oa Challenging gendered stigmas of boarding houses

Throughout the nineteenth century, boarding houses were a prominent feature of the urban landscape, reflecting the many demographic transformations occurring in the industrial cities of the Eastern United States. These establishments served not only as places of welcome and socialization, but also as recruiting grounds for maritime workers, particularly immigrants. For these individuals, naturalization provided a means of economic mobility and access to higher positions, such as captain or officer. Although women were initially a minority in the early part of the century, they became the most widely represented among boarding housekeepers in New Bedford from 1890 onwards. This article will analyse the role of these boarding house keepers – both men and women – in helping immigrants gain access to naturalization against the backdrop of the persistent debt-based recruitment of seafarers. Through an analysis of the individual career paths of immigrant women running “Portuguese” boarding houses, this review also highlights how some of them were actively involved in both the immigration and the recruitment of Portuguese seafarers as packet trade shipowners.