The Evolution of the Manhattan Waterfront

This two-part seminar looks at the origin and evolution of longshoremen on the Manhattan waterfront from two perspectives: historical (session 1) and cinematic (session 2).

Session 1 (1.5 hours):  Henry Hudson sailed into New York Harbor in 1609. Eventually, hundreds of piers lined the shorelines of Manhattan Island along the Hudson and East rivers. Thousands of ships arrived and departed each year. The New York maritime world required tens of thousands of men to load and unload the vessels. Day and night the call went out: “along shore men,” and workers living in the immigrant neighborhoods adjacent to the piers hurried to the waterfront for the “shape up,” hoping to be chosen. If not selected, the men drifted to the waterfront bars. The work was hard, their income was miserly and their families lived in poverty. On both the Hudson and East River neighborhoods, the Irish dominated, and generations worked as “longshoremen.” A criminal world evolved, including organized crime, as gangs took over the piers, stole from the cargo on the ships and bribed the police.

Session 2 (3 hours): Elia Kazan’s classic 1954 film “On the Waterfront” captures the corruption and violence among the longshoremen on the New York and New Jersey docks. Inspired by Malcolm Johnson’s 1948 exposé series “Crime on the Waterfront,” published in the New York Sun, the film is widely considered to be director Kazan’s response to criticism of his testimony in the 1952 House Un-American Activities Commission. This searing drama, deemed “culturally, historically and aesthetically” significant by the Library of Congress, brings to life the ruthlessness of the gangsters who controlled the docks and the courage of those who stood up to the system.

Kurt Schlichting, Ph.D., is the E. Gerald Corrigan ’63 chair in humanities and social sciences emeritus at Fairfield University. Kurt served as the dean and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and he is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. His academic research leads the field of historic geographical information system, HGIS, which he used to study the Irish in Newport. He has lectured for the Newport Museum of Irish History and presented at academic conferences in the United States and abroad. Kurt was a visiting fellow at the Moore Research Institute, National University Ireland, Galway.

Mary Murphy, Ph.D., received her doctorate in English and American Literature from New York University. Her expertise is in the 19^th-century American novel. Newport artists and writers are an area of particular interest. Mary taught English and literature at Fairfield University for many years before retiring to Newport.