Date of Award

Spring 2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

History

Committee Director

Brian J. Payne

Committee Member

James R. Sweeney

Committee Member

William Thiesen

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.H47 F57 2009

Abstract

This thesis examines the contributing causes why the command of the Norfolk Navy Yard feared a labor uprising or riot in the surrounding community of Portsmouth, Virginia in July 1877. Racial, class and ethnic tensions heightened to the point that on the morning of July 25, 1877, unknown agents distributed pamphlets around the city, which appealed to workers at the Navy Yard. A culture of social violence was prevalent during Norfolk and Portsmouth's post-Civil War existence. The ground-level view offered by this thesis is of the intense fear that spread across the country in 1877 as a result of severe economic depression, ethnic tensions, and racial conflict. A combination of racial and labor antagonism was latent in both cities and the navy yard's location, its function as federal outpost in the South, and largest employer in the area caused its commander, J. Blakeley Creighton, to take the precautionary measure of landing the fleet's firepower in Portsmouth. This thesis proves that the larger context of social fear, violence, and depression that marked Reconstruction, labor unrest and naval mismanagement combined to create a culture of fear and violence at the Norfolk Navy Yard in July of 1877.

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DOI

10.25777/p3f2-mt22

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