18thVirginia
Major
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2012
I sat on a bench near, and one of the number left the rest and took the seat beside me. She was a pale, emaciated girl, not more than eighteen. . . As she raised her hand to remove her sunbonnet and use it for a fan, her loose calico sleeve slipped up and revealed the mere skeleton of an arm. She perceived my expression as I looked at it, and hastily pulled down her sleeve with a short laugh. 'This is all that's left of me' she said. 'It seems real funny, don't it?. . .We are starving. As soon as enough of us get together, we are going to the bakeries and each of us will take a loaf of bread. That is little enough for the government to give us after it has taken all our men.'
From a letter by a Richmond woman describing the food riots of 1863.
"Bread Riot in Richmond, 1863" EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2009).
The food riot that occurred in Richmond is the most famous and most often recalled of the bread riots perpetrated by women in 1863, perhaps because the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, felt called upon to quell the crowd of women and children. The respondent quoted above stated in her letter to a friend that the mob numbered more than a 1,000 who marched along the streets of Richmond emptying the stores of their contents. She noted that after Jefferson Davis spoke kindly to the women they moved on, "taking their food with them."
Public domain (LOC)
From a letter by a Richmond woman describing the food riots of 1863.
"Bread Riot in Richmond, 1863" EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2009).
The food riot that occurred in Richmond is the most famous and most often recalled of the bread riots perpetrated by women in 1863, perhaps because the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, felt called upon to quell the crowd of women and children. The respondent quoted above stated in her letter to a friend that the mob numbered more than a 1,000 who marched along the streets of Richmond emptying the stores of their contents. She noted that after Jefferson Davis spoke kindly to the women they moved on, "taking their food with them."
Public domain (LOC)
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