terms of 'identification with Jewish history'. In this sense, being Jewish depends on one's willingness to share in the preservation of Jewish memory and in sustaining the story of the Jewish people: it 'involves embracing certain beliefs and seeing oneself as a character in a valued Jewish narrative that one both occupies and fashions. One who assents to his or her }ewishness at least partly understands himself or herself in terms of the historically emergent threads of the fabrics of Jewish histories'. My categorisations of the ways in which Jewish identity can be understood are drawn from Krausz's work. Michael Krausz, 'On Being Jewish', injewish Identity, ed. by David Theo Goldberg and Michael Krausz (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1993), p.277.

65. See, for example, the work ofYosefYersushalmi, on the centrality of circumcision in Sephardic Diaspora communities. Yosef Yersushalmi, 'The Re-education of Marranos in the Seventeenth Century', Third Annual Rabbi Louis Fienberg Memorial Lecture in Judaic Studies (Judaic Studies Program, University of Cincinnati, 1980). See also the excellent work ofYosefKaplan on the difficulties many Sephardim had in

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adjusting to Jewish rules and regulations. Yosef Kaplan, 'Wayward New Christians and Stubborn New Jews: The Shaping of a Jewish Identity' ,Jewish History, 8.1-2 (1994), 27-41.

66. Shapiro (see note 9), p.33. 67. Todd Endelman notes the same process amongst the Sephardim of England within a generation of the

re-admission. According to Endelman, English society in the eighteenth century was willing to, at least partially, accept the Sephardim as English elites if they had enough money and convened to Christianity. Todd L. Endelman, Radical Assimilation in English jewish History, 1656-1945 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990), p.30.

68. Studnicki-Gizbert, 'The Nation and the Empire' (see note 59).

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