Acehan - Turkish Leatherworkers in Peabody, Massachusetts

Tags: papers, Post-Ottoman Near East

Quick adjustment of Turkish workers to labor rights despite their rural background resulted from lectures given by the Turkish community, changing circumstances of Balkan and WWI.

• 90% of early Turkish immigrants returned to Turkey in the late 1920’s and 30’s.
• Vecoli - If we are to advance the study of immigration beyond the level of facile generalizations, we need a series of microstudies which trace particular contingents of immigrants from their specific origins to their specific destinations - pg 22
• Most turkish immigrants ended up near Peabody, MA, a center for leatherworking
  • Hard labor for tannery work
• Rise of “Ottoman street” containing coffee houses for laborers to discuss and get news on their homelands
• Balkan Wars and WWI began more understanding about collective labor rights
  • WWI in particular began more ethnic and class-conscious
• organized labor began with the Local No 1 of the United Leather Worker’s Union
• Unique place faded away due to increasing prospects in the homeland