Originally aired on April 10, 1998 - In part 189 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson discusses the full-scale riot that erupted in Richmond, Virginia on the morning of April 2, 1863.
#189 – The Bread Riot
“Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.” That famous poetic couplet never contained more truth than what happened one April morning in 1863 in downtown Richmond, Virginia. The swollen population of the Confederate capital was then suffering from want in general and hunger in particular. Inadequate railroads could not transport enough food. Heavy rains had turned roads into bottomless mud blocking farmers from getting their produce to market.
On Thursday morning, April 2nd, angry women began gathering in Capitol Square. Initially a small group planned to go to the city bakeries. Each person would seize one loaf of bread for her family. As one emaciated wife declared, “there is little enough for the government to give us after it had taken all our men”.
The crowd quickly swelled in number. Complaints became louder and more heated thanks to the leader of the movement. Mary Jackson was a house painter’s wife, described that day as “a tall, daring, Amazonian looking woman with a white feather standing erect from her hat”. Various writers have characterized her in a range from Jezebel to Joan of Arc.
Young and old men lounging in Capitol Square joined the crowd which soon numbered at least 1,000 people. The mob then surged down Ninth Street toward Cary Street and the produce markets. Some of the women had hatches, knives, or pistols. As they walked they chanted, “bread, bread” in unison.
Frightened shopkeepers tried to close their businesses, but screaming women broke into shops by sheer weight of numbers. Using arms, aprons, and baskets, they stole all food in sight. Firemen arrived on the scene and hosed down part of the mob. That only made the women angrier. A full-scale riot was now underway.
Excited by their own vandalism the disorganized crowd headed a block north to the general stores on Main Street. Owners had locked their doors. Yet members of the lawless band broke the plate-glass windows and swarmed inside the stores. They took everything in sight; boots, silk, clothespins, washtubs, hats, shirts, jewelry.
Governor John Letcher and Mayor Joseph Mayo sought to reason with the crowd. It was no use. A company of soldiers marched onto Main Street, formed two lines from sidewalk to sidewalk and stood ready to fire. The atmosphere was such that one little spark could set off a mighty explosion. At that moment, Jefferson Davis rode into the middle of the crowd. The Confederate President managed the courage to shout down hundreds of angry voices and then began to speak in an impassioned way.
He explained that what the women were doing could only result in keeping more food out of Richmond. The guns pointing at them Davis said should be better used against the common enemy. Davis closed by giving the crowd five minutes to disperse. Otherwise he said the soldiers would open fire. Slowly the crowd disbanded.
Despite heavy property damage only three people had been injured. About seventy lawbreakers were subsequently arrested. Half were convicted of misdemeanors. The other half were acquitted. Little notice appeared of the incident. Richmond’s Provost Marshall asked newspapers to overlook the affair lest, “it embarrass our cause and encourage our enemies”.
Thus ended what has variously been called “The Bread Riot”, “Women’s Riot”, and “Holy Thursday”. This was not a singular affair. The Richmond Bread Riot was but the largest and most important of a dozen such outbursts that occurred in Southern towns throughout the Civil War. Whether those women were hellions or harlots has long been debated. However, no one will deny that they rioted because they were too proud to beg.