In this post, mainly a photo essay, we’ll look at some of the historical background of Portuguese American immigration and settlement in the area.

Kids in the ‘Portuguese Navy Yard’ of New Bedford probably in the 1930’s. The structures were all destroyed in the 1938 hurricane. Photo from the New Bedford Whaling Museum

The Portuguese came to southern New England (and to Hawaii and California) because of whaling connections with New Bedford. They left lives as poor peasant farmers on tiny plots of land to come to urban areas in America. At the time of the greatest waves of immigration, Portugal was one of the poorest countries in Europe and the Portuguese islands of the Azores, Madeira and Cape Verde were even poorer.

Tiny plots of land on the island of Corvo, Azores. Although small plots have been consolidated on the larger islands such as Sao Miguel, tiny Corvo Island still illustrates how small the plots were originally; many are hardly larger than the houses. Image from Goggle Earth

Educational levels of Portuguese immigrants reflected their poverty and rural isolation. Many had only a grade school education and many never had any formal schooling. Their low level of educational attainment has dogged the Portuguese to the present day and is still reflected in their occupations and their levels of income.

As you can imagine from this photo taken on a whaling ship, cutting up dead whales was not a glamorous occupation. Photo from the New Bedford Whaling Museum

Whaling ships leaving New Bedford headed to the Azores and Cape Verde Island to load up with provisions. Initially they picked up cabin boys and those were the first Portuguese immigrants. But as the demand for whale oil declined due to its replacement in lanterns by kerosene, whaling became a poor-paying industry and American men would not take the jobs. Now ships sailed from New Bedford with only a skeleton crew and filled out the crew with eager men from the islands.

Family photo owned by the author

Family photo owned by the author

Family photo owned by the author

Who were the Portuguese who immigrated to the United States? After the whaling men came the women. The photos above show relatives of the author’s grandmother who emigrated from northern Portugal in the early 1900’s.

Families were established in the USA. The author’s grandparents (center with bouquet) pose with their wedding party in front of a three-decker in New Bedford’s north end Portuguese community in 1919. Family photo owned by the author

Life was tough in rural Portugal, and even tougher on the Atlantic islands. Travelers and observers in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s reported that, without exception, the island population appeared underfed. Typical household conditions were that families with many children lived in a single room and shared a single mattress in a whitewashed but windowless house. Rural households housed animals under the main floor. Cooking was done over a central hearth made of stones. The floor was dirt strewn with pine needles. Many families were either entirely shoe-less or owned a single pair of shoes shared by members of the family.

Portuguese immigrants in Fall River in 1921. The full caption written by the photographer tells us a lot about moral judgements made at the time: “Evening recreation of the ‘Young Holy Ghosters’ — Ages 15–25, average is 18 — all mill workers — all Portuguese. Whole House on George Street. Great need of leadership.” Photo by Lewis Hine, collection of the Library of Congress

Many Portuguese found employment in the textile mills, later apparel mills, of Fall River and New Bedford. For many Portuguese women this was their first employment outside of the home. Photo from the Library of New England Immigration at the University of Massachusetts — Lowell

This map shows New Bedford’s two main Portuguese communities in 1970 and how they had expanded by 1975. The communities in New Bedford are still centered on these two neighborhoods but have shifted somewhat as shown by the arrows. The inset map shows important historical sites of the community in the earliest days when a single community was focused near the waterfront between downtown and the docks. Map by the author

Life remained hard for immigrants especially during the Great Depression and WW II. “Bringing home some salvaged firewood in a slum area in New Bedford, Massachusetts.” Photo by Jack Delano, 1941, from the collection U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information at the Library of Congress

“A little girl in New Bedford, Massachusetts.” Photo by Jack Delano, 1941, from the collection U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information at the Library of Congress

As late as the 1930’s some Portuguese fishermen and dockworkers lived in a shanty settlement along the New Bedford waterfront. The area was derisively referred to by some as the “Portugee navy yard.” Photo “Fisherman’s shacks” by Jack Delano, 1941, from the collection U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information at the Library of Congress

A celebration at the Clube Recordações de Portugal in New Bedford, around 1950. The club’s name means Memories of Portugal. (Jaime A. Fonseca, my grandfather, the club’s president, is seated in the far back, third from left.) Family photo owned by the author

Social clubs play an important role in keeping the community together. Most clubs are organized by island or by regions of continental Portugal. Mostly the clubs are for men to drink, play cards and dominoes and watch soccer on TV, but women and children attend occasional events. In the past when immigration was more vibrant, most clubs also offered activities for youths such as soccer teams, drum and bugle corps, and folk dancing troupes.

On weekends families gathered for a clambake at the beach or a pick-up soccer or baseball game. Sometimes teams were sponsored by mills. This photo of Portuguese men was taken around 1940. Family photo owned by the author

If you read earlier posts in this series about monuments you may recall the story of the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Historians tell us the story of how that monument, dedicated in 1909, was built by the “Yankees” of Provincetown in part to commemorate and reinforce their status at a time when Portuguese made up 45% of the town’s population and when the Portuguese had taken over control of the town’s fishing industry. In 1942, in an ironic twist, Depression-era photographer John Collier took a photograph of the “City Fathers of Provincetown” duly noting in the caption: “Provincetown, Massachusetts. City fathers of Provincetown, all of Portuguese descent…”

The caption of this photo reads: “City fathers of Provincetown, all of Portuguese descent, gathered in council, before a painting representing the signing of the Pilgrim compact in the bay of Provincetown upon the first landing of the Pilgrims on American soil.” Photo by John Collier, Jr., 1942, from the collection U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information at the Library of Congress.

I’ve outlined these ideas in detail in my book Making History – Creating a Landscape: The Portuguese American Community of Southeastern New England. I grew up in this area in the Portuguese American culture. Now I am a retired geography professor. 

The author’s book available on Amazon.com: com https://www.amazon.com/Making-History-Creating-Landscape-Southeastern/dp/1722258462/ref=monarch_sidesheet_title