Manuel Lopes

Manuel Lopes ( – December 23, 1895), also known as Emanuel Lopes, was Seattle's first black resident whose identity is known, as well as its first barber.

Early life Born on the island of Fogo in the Cape Verde Islands in roughly 1812, Lopes arrived in the United States on a whaling ship. According to the history of Cape Verde in "1810 whaling ships from Massachusetts and Rhode Island in the United States recruited crews from the islands of Brava and Fogo." However, he may have been brought to the U.S. after being kidnapped or enslaved. He first settled in Maine and then in Massachusetts, in the city of New Bedford. He married Susannah Jones in 1841 at New Bedford, Massachusetts and they had a son William H Lopes.

Seattle career Lopes arrived in Seattle either in 1858 or 1852, soon after the founding of the town.

As a propertied individual, Lopes ran a restaurant on Commercial Street (later First Ave South) in the same building where he lived and plied his barber trade. He had a reputation for providing free meals to people who could not afford to pay. Robert Dixon moved to Seattle in 1865 and worked for Lopes as a barber, later establishing his own shop. He was buried in Port Gamble according to Walker's arrangements.