New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park
Global Crews: Wampanoag, Black, Cape Verdean, Azorean and Pacific Lives
Listen at the stop, then read the transcript and follow the sources behind the story.
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Transcript
A New Bedford whaleship was often more diverse than the city that owned it.
That was partly idealism.
Mostly, it was labor demand.
NPS research documents Wampanoag, African American, West Indian, Cape Verdean, Azorean, St. Helenian and Pacific Islander participation in whaling and shore industries.
By the mid-nineteenth century, Pacific Islanders formed a significant share of crews on some New Bedford vessels.
Hawaiian ports became central nodes in Pacific whaling, and people moved in both directions between New England and the islands.
Cape Verdean and Azorean mariners also developed long connections with the port.
Some sailors joined ships abroad and eventually settled in New Bedford.
The waterfront became a migration system.
This is why a purely Yankee whaling story is misleading.
Yankee merchants may have owned many ships.
The labor came from a much wider Atlantic and Pacific world.
The risks were distributed downward.
The profits were distributed upward.
For modern Americans, the port's diversity can feel familiar.
That should not make it seem effortless.
People arrived under unequal conditions, encountered racism and created communities through work, family, churches, clubs and neighborhoods.
New Bedford's multicultural identity was built through global labor long before diversity became a civic slogan.
Mobility also created unexpected family and cultural ties.
Pacific Islanders who joined New Bedford vessels sometimes settled in Massachusetts.
New Bedforders established long relationships with Hawaiian ports.
Cape Verdean and Azorean migration strengthened over generations.
The city did not merely receive anonymous labor.
People formed households, congregations and neighborhoods.
A temporary job aboard a whaleship could become the beginning of a permanent American community.
That is one reason the whaling era remains visible in New Bedford's demographics long after the last major voyages ended.