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The Richmond Bread Riot
Item 6 of 7
This is a contributing entry for The Richmond Bread Riot and only appears as part of that tour.Learn More.

13th Street and Main Street

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

The rest of the women continued marching down Cary Street and Main Street all the way down to 18th Street. By then, the governor had rung the bell in Capitol Square to call the Public Guard, who traced the route the women had taken down 9th Street and then down Main Street. Many of the rioters fled as the Guard approached, and the Guard marching on, pushing the rioters back. Governor Letcher and the mayor of the city had been pleading with the women to stop looting the stores to no avail, until the governor got on top of a crate, and threatened the crowd. If the crowd did not disperse within five minutes, the Public Guard was ordered to open fire. He then ominously took out his pocket watch and stared at it as the Guard loaded their weapons. Slowly but surely, the rioters dispersed. Many of the rioters were arrested and put on trial, which is where much of the information about the riots and their organization comes from. Mary Jackson was arrested at the intersection First Street and Broad, after she had gone back home to get a knife she had left behind.

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

The rest of the women continued marching down Cary Street and Main Street all the way down to 18th Street. By then, the governor had rung the bell in Capitol Square to call the Public Guard, who traced the route the women had taken down 9th Street and then down Main Street. Many of the rioters fled as the Guard approached, and the Guard marching on, pushing the rioters back. Governor Letcher and the mayor of the city had been pleading with the women to stop looting the stores to no avail, until the governor got on top of a crate, and threatened the crowd. If the crowd did not disperse within five minutes, the Public Guard was ordered to open fire. He then ominously took out his pocket watch and stared at it as the Guard loaded their weapons. Slowly but surely, the rioters dispersed. Many of the rioters were arrested and put on trial, which is where much of the information about the riots and their organization comes from. Mary Jackson was arrested at the intersection First Street and Broad, after she had gone back home to get a knife she had left behind.

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.

 

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