Editing New Bedford, Massachusetts (section)

=== Land of Opportunity ===
{{main|Abolitionism in New Bedford, Massachusetts}}
[[File:Friends Meeting House, Spring Street, New Bedford, MA, 1933, Library of Congress.png|thumb|The [[New Bedford Meeting House]], built in 1822, replaced an earlier [[Quakers|Quaker]] [[Friends meeting house|meeting house]] on Spring Street.]]
The [[Quakers]] of New Bedford applied their principles of [[egalitarianism]] and [[Community building|community-building]] in their businesses.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/nebe/learn/historyculture/quakers.htm|title=Quakers - New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)|last1=Bedford|first1=Mailing Address: 33 William Street New|last2=Us|first2=MA 02740 Phone: 508-996-4095 Contact|website=www.nps.gov|language=en|access-date=February 14, 2020|archive-date=February 15, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200215011415/https://www.nps.gov/nebe/learn/historyculture/quakers.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> On the boats, at the docks, at the factories, or in the shops—British, [[Wampanoag]], [[Cape Verdeans|Cape Verdean]], [[Azores|Azorean]], [[Irish people|Irish]], and [[West Africa]]n hands found work in New Bedford.<ref name=":1" />

New Bedford also became one of the first centers of [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionism in North America]], and an important stop on the [[Underground Railroad]]. Many people were attracted by New Bedford's relatively open-minded atmosphere. For example, [[Paul Cuffe]]—an [[Ashanti Empire|Ashanti]]-[[Wampanoag]] Quaker and self-made tycoon<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last1=Appiah|first1=Anthony|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TMZMAgAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA283|title=Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience|last2=Gates|first2=Henry Louis|date=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-517055-9|language=en|access-date=June 26, 2020|archive-date=February 15, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230215201353/https://books.google.com/books?id=TMZMAgAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA283|url-status=live}}</ref>—among several other remarkable achievements earned black property owners in New Bedford the right to vote decades before [[Abraham Lincoln]] even signed the [[Emancipation Proclamation]].<ref name=":2" /> [[Lewis Temple]], an African-American [[blacksmith]], invented the Temple toggle iron, which was the most successful harpoon design.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://nbhistoricalsociety.org/Important-Figures/lewis-temple/|title=Lewis Temple – New Bedford Historical Society|language=en-US|access-date=February 15, 2020|archive-date=January 31, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200131120635/http://nbhistoricalsociety.org/Important-Figures/lewis-temple/|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Frederick Douglass]], the famous social reformer and orator, also found amnesty in New Bedford and worked at the wharf for three years.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.whalingmuseum.org/learn/frederick-douglass|title=Frederick Douglass (circa 1818-1895) – From Slavery to Freedom|website=New Bedford Whaling Museum|language=en|access-date=February 15, 2020|archive-date=February 15, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200215005918/https://www.whalingmuseum.org/learn/frederick-douglass|url-status=dead}}</ref>