New England

Azoreans on Shore in New England

New England became the focal point for Azorean migration to the 
United States. Some immigrants made it their home and worked as 
fishermen, whalers, farmers, and textile workers. Others moved on to 
California after working awhile. Massachusetts saw the greatest 
concentration of Azoreans in New England, but Rhode Island and  
Connecticut had significant populations as well.1 

In certain communities in southern New England, especially Bristol 
County, Massachusetts, Portuguese would be the dominant ethnic 
group.  The towns of New Bedford and Fall River became the major 
centers of Portuguese population. In fact, New Bedford was known as 
"the Portuguese Capital of the United States" because of its host of 
Portuguese.2 The first Azorean family settled there about 1840, and 
by 1920, there were 30,000 Portuguese.3 Its sister city of Fall River 
had 22,000 also at that time.4 

The first Portuguese settled in Provincetown, which is located on 
Cape Cod, in 1853. Gloucester had its first Portuguese settler in
1845. They were attracted to the fisheries. In 1860, Boston had 40 
Azoreans to give some idea of the extent of Azorean settlement.5  

Textile Mills

When whaling was on the decline, investors began putting their
resources into textile mills. Former whaling crews now turned to the 
mills for employment. The first textile mill was built in New Bedford 
in 1848, and by 1900, it had 14 mills. In 1920, at the height of the 
industry, there were 63 mills.6 The industry expanded to Fall River, 
and by 1900, it would have 80 mills expanding to 111 mills by1923. 
Azoreans could be found working at mills in Lowell, Tauton, and 
Pawtucket.7 

The mills had a history of hiring immigrants because they could pay 
them less. There were Irish, French-Canadians, Portuguese, Greeks, 
Syrians, Poles, and Italians at the mills.8 Women worked too 
generally to pay off their passage from the Azores and to save 
money to buy a house or fare to California. Children were put to 
work as soon as the law allowed.9  

The average Portuguese immigrant made $14.66 a month in the mills 
late last century.10 Their first job was sweeping floors at $3.50 a 
week.11 Male weavers made $8.76 a week, and women earned less at 
$7.85.12 Work was six days a week, eleven hours a day.13 Jobs were 
primarily unskilled which accommodated the Azorean immigrant at 
his or her level being largely unskilled and illiterate. There was little 
opportunity for advancement.14 

To put their wage in perspective: it cost $6 a month for room and 
board; ten cents for a beer and sandwich; and ten cents for a movie 
ticket. It was found that a family could live off of $10 a week.15 
Tenement housing was unattractive, no bath, and a toilet in the 
corner of the room with a curtain. It was an unsanitary environment 
even by the standards of the day.16 This is what one researcher 
found in 1920 during an inspection of a Portuguese tenement: 

	No one will deny that the sections of the city where most of the Portuguese
	live are unattractive. There is a dreary monotony of plain two and three
	story frame buildings with accommodations for from two to twelve families,
	sometimes fronting the street and sometimes ugly alleys. In most yards
	the tramp of many feet has prevented the growth of grass although there
	are exceptions to this. Even where the interiors of the tenements are well-
	kept, hallways are apt to be defaced and uncleanly.17 

There was cholera, small pox, tuberuclosis, and an high infant 
mortality.18 Thirty-nine percent of pregnant Portuguese
mothers worked at the mills.19 Infant mortality rate was
200 per 1,000 births which was twice the national average at
the time. The pregnant mother worked in apalling and unhealthy
mill conditions and a crowded home environment which studies 
attributed to the high infant mortality.20 

In 1870's there were 2,000 millworkers in New Bedford; in 1900,
there were 10,000; in 1925, there were 40,000 with most being 
Portuguese.21 But in 1938, in the midst of the Depression, the New 
Bedford workforce was cut in half to 21,280 millworkers. Only 50% 
of the Portuguese had jobs at that time. Those that were unemployed 
were unskilled. Many moved on to Connecticut and New Jersey to 
work in the garment industry.22 

New England Farming

Some Azorean immigrants took to farming in New England which was 
their traditional vocation. New England farmland was not as 
attractive as California's massive acreages, but the Azoreans with 
their usually tenacity farmed it nonetheless.23 

New England farmland was rocky and hilly. The Azorean farmers did 
as had done in the islands; they used the rocks for fences and did 
intensive farming with their hands employing few implements.24 An 
immigrant farmhand made $5 a month which included room and 
board which was less than he could make in the mills.25 Land rented 
for $5 to $12 an acre. The Portuguese planted potatoes, onions, corn, 
oats, rye, and hay crops. They also raised fruit and garden vegetables 
mostly for their own table. The only dairying done was milking the 
family cow.26 

The Portuguese have had a reputation for making something out of 
nothing. The Portuguese could grow potatoes where the 
Non-Portuguese farmers had nothing but problems. A common 
saying  of the time was, "If you want to see a potato grow, you have 
to speak to it in Portuguese."27  

They were frugal farmers as well and could accumulate property like 
no other immigrant group which certainly became the case in 
California.28 In 1909, the average size of their farms was 24.5 acres. 
Fifty percent of the farms they owned were 15 acres or less. Long 
hours were required and took the help of every member of the 
family for success.29 

Azorean farmers in the Portsmouth area came from the islands of 
Sao Miguel, Faial, and Sao Jorge. The below excerpt is a  description 
of a Portuguese farmstead near Portsmouth written by a researcher 
in the early 1920's:

	It is usually the former residence of some Anglo-Saxon who has died or
	given up the struggle of the soil. The house is not the better for the new 
	owners. The yard is somewhat littered and full of hens and ducks . . . Large
	tubs stand in they yard with a rather corpulent woman bending over one of
	them. Her children are numerous and barefooted. She, however, has both
	shoes and stockings on, is genial and well-mannered. In the kitchen, 
	conveniences are few and the mother wipes crumbs off a wooden chair for
	her guests to sit upon. Everything has the appearance of being made for
	use and of being everlastingly used. If one gets to peep into the bedroom or
	livingroom, however, there is some attempt at decoration, albeit cheap and
	gaudy . . . No books are seen.30 

Other Occupations

As has been discussed, immigrant Azoreans were employed in New 
England in whaling, fishing, farming, textiles, and small businesses. 
They also were longshoremen, coal or brick workers, pork packers, 
laundry workers,31 railroad workers, carpenters, mechanics, 
shipyard workers, and machinery operators.32 Some were teachers, 
engineers, clerks, and accountants.33 

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