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Immigrant Foodways in New England

Diaspora

⚠ THE MILL TOWNS ARE THE STORY. IRISH from the 1840s famine into Boston, and corned beef and cabbage as an American-Irish dish rather than an Irish one. FRENCH-CANADIANS — hundreds of thousands from Québec into the textile mills of Lowell, Manchester, Woonsocket, Lewiston and Fall River from the 1860s, creating the FRANCO-AMERICAN "Petits Canadas" and bringing tourtière, pea soup and meat pie. PORTUGUESE and AZOREANS into New Bedford and Fall River with the whaling and fishing fleets — kale soup, linguiça, malasadas, bacalhau. CAPE VERDEANS, the earliest substantial African immigrant community in the United States, also via whaling, with CACHUPA. ITALIANS into Boston’s North End and Providence’s Federal Hill. JEWISH communities. GREEKS and ARMENIANS into Watertown and Lowell. Later: Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Haitians, Brazilians in Massachusetts, and CAMBODIAN Lowell and Vietnamese Dorchester. ⚠ EACH BUILT A FOOD ECONOMY, not just a restaurant.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

  • Franco-Americans community documented
  • Cape Verdeans community documented
  • Portuguese Americans community documented

Languages: English, French, Portuguese, Italian

What is recorded

  • Several hundred thousand Québécois migrated to New England textile mill towns from the 1860s, establishing Franco-American communities known as Petits Canadas in Lowell, Manchester, Woonsocket, Lewiston and Fall River. Portuguese and Azorean migration arrived through the whaling and fishing fleets into New Bedford and Fall River. Cape Verdeans, arriving via whaling, constitute the earliest substantial African immigrant community in the United States. documented
  • Québécois migration to the New England mill towns, creating the Franco-American Petits Canadas. documented

Related foodways

This foodway relates to

  • related to African Foodways documented

    Cape Verdeans, the earliest substantial African immigrant community in the United States, arriving via the whaling fleet, with cachupa.

  • related to Irish-American Foodways documented

    Famine migration into Boston from the 1840s; corned beef and cabbage is an American-Irish dish rather than an Irish one.

  • related to Italian documented

    Boston’s North End and Providence’s Federal Hill.

  • related to Portuguese Foodways documented

    Portuguese and Azorean whaling and fishing migration into New Bedford and Fall River — kale soup, linguiça, malasadas.

  • related to Québécois Foodways documented

    ⚠ Hundreds of thousands of Québécois migrated to the New England mill towns from the 1860s, creating the Franco-American Petits Canadas. This is the single largest food connection between the two systems.

Recipes

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