Migration and Millwork: Portuguese Communities in industrial New England

Conference Program
Dec 3-4 Lowell; Dec. 5 New Bedford & North Dartmouth; Dec. 6 Fall River

Sunday, December 3, 2017 Lowell, MA

10:00-12:00 Guided tour
The creation of Lowell through millwork and the immigrant labor force
US national Park Service Guides, UMass Lowell History Department Grad Students
In this journey through the history of Lowells creation as a mill town, guided talks will use
ethnographic exhibits, artifacts, architecture, recordings and a short film to provide participants
with a broad understanding of the global industry and immigrant labor force that powered the
citys mills.
Location: The tour departs from the Visitors Center of the Lowell National Historic Park with
stops at the Parks Mill Girls & Immigrants Exhibit and Boott Cotton Mills exhibits.

12:00-2:00 LUNCH BREAK

2:00-3:00 Conference Welcome and Lowell Historical Keynote

The Mills Beckon: Immigrant Life in Lowell, 18801920
Robert Forrant, Distinguished University Professor of History, UMass, Lowell
A great immigration wave swept across the United States from the 1880s to the mid 1920s. As a
result, Lowell, a seemingly ever-expanding mill city, became home to thousands of newcomers.
Carrying essential elements of their cultures with them, people from around the world settled
into the citys immigrant neighborhoods. French Canadian, Greek, and Portuguese newcomers
crowded into the citys tenement blocks and got onto the payroll of one textile mill or another.
Utilizing a variety of sources, this presentation will offer an overview history of immigrant
work and family life in the mill city on the Merrimack.
Location: Events Center, Boott Mill #6, 2nd Floor (Amphitheater)

3:00-4:30 Oral History Panel

The Portuguese Immigrant Experience in Lowell since the 1960s
This facilitated discussion invites a panel of Lowell residents to reflect on their lives in the city,
the Portuguese community and migration. Illuminating personal stories, experiences, and
influences in Lowells Portuguese community, the panelists will bring to life individual and
collective immigrant experiences of the Portuguese in Lowell beginning from the 1960s.
Location: Events Center, Boott Mill #6, 2nd Floor (Amphitheater)

4:30 Migration and Millwork Conference Opening Reception &

The Portuguese of Lowell Historical Exhibit
Historical Exhibit. From the Atlantic Islands to Lowell, Massachusetts: the Mill Citys
Portuguese Community
Robert Forrant, Kady Phelps, Molly Mahoney and Frank Sousa, UMass Lowell
The panels in the exhibit recount the story of the early Portuguese mill worker period in Lowell
through photographs and historical documents.
Location: Location: Counting House, Boott Mill 2nd Floor
Monday, December 4, Lowell, MA
9:00-5:00 Migration and Millwork Conference Paper Presentations
Conference paper presentations examine mill town communities and ethnic groups; class and
culture in industrial New England; work and living conditions; racialization, categorization and
identity; social histories of the mill communities; life-histories of the working classes; workers
rights movements; trans-local approaches to migrant trajectories; mill technology &
technologies of labor governance; studies of age, gender, labor class, etc. The Portuguese case
study will be connected to broader themes in race, ethnicity and labor practices, and will
contextualize the political and economic forces confronted by migrant mill wage workers in the
period.

The Racialization of Labor

Cristiana Bastos, ISC, Universidade de Lisboa
Neither slum nor lite suburb. The emergence of a Portuguese colony in Cambridge, MA, in
the early 20th century
Graa Cordeiro, ISCTE/Instituto Universitrio de Lisboa
English language journalism about new immigrants from Portugal
Miguel Moniz, ISC, Universidade de Lisboa
Ethnic and racial identities and civic life. Establishing Portuguese-American chartered
cultural, socio-religious, political, and economic associations in New England in the pre WWII
era
Miguel Moniz, ISC, Universidade de Lisboa
Labor and Mobility: Whaling voyage and transportation logs
Andres Novoa, ISC, Universidade de Lisboa
Portuguese civic organizations in the United States: notes toward a history
Silvia Oliveira, Rhode Island College
Late 19th and early 20th Century Portuguese in Lowell
Kady Phelps and Molly Mahoney, UMass Lowell
The Honing of a craft: Joseph Confortis Another City Upon a Hill (2013)
Carmen Ramos Villar, University of Sheffield, UK
The Portuguese of Fall River, 1920
Paula Rioux, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
Demographic data on New Bedford 1900
Rose P. Rodrigues, Fairfield University
Demographic data on Southeastern New England Communities
Maria de S, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
Mill labor, organizing in a multi-ethnic workplace
Camilo Viveiros, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
Location: Boott Mill #6

PRESENTATIONS WILL BREAK FOR LUNCH from 12:00-2:00

Tuesday, December 5, New Bedford and North Dartmouth, MA
10:00-12:00 New Bedford Whaling Museum gallery presentations
New Bedfords Transition between Whaling and Millwork
New Bedford Whaling Museum Guides
Using the Whaling Museum Energy & Enterprise gallery, the citys transformation from the
whaling industry into a mill and manufacturing industrial center will be discussed.
Place Matters: The Portuguese Community in 1900, New Bedford, Massachusetts
Rose P. Rodrigues, Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology, Fairfield, University
New Bedford faced dramatic social and economic changes in the last decades of the nineteenth
centurythe whaling industry declined, textile mills and other manufacturing enterprises
proliferated and a large number of immigrants moved in and out of the city. Following a
discussion of New Bedfords transition from whaling to textile manufacturing and the arrival of
the Portuguese, this talk examines the year 1900 to understand the roles and positions of
Portuguese in the mills, how they were regarded and where they lived.
Location: Energy & Enterprise Gallery
Opportunities for research on Portuguese topics available at the Grimshaw-
Gudewicz Reading Room and Archives, New Bedford Whaling Museum
Mark Proknik, Librarian (with Cristiana Bastos, Andr Novoa, and Miguel Moniz,
ERC Advanced Grant Project Reseachers, ICS, Universidade de Lisboa)
With holdings that include the Portuguese Consular archives, shipping and transportation logs
and other documents, the New Bedford Whaling Museum research library is an exceptional
resource for studies on the Portuguese. This presentation will introduce some research
opportunities for Portuguese themes in the diverse holdings of the archives.
Location: Cape Verdean and Azorean Galleries

12:00-2:00 LUNCH BREAK

2:30-5:30 Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese American Archives presentations, North Dartmouth, MA

Historical Exhibit: Understanding the 1920s in the South Coast
Sonia Pacheco, Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese American Archive
Using a variety of itemsphotographs, postcards, textual documents, oral histories the
exhibit will explore what it was like to live in the South Coast of Massachusetts during the
1920s. A time that saw both a burgeoning cultural scene but also a changing working
environment for the Portuguese-American community that lived in this region.
Remarks on the Strike of 28 archive and oral history archives
Daniel Georgianna. UMass, Dartmouth
The author of the Strike of 28 and a researcher who collected many oral histories of Portuguese
millworkers held in the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese American Archives will discuss his
research and the wealth of research material in the FMPAA archives.
Racialism, social sciences and the politics of knowledge in the 1920s: the case of Two
Portuguese Communities in New England
Cristiana Bastos. ICS, Universidade de Lisboa
While using state-of-the-art social science research methods -- including extensive statistical
analysis -- to address social problems like infant mortality in migrant cities, Donald Tafts's 1923
Two Portuguese communities did not fully depart from the old racialist paradigm and some of
its remarks stirred indignation among the Portuguese in New England. This presentation will
discuss the political and intellectual context of the book's contents and of the reactions to it.
Wednesday, December 6, North Dartmouth & Fall River
10:00-4:00 Migration and Mills published volume paper workshop
The conference will serve as a working meeting for researchers organizing an edited volume on
the theme for the project The Color of Labor: the Racialized Lives of Migrants (ERC Advanced
Grant).
Location UMass Dartmouth, Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture.

WORKHOP WILL BREAK FOR LUNCH from 12:00-2:00

7:00-9:00 Fall River Historical Keynote at Casa dos Aores da Nova Inglaterra
The Fall River Family Wage System During the Spindle City's Textile Heyday
Philip Silvia, Dept. of History, Bridgewater State University
Tracing the successive waves of post-Civil War ethnic groups, including the Portuguese, who
found mill work readily available. The wage compensation level negatively impacted family
well-being and negatively influenced schooling opportunities.

The Portuguese Immigrant Experience of Fall River

This facilitated discussion invites a panel of former Fall River mill workers to reflect on their
lives in the city, the Portuguese community and migration. Illuminating personal stories,
experiences, and influences in Fall Rivers Portuguese community, the panelists will bring to
life individual and collective immigrant experiences of the Portuguese.

Closing Meal and Reception

Location: Casa dos Aores da Nova Inglaterra, Fall River

Sponsors and supporting Institutions

ERC Advanced Grant Project the Color of Labor: racialized lives of migrants. (Instituto de Cincias Sociais,
Universidade de Lisboa)
Saab Center for Portuguese Studies, University of Massachusetts, Lowell
Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese American Archives, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
Lowell National Historic Park, US National Park Service, Boott Cotton Mills Museum.
New Bedford Whaling Museum
Casa dos Aores da Nova Inglaterra, Fall River
Other support provided by:
Clubhouse Capital, Cranston and Providence, RI
Cames, IP Boston