Mary Jackson

Mary Jackson (c. 1829 c. 1870) was a Virginian peddler known for her role in organizing the 1863 riots in Richmond, Virginia, during the Civil War, now known as the Richmond Bread Riots. Jackson instigated and led a group of around 300 armed women through the streets of Richmond, demanding food and supplies that were in shortage during wartime. Although for the most part the violence was only threatened and not actually perpetrated, the armed mob did succeed in stealing thousands of dollars in goods as an expression of their frustration and desperation as the government failed to care for them while most of the men were fighting in the war. Biography Mary Jackson was born around 1829. Varina Davis, the wife of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, described Jackson as a "tall, daring, Amazonian-looking" woman. A court reporter remarked in 1863 that Jackson was "an athletic woman of 40, with straight, strong features and a vixenish eye." Another court reporter described her as "a forty-year-old Amazon with the eye of the Devil." Although both court reporters stated that Jackson was 40 years old in 1863, many other accounts put her age at 34 years old at the time of the riot. Jackson lived in a working class suburb on Oregon Hill in the city until 1860, when she moved to a farm several miles west of the city. She lived with her husband, Elisha Jackson, who was 31 at the time and working as a painter, on Pine Street between Plank Road and Elm Street. Although Elisha was illiterate, he possessed $800 in property, and had even owned a slave when he and his wife lived within the city limits. The Jacksons had four children: one daughter and three sons. The eldest son was enlisted in the Confederate Army. Jackson frequently wrote to the War Office to petition for the discharge of her son from the army. Richmond Bread Riot Background The Richmond Bread Riots were born out of Confederate soldiers' wives grievances as women were forced to represent themselves in community appeals and communicate with government and generals. They have been described as an expression of women's mass political mobilization. Women turned vague promises from the state into practical workings for protection. Political development encouraged poor white women to affect change and take justice into their own hands as they fought with mill owners for yarn and food.