Mark Torres has uncovered a little-discussed chapter of Long Island history, the conditions under which many migrant farm workers labored on area farms from World War II into the early 1970s.

His new book from the History Press details the social, economic, and historical factors that led to Long Island’s migrant labor camps being the focus of much attention in their day. These camps, created out of everything from old mansions to chicken coops, housed migrant workers from the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, and the South while operating under a system that often exploited and endangered the workers and their families.

Further Research

• Long Island Migrant Labor Camps: Dust for Blood (History Press)
• Mark Torres
• What Harvest for the Reaper? (American Archive of Public Broadcasting)
• Cutchogue migrant housing from Harvest of Shame (1960)