It’s been a unique yet commonly familiar sight to behold throughout most of Baltimore’s long and enduring history. I’m referring to those colorful horse-drawn carriages making their rounds through city streets peddling fresh fruit and other produce, led by drivers harmonizing melodic street calls doubling as catchy songs and product endorsements all rolled into one. These are the arabbers of Baltimore and their story tells of an impressively long-lasting legacy that continues even to this day. In this Flashback Friday Feature, I’m giving a brief account of the historic origins and developments of the Baltimore arabber throughout the centuries.
The History of Hawkers in America
Street peddling as a form of livelihood can be traced all the way back to European antiquity, possibly even predating ancient Roman times. While the umbrella term “peddler” encompasses a broad range of traveling street vending practices (including door-to-door sales), the word “hawker” applies specifically to those who travel around transporting and selling their goods via mobile means. Other synonymous terminology includes those produce-vending “hucksters” and the British “costermongers” among several others.
As more and more settlers began arriving in the New World, they brought with them those former peddling practices from their old countries. Records show that folks have been working as hawkers in big cities since at least the 18th century. However, it wasn’t really until the 19th century that this transient line of work grew to be directly associated with immigrants and other marginalized groups of people. Hawkers were once very abundant throughout major cities along the East Coast, owing to the many ports.
While images of hawkers venturing via horse-drawn cart may now seem a quaint, long-gone, notion, there is one major Mid-Atlantic city where they can still be found. Right in the heart of Charm City no less, the charming image of the Baltimore arabber coming down the street lives on!
The Baltimore Arabber
The unique form of hawker hailing from Baltimore is known as the arabber. A word believed to have originated from a 19th-century English slang term for “street Arab,” Baltimore arabbers were largely pegged as such due to their nomadic ways of venturing from one location to another. While Baltimore’s ports initially brought in the earliest immigrant hawkers to the area (as early as 1729 by some accounts), it was in the years following the American Civil War, that the term “arabber” was most often applied primarily to free African Americans who inhabited the area in great numbers and largely took to working as hawkers.
Baltimore arabbers have two very characteristic callouts of great acclaim. First, there are those brightly colorful horse-drawn carts they lead, loaded up with an abundance of fresh fruit, vegetables, and other produce. Then there are those improvised yet harmonious songs they come down the road singing, creatively advertising what they have in stock. In the forever-changing world of more modernized means of transportation, online grocery ordering, and on-air professional ad campaigns, the unchanging timelessness of the arabber truly is remarkable.
Arabbing Into the 20th Century
Arabbing into the 20th century became increasingly more of a black-based business. This was especially true following both World Wars and an increase in the number of factory jobs favored primarily by white workers.
This was also the era when most hawkers throughout the Mid-Atlantic were leaving the profession behind altogether and the competition with supermarkets and even local area farmers markets was at an all-time high. Baltimore was not without a decline in the number of folks choosing to remain working as arabbers, nor did they escape the feat of weathering the storm of challenges to the art of horse-cart peddling in a modern world. Some of their most trying struggles included city zoning and vending regulations, as well as animal welfare concerns for cart horses being used. But Baltimore City arabbers have been ready to meet every challenge along the way, remaining forever dedicated and devoted to continuing what other regions would consider a dying trade.
The Arabber Preservation Society was founded in 1994 with the initiative of bringing the previously condemned Retreat Street stable for arabber horses up to code. With generous support and contributions, the nonprofit continues its ongoing quest of preserving, renovating, and promoting stables that house arabber horses and raising overall awareness about Baltimore arabbers through community engagement.
Arabbers have also since established a working relationship with Pennsylvania Old Order Mennonites, who have helped to endow them with more comprehensive working knowledge about horse maintenance and carriage care. Their ongoing ties to the Mennonite community also include opportunities for purchasing horses to keep up the act of arabbing.
Prominence Today
The arabbing scene in Baltimore remains constant, despite the still constantly changing landscape of the 21st century. Appreciation for this unique, distinctly Baltimore-based trade has even grown more apparent in recent years. Because Baltimore has far too many food deserts and so many neighborhoods lack access to fresh quality foods such as fruits and vegetables, the traveling arabber provides an essential service for folks who would otherwise be forced to go without.
Baltimore arabbers remain a unique cultural callout you won’t find anywhere else. It’s refreshing to see such a quaint practice, so draped in nostalgia, endure for so long without showing any signs of disappearing.