13th Street and Cary Street
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
It was here in Shockoe Slip where the looting began. Some of the business owners, such as S.C. Tardy and James T. Williams at the intersection of 13th Street and Cary, managed to barricade their stores in time to secure their inventory. Other stores, however, were not so lucky. The first store that was looted in the riots was a wholesale house owned by Pollard and Walker. An elderly woman named Mary Johnson broke down the door of the business with an axe, after which she and others stole over $1200 ($25,000 in today’s dollars) worth of ham and bacon. Along with Pollard and Walker, the rioters looted Tyler and Son, which claimed $6500 ($135,000 today) in damages, and the shoe store of John T. Hicks, who claimed $13,530 ($280,000 today) in damages. Observers noted later that many of the rioters were in fact wearing shoes that they had stolen from Hick’s store.
Sources
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