Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division

C. H. Gallup & Co.

Accustomed to rural life and labor, many freshly arrived migrants were uncomfortable in their new environment. Boarding provided a means to help ease newcomers into life in the North, as hosts introduced recent arrivals to employment opportunities, the church, and friends. They also offered advice and useful information to men like John King, a chimney sweep in New York, who had modest incomes that did not enable them to rent an apartment.