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    Carolina Footprints: The African-American Sasportas Family History
    Carolina Footprints: The African-American Sasportas Family History
    Carolina Footprints: The African-American Sasportas Family History
    Ebook143 pages1 hour

    Carolina Footprints: The African-American Sasportas Family History

    By Edwin R. Sasportas

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    About this ebook

    This book traces the journey of an African-American family and the surname that is attached to it - from it's European and North African origins across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean and on to Calhoun Country in South Carolina.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateOct 31, 2018
    ISBN9781543948790
    Carolina Footprints: The African-American Sasportas Family History

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      Book preview

      Carolina Footprints - Edwin R. Sasportas

      name.

      Beginnings

      Origins Of A Name

      So exactly where does the Sasportas name come from? I can remember that question posed to me often while growing up. It remained an unknown mystery until I immersed myself in this research. The United States of America has been from its inception a land of immigrants. A land first inhabited by natives who eventually were overwhelmed by thousands and thousands of European explorers and settlers in search of new lands, economic opportunities and, to a lesser extent, religious freedom. The African-American experience is uniquely different as most ancestors were forcibly transported to the Americas as slave labor used for economic exploitation. Stripped from their ancestral origins, many stolen Africans and their descendants ended up adopting the same surname of the slave-owners who once identified them as their property. Others were the products of miscegenation and used the surname of their paternal lineage. Still others, upon emancipation, decided to form their own identity and adopted names of their choosing. According to leading ancestry DNA databases, the average present-day African-American has between 65-80 percent African and between 19-29 percent European ancestry. The variations in surnames, as with the variations in skin tone and complexion, reflect the diverse racial mixture of African-Americans.

      In the case of the Sasportas family, the surname dates back to medieval times, well before the Spanish Inquisition. The name can be traced to the Sephardic Jews of Spain, Portugal, North Africa and the Middle East, and is derived from the Hebrew word Sepharad which refers to Spain. Since the days of Solomon, these peoples had lived on the Iberian Peninsula (more commonly known as Spain and Portugal). There are several theories regarding the actual derivation of name Sasportas. According to The Jewish Encyclopedia, it is based on a literal translation derived from the Spanish name Porte and Sasportas translates as Seis Portas – or Six Gates. ¹ In those times, it was often a custom to derive surnames from the physical characteristics of land/property. The names De Porta, De La Porta, Portal, Saport and Sasportas were said to originally designate localities in northern Spain. As time passed, the name was constructed and pronounced in different versions as Sasportez, Saporta, Sforta, Saportas, and Sasportas.

      Further study unveils yet another theory. This claim states that it derives from the name Ca Porta which means The Door in Spanish Catalan. In Girona, Spain, this Door referenced a unique gate within the wall of the Jewish Quarter. Girona is located in Northeast Spain, just north of Barcelona. Upon orders of the Spanish King, houses were attached to this special door that encircled the settlement for their protection.² This spelling is also found in several medieval Spanish and Latin documents including one dating back to 1391 that referenced several Girona Jews called Porta, Da Porta, Sa Porta, and Ca Porta. Medieval scribes often wrote down names based on what they thought they heard or understood. Another 1392 Catalan document spelled the name as Sas Portas.

      From the 14th through 18th centuries, the Iberian Peninsula endured numerous conflicts between European Christians and Muslim Moors from North Africa. As a result, different conquerors occupied these lands during different periods of time. Under Muslim rule, many Sephardic Jews flourished and held prominent positions in society. Other Sephardic names and families from this region included Lopez, Rodriguez, Riviera, Mendes, Cansino, DaCosta, and Pimental. The Spanish Inquisition was spearheaded by the Catholic Church in 1478 and intensified in 1492 and 1501, forcing many Muslim and Sephardic families to either convert or leave Spain. Many of these families initially fled to neighboring Portugal and, by 1497, Sephardic Jews had made up about 20 percent of Portugal’s population of one million. In 1536, a similar Portuguese Inquisition took place that resulted in another forced exodus. Over time, the various families branched out from Spain and Portugal and established settlements in Morocco, Algeria, Turkey, France, and Holland.

      The earliest identified members of the Sasportas family name came from Oran, Algeria – a port city located on the Northwest Algerian coast in North Africa – and included several noted rabbis and scholars. Here we find the earliest known member, Aaron Sasportas, living in Oran at the end of the 16th century. Geographically separated from Spain by the Mediterranean Sea, Oran was founded back in 903AD by Moorish Andalusian traders; it remained under various Islamic rulers until captured by Spain in 1509. The Portuguese had previously failed to capture the city in an expedition in 1501. Early Spanish refugees arriving in Oran found an ancient Jewish community there that was heavily influenced by Muslim customs. Over time, members of the Cansino, Sasportas, Stora, Vaez and Mayques families would serve as dragomans and agents to the Spanish Court and compete for the offices of government interpreter: included among these were individuals named Jacob, Samuel, Solomon, and Bale Sasportas.

      Aaron Sasportas was said to be a descendant in the tenth generation of Nahmanides, a leading medieval Sephardic rabbi, scholar and physician. Nahmanides was born in 1194 in Girona, Spain and lived in Catalonia. His full Catalan name was Bonastruc ca Porta (also written as Saporta, de Porta). Well-known for his oral and written commentary on Judaism, Nahmanides successfully won debates against an array of Spanish Christian church leaders, which eventually led to his exile to Israel for the last three years of his life until his death in 1270.

      Jacob ben Aaron Sasportas was a son of Aaron Sasportas, who emerged as a well-known rabbi in the region and a noted figure in Jewish history. Born in 1610, in Oran, Algeria, he became recognized as one of the most violent antagonists of the Shabbethian Movement. This movement was founded by Shabbethaian, a Sephardic rabbi who claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah (Shabbethaian later converted to Islam leaving behind a group of followers who became known as Sabbatians). Sasportas wrote many letters to communities in Europe, Asia and Africa urging them to resist this movement. Jacob Sasportas married Rachel Toledano, who hailed from a very wealthy family in the Moroccan community. Members of the Toledano family were rabbis, served as counselors and diplomats to the king, and were merchants who had many business transactions with the royal family. In 1646, Jacob was imprisoned by the Moorish King but somehow succeeded in escaping with his family to Amsterdam, Holland in 1653. He remained there until the disorders in North Africa subsided. He was then called back by the King of Morocco and sent on a special mission to the Spanish court in 1659 to ask for aid against rebel forces. During his lifetime he fulfilled a variety of diplomatic missions throughout Europe on behalf of Morocco. In 1664, he was invited to the rabbinate in the Portuguese community in London. He left a year later with the outbreak of the plague, moving on to Hamburg and Amsterdam. He was appointed Rabbi of the Portuguese community in Amsterdam in 1693 and remained in that office until his death in 1698.

      One of Jacob’s sons, Isaac ben Jacob Sasportas, became a rabbi in the Portuguese community at Amsterdam in the beginning of the 18th century and penned a collection of rabbinical decisions, sermons, poems, and letters written in Spanish, Portuguese, and Hebrew. Isaac’s son Solomon Sasportas became a rabbi at Nice, France from 1690 until his death in 1724.

      At this point, it is important to note the defined, structured naming tradition practiced by Sephardic families. The pattern starts with the firstborn son, who was traditionally named after the paternal grandfather. The second male was named after the maternal grandfather. The firstborn daughter was named after the paternal grandmother and the second female was named after the maternal grandmother. The next children were named after paternal uncles or aunts, and the next after maternal uncles or aunts. As a result, we find the same names repeated throughout family generations. Through the 18th century, there were multiple Sasportas Jewish family members with the names Jacob, Isaac, Aaron, Abraham, Rebecca, Rachel, etc. This makes the task of uncovering the genealogical trail and identifying specific individuals very challenging.

      1 Joseph Jacobs, M. Seligsohn, Isidore Singer, Meyer Kayserling, The Jewish Encyclopedia, (1906)

      2 Mathilde A. Tagger, The Surname Sasportas: An Onomastical Analysis, Sephardic Horizons, ISSN 2158-1800 (2015)

      Trade Winds

      Bordeaux, France To The Caribbean

      The path of the descendants of Jacob ben Aaron Sasportas branches out from Oran, Algeria and on to London, Amsterdam, and the French cities of Nice and Bordeaux. Our trail leads to an Isaac Sasportas who was born in 1703 in Amsterdam and migrated to Bordeaux where he operated as a commissioner of a money exchange. His father’s name was listed as Aaron Sasportas (1662-1727). This Aaron was likely an offspring of the same Jacob Sasportas who originally came from Oran, Algeria and Isaac was likely Jacob’s grandson. Isaac Sasportas married a woman named Rebecca

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