The handwriting on Pease’s enlistment record is difficult to make out, with his birthplace previously interpreted as either “Togo Island” or “Long Island.” But a recent analysis of the document by Navy historians points to “Fogo Island” as the most likely listed birthplace. Though the sailor’s official Medal of Honor citation states he was born on Long Island, in New York, evidence compiled by researchers suggests he was actually from the Cape Verdean island of Fogo. And their proud military tradition grows from there, with the numbers of Cabo Verdean Americans in uniform getting larger with each of America’s wars.” Who was Joachim Pease?Īfter discovering Pease’s story, Barboza, Monteiro and fellow amateur historian Ron Tarburton scoured enlistment records, ship logs and other archival sources in search of mentions of him. We have the names of five Cabo Verdeans who fought in the American Revolution. Cape Verdeans “have contributed a lot to the fabric of America and have never really gotten the credit.”ĭonald Heflin, a former American ambassador to Cape Verde, echoes this sentiment, saying, “Cabo Verdean Americans are one of oldest immigrant communities, going back to the colonial whaling days. “So much of our history has not been recorded,” says Barboza. Naval History and Heritage Command via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY 2.0 The front of Joachim Pease's Medal of Honor Both men trace their ancestry to Cape Verde, an archipelago off the coast of West Africa also known as Cabo Verde. Pease’s life offers the Navy an opportunity to showcase the contributions of immigrants, especially those from minority groups, who have frequently been ignored or overlooked, says Ron Barboza, a retired teacher from New Bedford, Massachusetts, who has spent years researching Pease in collaboration with Gerson Monteiro, a teacher from Brockton, Massachusetts.

Now, they hope to convince the United States Navy to acknowledge Pease as the first African-born recipient of the nation’s highest military honor. In recent years, however, amateur historians have made significant strides in uncovering his story. More than 150 years later, the Medal of Honor he earned for his bravery at the 1864 Battle of Cherbourg sits unclaimed at a museum in Washington, D.C. Toward the end of the Civil War, Joachim Pease, a Black sailor whose skill with a deck cannon helped sink one of the Confederate Army’s most notorious battleships, disappeared from the historical record.

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