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This is a contributing entry for The Richmond Bread Riot and only appears as part of that tour.Learn More.

14th Street and Main Street

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

The rioters continued down Cary Street and Main Street, while some of them cut down 14th Street towards Franklin. One woman later wrote in 1867 that “Women were seen bending under loads of sole-leather, or dragging after them heavy cavalry boots, brandishing their huge knives, and swearing, though apparently well fed, that they were dying from starvation—yet it was difficult to imagine how they could masticate or digest the edibles under the weight of which they were bending.” Particularly on Main Street and Franklin Street, there was a German and Jewish quarter that was known to be home to many food speculators. One man noted that “certain people down there were credited with great wealth. It was said that they had made barrels of money out of the Confederacy, and the female Communists went at them without a qualm of conscience.”

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

The rioters continued down Cary Street and Main Street, while some of them cut down 14th Street towards Franklin. One woman later wrote in 1867 that “Women were seen bending under loads of sole-leather, or dragging after them heavy cavalry boots, brandishing their huge knives, and swearing, though apparently well fed, that they were dying from starvation—yet it was difficult to imagine how they could masticate or digest the edibles under the weight of which they were bending.” Particularly on Main Street and Franklin Street, there was a German and Jewish quarter that was known to be home to many food speculators. One man noted that “certain people down there were credited with great wealth. It was said that they had made barrels of money out of the Confederacy, and the female Communists went at them without a qualm of conscience.” 

Sources

Chesson, Michael B. “Harlots or Heroines? A New Look at the Richmond Bread Riot.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 92, no. 2, 1984, pp. 131–175. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4248710. Accessed 21 Oct. 2020.

Heisey, Chris E. “Richmond's Bread Riot.” American History, June 2002.

“Inflation Rate between 1635-2020: Inflation Calculator.” U.S. Inflation Calculator: 1635→2020, Department of Labor data. Accessed November 23, 2020. https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/.  

McCurry, Stephanie. Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics In the Civil War South.E-book, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2012, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb.31471. Accessed 27 Aug 2020.

McCurry, Stephanie. “'Bread or Blood!'.” Civil War Times, vol. 50, no. 3, June 2011.

McCurry, Stephanie. “Women Numerous and Armed.” Essay. In Wars within a War: Controversy and Conflict over the American Civil War. Chapel Hill: Univ Of North Carolina Pr, 2014.

Worsham, Gibson. “Richmond's Second and Third Markets.” Urban Scale Richmond, January 1, 1970. http://urbanscalerichmondvirginia.blogspot.com/2012/12/richmonds-second-and-third-markets.html. 

Additional Information