This is something they definitely won't tell us on the MSM or in the education systems. Thanks for sharing!
The local labor pool was decimated by warfare and disease, but they also ran away. The Sugar plantations in Recif, Brazil date to 1500.
The Jewish Community of Recife - Museum of the Jewish ...
The Jewish Community of Recife - Museum of the Jewish People
The Jewish Community of Recife. Jews arrived in Recife after the year 1500, when the Portuguese landed at what is now Brazil.www.anumuseum.org.il
Jews arrived in Recife after the year 1500, when the Portuguese landed at what is now Brazil. Recife, capital of the State of Pernambuco in northeastern Brazil, became a prosperous center for sugar production in the 16th and 17th centuries. Part of Recife’s population consisted of New Christians (Jewish converts to Christianity).
Excerpt:
Most Jews of Recife during this period were of Sephardic origin. The society they came to live in was similar to the society they came from in terms of style and language.
The Jews of Recife at this time were active as financiers, brokers, sugar exporters and suppliers of African slaves. Their congregation, Tzur Israel, maintained a synagogue, the religious schools Talmud Torah and Etz Chayim, and a cemetery.
In 1645, the Portuguese, joined by Brazilian sympathizers, started a guerilla war that led to the defeat of the Dutch and the reconquest of northeastern Brazil. It remained under Portuguese rule until the independence of Brazil in 1822. After 1654, the Jewish community disintegrated and those who had openly professed their Judaism now fell victim to the Inquisition. Most of the Recife Jews left Brazil together with the Dutch.
These emigrants developed the sugar industry of the Dutch Antilles. After many difficulties, twenty-three of these emigrants arrived in New Amsterdam, where they founded the first Jewish community of what later became the town of New York.
As of the middle of the 18th century, the Portuguese enabled the New Christians to mingle with the rest of the population, until their traces disappeared as they became completely assimilated.
I realise this is your thing, but I’m not interested in talking about Jews.
Their history is very important in the Transatlantic trade of sugar, rum and guano.
Only to you.
My ancestors were Dutch sea captains and sailors who worked for the Dutch West Indies company in the early 1600s so yes it is important.
It’s not the premise of my OP.
I’m not making it personal.
I didn't accuse you of that.