Editing New Bedford, Massachusetts (section)

===Early history===
[[File:New Bedford, Massachusetts-old harbor.jpeg|thumb|View of historic New Bedford harbor]]
[[File:Temple type toggle harpoon, c. 1840s to 1920s, iron, hemp rope twine lanyard - San Francisco Maritime Museum - San Francisco, CA - DSC04089.jpg| thumb|The Temple toggle harpoon]]

The economy of the Pilgrim settlement in the New Bedford area was initially based around a few farming and fishing villages. The early Bedford Village quickly became a commercial zone and from there became a major [[whaling]] and foreign trade port. In the early 18th century, the Russell family purchased this area and developed it into a larger village (Joseph Russell III having made the most significant contributions). Age of Sail ships built in New Bedford include the schooner ''[[Caroline (schooner)|Caroline]]'' and whaleship ''[[Charles W. Morgan (ship)|Charles W. Morgan]]''. By the 18th century, entrepreneurs in the area, such as whaling merchants from Nantucket, were attracted to the village and helped make it into one of the top whaling cities in the country. The most significant of these merchants was [[Joseph Rotch]], who bought ten acres (four hectares) of land in 1765 from Joseph Russell III on which he and his sons ran the family business. Rotch moved his business to New Bedford since it would be better for refining whale oil and manufacturing candles made from whales. As these parts of the whaling industry had been monopolized by a merchant cartel in Boston, [[Newport, Rhode Island]], and Providence, Rhode Island, Rotch felt that it would be better for business to handle these himself by moving to the mainland.

The relationship between New Bedford and Nantucket allowed the two cities to dominate the whaling industry. In 1848 New Bedford resident [[Lewis Temple]] invented the [[toggling harpoon]], an invention that revolutionized the whaling industry and helped make New Bedford its preeminent American city. Another factor was the increased draft of whaling ships, in part the result of greater use of steel in their construction, which made them too deep for Nantucket harbor. [[Syren (clipper)|''Syren'']], the longest lived of the clipper ships, spent over a decade transporting [[whale oil]] and whaling products to New Bedford, principally from [[Honolulu]], and was owned for several years by William H. Besse of New Bedford. As a result of its control over whaling products that were used widely throughout the world (most importantly whale oil), New Bedford became one of the richest per capita cities in the world.

Many whalers quit their jobs in 1849, though, as the [[Gold Rush]] attracted many of them to leave New Bedford for California. During this time [[Herman Melville]], who worked in New Bedford as a whaler, wrote the novel ''[[Moby-Dick]]'' and published it in 1851. The city is the initial setting of the book, including a scene set in the [[Seaman's Bethel]], which still stands. Despite the power it gave to New Bedford, the whaling industry began to decline starting in 1859 when [[petroleum]], which replaced [[whale oil]], was discovered. Another blow came with the [[whaling disaster of 1871]], in which 22 New Bedford whalers were lost in the ice off the coast of Alaska.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.whalingmuseum.org/library/amwhale/am_arctic.html |title=Overview of American Whaling: Arctic Whaling |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111110090142/http://www.whalingmuseum.org/library/amwhale/am_arctic.html |archive-date=November 10, 2011 }}</ref> The New Bedford firm [[J. & W. R. Wing Company]], the largest whaling company in the United States, sent out its last whaleship in 1914,<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Davis
  | first = Lance Edwin
  | title = In Pursuit of Leviathan: Technology, Institutions, Productivity, and Profits
  | publisher = University of Chicago Press
  | year = 1997
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=zXhZHBkczZkC&q=%22Thomas+Luce+%26+Co.%22&pg=PA406
  | display-authors = etal
  | isbn = 9780226137902
  | access-date = August 14, 2021
| archive-date = February 15, 2023
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230215201354/https://books.google.com/books?id=zXhZHBkczZkC&q=%22Thomas+Luce+%26+Co.%22&pg=PA406
  | url-status = live
  }}</ref> and whaling in New Bedford came to its final end in 1925, with the last whaling expedition being made by the schooner ''John R. Manta''.

[[File:Hathaway Mills.jpg|thumb|Hathaway Mills]]

In the mid-1840s, New Bedford was the site of the first petroleum fuel refinery in the United States, as newly discovered Pennsylvania crude oil was shipped to New Bedford to be refined for lamp oil and other oil. Standard Oil later bought this refinery, located on Fish Island.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=69dGAQAAIAAJ&q=Standard+Oil+Fish+Island&pg=PA198|title=Congressional Edition|date=June 17, 2017|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|via=Google Books|access-date=November 18, 2020|archive-date=February 15, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230215201354/https://books.google.com/books?id=69dGAQAAIAAJ&q=Standard+Oil+Fish+Island&pg=PA198|url-status=live}}</ref> Fish Island was also the site of an early experiment in coal gasification, leading to the explosion of a building.

New Bedford was able to remain wealthy because of its [[textile industry]]. Starting in 1881, the textile industry grew large enough to sustain the city's economy. At its height, over 30,000 people were employed by the 32 cotton-manufacturing companies that owned the textile factories of New Bedford (which were worth $100&nbsp;million in total). The creation of the [[New Bedford Institute of Technology|New Bedford Textile School]] in 1895–1899 ushered in an era of textile prosperity that began to decline in the great depression and ended with the end of the textile period in the 1940s. The industry garnered national headlines in 1928 when it was hit with a [[1928 New Bedford textile strike|strike of 30,000 workers]].<ref>See, for example: Daniel Georgianna with Roberta Hazen Aaronson, ''The Strike of '28.'' New Bedford, MA: Spinner Publications, 1993.</ref> The walkout of mostly immigrant workers was given critical support by the [[Communist Party, USA|Workers (Communist) Party]] and was the precursor of a more tumultuous [[Loray Mill strike|textile strike in North Carolina]] held the following year.

Tool and die operations also left the area steadily, starting in the 1970s.