Working on the Dock of the Bay: Labor and Life alongCharleston's Waterfront, 1783-1861 公开

Abstract

Working on the Dock of the Bay: Labor and Life along Charleston's Waterfront, 1783-1861 By Michael D. Thompson This dissertation focuses on waterfront workers in Charleston, South Carolina, from the city's incorporation in 1783 to the Civil War. Those who labored upon the wharves and transported goods to and from the waterfront - including stevedores, dock hands, porters, draymen, and carters - were indispensable to the city's commercial maritime economy. I highlight the continuous struggle over the terms of waterfront work, and how the repeated efforts of employers and municipal and state authorities to control and dominate the labor and lives of Charleston's most important workforce was met with vigorous resistance. I survey these dock workers and the work they did, including hiring practices, the work process, labor conditions, and wages. Also considered is the relationship between race, class, and ethnicity in an antebellum southern port which employed black slaves, free blacks, native-born whites, and immigrant whites. After studying the enslaved workers who dominated wharf labor since the colonial period, I trace the changing racial and ethnic composition of Charleston's waterfront workforce during the 1840s and 1850s. I then examine labor competition between the city's black and white wharf laborers, and analyze how the deadly yellow fever epidemics of the late antebellum period impacted this contest for employment on the docks.

Table of Contents

Introduction1

Chapters

One"using violent exercise in warm weather": The Waterfront Labor Experience 10

Two"almost the whole of the working population are Negroes":

Charleston's Enslaved Waterfront Workers 81

Three"laborers from abroad have come to take their places": The Racial

and Ethnic Diversification of the Waterfront Workforce 137

Four"the unacclimated stranger should be positively prohibited from

joining the party": The Impact of Yellow Fever Epidemics on

Waterfront Labor Competition 195

Five "some rascally business": Theft and Worker Pilferage from

Charleston 's Wharves: A Reflection upon Themes 256

Postscript 313

Maps 322

Tables 325

Abbreviations in Notes 326

Bibliography 327

About this Dissertation

Rights statement

• Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.

School	Laney Graduate School
Department	History
Degree	PhD
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Economics, Labor History, United States History, Black
关键词	labor history African Americans yellow fever Irish immigrants dock workers American South slavery Charleston (S.C.) South Carolina stevedores
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Roark, James, Emory University
Committee Members	Prude, Jonathan, Emory University Eltis, David, Emory University

最新修改

Primary PDF

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions
	Working on the Dock of the Bay: Labor and Life alongCharleston's Waterfront, 1783-1861 ()	2018-08-28 11:17:01 -0400	Press to Select an action Download

Supplemental Files

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions