Woods Hole Research Center

The 1800s

Photo by Stephen F. Adams, circa. 1870, shows the whaleships and casks of whale oil at Central Wharf, New Bedford.

By the 1840s the whaling industry had reached its peak with New Bedford becoming the major center of commerce and as well as the setting for Melville’s Moby Dick. (More on this era at the New Bedford Whaling Museum). By 1857, some 329 whaling ships were registered in New Bedford. Capital from the successes of whaling and shipping became available for the wave of industrialization that was soon to transform Bristol County and begin a trend away from agriculture and whaling to manufacturing which would last until the mid 1900’s.

The new emphasis on manufacturing was in part due to the vagaries of shipping. Major setbacks to shipping occurred in 1807 and during the war of 1812. Manufacturing seemed a more predictable venture for new capital. Early centers of manufacturing were Brockton around 1820, and Fall River in the 1830s. The invention of the sewing machine and the stimulus of government contracts during the Civil War transformed Brockton from the small town of North Bridgewater to the largest shoe manufacturing center in the country by 1870. Textiles came to dominate, manufacturing, almost exclusively, in New Bedford and Fall River. Railroad lines, pushed to Fall River and New Bedford by 1845, helped to make the export of finished goods and input of raw material much more economic.

Early textile mills were highly labor intensive and drew upon the vast increases of immigrant labor, first from impoverished Ireland, and later from other parts of Europe.

The Wamsutta Mill, New Bedford, William A. Wall, ca 1853

The textile mills changed the land as well by increasing the demand initially for wool so that throughout much of Southeastern Massachusetts sheep became the primary grazers in the early 1800s. Large sections of Cape Cod and the Islands, less suited for traditional agriculture, were dominated by flocks of sheep. Interior sections closer to leather manufactures maintained large cattle herds for hides and for milk. Local sheep cultivation, however, diminished rapidly after 1850 as the mills became dominated by cotton, brought from the south by newly established rail lines and through the ports. The numbers of cattle declined similarly with the presence of new railroad lines.

The Davol Mill, Fall River

The creation of the textile mills of New Bedford and Fall River engendered significant population growth in Bristol County. By the late 1800s, New Bedford and Fall River were among the top 25 manufacturing cities in the country. By 1900, Fall River had 42 industrial corporations with a workforce of 26,000 within a mixed ethnic population of 105,000. New Bedford’s population had grown from 22,000 at the height of the whaling era (1860) to 62,000 by 1890 and to its peak of 120,000 in 1920. Population growth in Plymouth County was much less rapid and there was even a slight decline in Barnstable County as agriculture waned. By the end of the 19th century, Massachusetts and Rhode Island were the mostly densely populated states in the country.