Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.

My name is Jody Abergand.

This day, April 2nd, 1863, the Richmond-Bread Riot, which took place in the Confederate

capital of Richmond, Virginia. On this day, it was the largest and most destructive in a series

of civil disturbances throughout the South

during the third spring of the American Civil War. The Bread Riot was, as you can

probably guess from the name largely about food supplies, even as the capital of the South Richmond was in really rough shape by this point.

Conditions for the poor and working class in the city were deteriorating as the war dragged on.

There are tons of fascinating details to this incident,

which only lasted a few hours, the riot itself,

but ended up in mass arrests and symbolized a real morale blow

for the South.

One of the most fascinating details I'll throw out right now is that this riot was largely led by the women of Richmond.

So let's talk about the 1863 Richmond-bred riot here Riot here as always Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and

Kelly Carter Jackson of Wesley. Hello there. Hello Jody. Hey there.

This larger picture I think is worth painting.

We've hinted at it a couple times,

but the real grinding conditions and

during the war.

Kelly do you want to kind of give a sense of that?

Yeah, I mean what is it?

War is hell?

...