St. Peter's Catholic Church

In 1863, this church was the residence of Bishop John McGill. During the proceedings of the Bread Riot, civil authorities in the city had him speak to the rioters, hoping that he could use his position and his influence over the community to help to calm the rioters down. Ironically, Mary Jackson and other rioters passed by his church on the way to the capitol, where they first met up.

In Richmond, the Civil War had caused a massive influx of residents, and recent military operations around the city as well as a bad harvest the previous year had strained the food supplies in the city. To further compound the issue, the Confederate military regularly impressed provisions that were meant to be sold at the market in order to feed the troops. The new scarcity of food as well as general inflation from the war pushed up prices, leading to hoarding of supplies as well as speculation. In addition to this, the Confederate government implemented a “Twenty Negroes Law”, which exempted planters from military service if they held more than twenty slaves. Secretary of War, James Seddon, spoke to the law’s purpose, saying it was enacted “not to draw any distinction among classes but simply to provide a … police force, sufficient to keep our negroes in control.” The effect of the law was to not disrupt families that had plenty of ability to support themselves, and instead to take away valuable manpower from those who needed it the most.

With little to no way to provide for themselves, the wives and mothers that the soldiers left behind turned to their governments, writing fervent letters to officials requesting supplies. An important note about these letters was the sense of entitlement felt by the women who wrote them. The women had given up their sons and their husbands for military service, and in return they were entitled to support from the government. After these families had sacrificed so much, it would not be fair for them to just be left to starve. Mary Jackson, herself the mother of a soldier, before the riot regularly applied for her son to be discharged from service. After attempting to recruit more rioters at the market, Jackson left at about eight in the morning carrying a pistol, a bowie knife, and a white feather in her hat. She and other rioters slowly began to gather underneath the statue of George Washington in Capitol Square.

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.