names of padrone victims

[joetucciarone]

I’ve been researching the padrone system and thought this would be of interest.

From July 25 through the end of December 1888, congressional hearings (known as the Ford Committee) were held in New York. The hearings were convened to investigate the illegal contract labor system, mainly operated by Italian padrones, that was flooding the American workforce with cheap immigrant labor. There are over 950 pages in the official report, and here is the first page of the testimonies:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id= ... &skin=2021

This is a valuable genealogical resource since many of the witnesses were Italian immigrants who named their Italian hometown, the steamship on which they arrived and their U.S. destination. Some even gave the names and ages of their children. Most of the Italians were persuaded to emigrate in violation of the Foran Act of 1885. Their statements reveal the cruel lies made by their own countrymen. The following are the names of the Italian witnesses, victimized by padrones, spelled exactly as they appear in the report. The recorder, unfamiliar with the Italian language, misspelled many names:

Pages 93-133:

Francisco Zapponi
Antonio di Dierro
Vincenzo Zurlo
Vincenzo Randa
Antonio Angionicola
Giuseppe Granozio
Dominco Ramone
Gaetano Braccio
Nicolla di Alve
Giuseppe Pedone

Pages 155-167:

Francisco Biemonte
Giuseppe Menniti
Antonio Sgamedlia

Pages 182-189:

Dominico Nero
Domenico Cingiarella
Nicholas Ivone

Pages 307-324:

Johan Sica
Salvaton Demunda
Nicola Agresta
Ermenegido Ferrentt
Vito Ferro
Dormadio Prospero
Dominico Cerrony
Giuseppe Fiorer
Alfonso Grandinetti
Pietro Silvagin
Dominico Saccomannio
Giuseppe Culotta
Dominico Cambaulo
Villoriano Cali
Antonio Capo
Nichele Molinaro
Dominico Vecchiavelli
Felice Cerra
Angelo di Persio
Salvatore Ruffolo
Adamo Ferri
Vincenzo de Luca
Angelo Salimarde
Cipriano Auletta
Luigi Santacroce
Tommazo Coletti
Pasquale di Micchi
Antonio Cherico

Pages 403-405:

Mary Fabrizi
Katherine Fabrizi

The following three witnesses were Italian immigrants doing business in the United States:

Pages 173-179:

Luiga Troga
Joseph Sica

Pages 406-408:

Vincenzo Palumbo


The testimony of Michael Bernardina (Michelle Bernardini) starts on page 167. He said he sold steamship tickets, contracted Italians for railroad work and operated a bank at 34 Mulberry Street. He was a padrone in all but name.


Pages 638-640 lists steamships that violated the legal passenger capacity; the implication is that these voyages were managed by padrones.