Under Construction @ Keele 2019 summer 2019, vol 5 issue 1 | Page 14

warn't no niggers. I hate Yankees, and I hate niggers too". 13 With such awareness of the
situation coupled with such intense levels of starvation and suffering, it is unsurprising that
“they came to hate the government as they did the foe. 14 With shortages appearing almost
as soon as the war began, and a government seemingly unconcerned with the welfare of
those who were sacrificing most, it is no surprise that the spring of 1863 saw a spate of food
riots.
Although the food riots were motivated by the anger that poor and middling women
felt about the very uneven spread of the burdens of war, it was a highly organised and political
move and an outright act of dissent against the Confederate officials. In that same year, the
Confederacy was beginning to enter into a period of military downturn, and officials were
forced to strain “every sinew of body politic” in order to be able to meet the enemy. 15 Placing
such a strain upon the public, in turn, resulted in the poor creating a potentially explosive
situation which drew military leaders focus away from their campaigns. This alone would have
been sufficient evidence to demonstrate women were damaging the confederacy; however,
the riots had other, more destructive, impacts. Firstly, the way in which women had forcibly
entered into the political arena, had subverted the traditional southern gender roles and
created an additional threat to the patriarchy on with the Confederacy rested. Women had
demonstrated their might, and the threat of full-scale revolt could not be ignored.
Furthermore, Jefferson Davis’s response to the riots only worsened the situation, by simply
throwing a handful of coins into the throngs of angry women he demonstrated how truly out
of touch the leaders were with the plight of the common people. Although relief efforts were
13
McGuiree, Judith Brockenbrough, Diary of a Southern Refugee during the War, Edited by James I. Robertson
Jr, Kentucky, University of Kentucky Press, 2014, p.78
14
Massey, Women in the Civil War, p.208
15
McCurry, Confederate Reckoning, p.179
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