New Bedford: A Brief History

New Bedford, Massachusetts was first settled in 1652, but up through the 17^th century, New Bedford (and its surrounding area) was home to the Wampanoag Native Americans. English colonists bought the land from the Wampanoag people and the settlement became a city, founded by Quakers. According to the New Bedford Historical Society, New Bedford itself was officially incorporated in 1787. 

During the early to mid-1800s New Bedford’s major source of income was the whaling industry. This was a highly lucrative industry and during this period New Bedford was the wealthiest city in North America per capita. During that same period, New Bedford was a major center in the abolitionist movement. The city attracted many freed or escaped slaves, including Frederick Douglass, who lived there from 1838 until 1841. New Bedford is also the setting for Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.

The Quakers, who were among the early European settlers on the South Coast of Massachusetts, faced persecution in the nearby Puritan communities of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. The colonists’ move, however, was not without conflict. In 1675, Wampanoag tribesmen raided New Bedford (which was known as Old Dartmouth at the time) and other European settlements in the area. The tribes felt that the Europeans were overstepping the terms of their purchase agreement; this conflict is now known as King Philip’s War.  

On Feb 23, 1787, a section of Old Dartmouth known as Bedford Village was officially incorporated after the Revolutionary War. The name was suggested by the Russell family who were high-standing citizens at the time. The Dukes of Bedford (an English aristocracy) also had the surname, Russell.  

Up until the 1760s, Nantucket was the dominant whaling town in the area. However, in the late 1760s Nantucket’s most prominent whalers moved to New Bedford to refine their oil to make premium candles. During the Revolutionary War, British troops blockaded many of the ports in Nantucket, effectively destroying the whaling industry in the town. New Bedford then became the major whaling port in the country and began what is known as the Golden Age of Whaling.  

“People here are oriented toward the sea in ways that other places aren’t,” said New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell. 

Whaling remained the dominant industry throughout the first half of the 19^th century. One of the major reasons why New Bedford’s economy flourished is that they employed without discrimination, a major change at the time. This led to a large influx of people from Portuguese colonies such as Cape Verde, the Azores, and Madeira, an influence that is still seen in New Bedford today.  

“It is a tight community,” said Antonio Martinho, owner of Antonio’s Restaurant in New Bedford.  

“There are Portuguese from every part of Portugal, from the mainland, the islands, the Azores and Madeira, even some Cape Verdean.” 

The whaling industry began to decline in the latter half of the 19^th century after the discovery of oil. During this decline, New Bedford became more dependent on the textile industry. Textiles eventually became a more lucrative industry than whaling, resulting in the textile industry dominating in the late 1800s and early 1900s in New Bedford.  

The decline of the textile industry in New Bedford eventually came due to competition with similar factories in the South. Southern textile factories were able to pay workers a lower wage, therefore making it cheaper for companies to produce textiles in the South. In 1928, local textile employers in New Bedford demanded a 10 percent cut in wages; employees then went on strike. Eventually, the strike ended in October of that year with an agreement reached for a five percent wage cut. This wage reduction, however, was not enough to stop the eventual decline of the textile industry in New Bedford.  

After the decline of the whaling and textile industries in New Bedford, new industries were needed to support the local economy. Fishing eventually took over as the dominating industry in the Port of New Bedford and remains so to this day.