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During the American Civil War, Richmond, Virginia was the capital of the Confederacy. In 1863, a Union blockade caused food shortages, leading to the Richmond Women’s Bread Riot. Led by Mary Jackson and Minerva Meredith, women raided government warehouses and businesses for food.
During the American Civil War, Richmond, Virginia served as the capital of the Confederacy. The city’s population soared to more than 100,000 as civilians and soldiers sought refuge there. By 1863, times had turned hard in the Confederate capital: a Union blockade on nearby ports had cut off imports from other countries, and very little food was grown locally, as most of the men were out of the fighting. The situation reached a boiling point in April, when hundreds of women armed with axes, knives and other weapons protested en masse, in an ugly event now called the Richmond Women’s Bread Riot. Angry women, tired of their families being deprived of food, raided government warehouses and businesses, taking everything they could find.
The Real Housewives of the Confederacy:
The uprising was led by Mary Jackson, mother of four, and Minerva Meredith, whom Varina Davis, wife of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, described as “tall, bold, Amazonian-looking.”
Shouting “Bread! Bread!” and “Bread or blood!” the party marched to the governor’s mansion, asking Virginia Governor John Letcher for help. When their pleas were ignored, the starving women took matters into their own hands.
The bread riot was finally put down when Jefferson Davis got into a wagon and threatened to have the Confederate troops open fire.
