Invisible Restraints
Life and Labor at Seabrook Farms
Curated by Rutgers undergraduate and graduate students under the supervision of Professor Andy Urban, this project explores the history of Seabrook Farms, a frozen-foods and canning agribusiness in southern New Jersey. During its heyday in the 1940s and 1950s, the company employed more than 6,000 laborers. Seabrook was transformed during the Second World War, when it became the largest recipient of Japanese American and immigrant detainees from internment camps who, after receiving security clearance from the federal government, were eligible to participate in supervised release programs. At Seabrook, Japanese Americans worked alongside migrants from the U.S. South, contracted guestworkers from the British West Indies, German POWs, and, after the war, Japanese Peruvians and displaced persons from Eastern Europe.