
Working on the Dock of the Bay
Labor and Enterprise in an Antebellum Southern Port
Michael D. Thompson(Author)
University of South Carolina Press
Published on 15. May 2015
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-1-61117-474-8 (ISBN)
Description
Working on the Dock of the Bay explores the history of waterfront labor and laborers - black and white, enslaved and free, native and immigrant - in Charleston, South Carolina, between the American Revolution and Civil War. Michael D. Thompson explains how a predominantly enslaved workforce laid the groundwork for the creation of a robust and effectual association of dockworkers, most of whom were black, shortly after emancipation. In revealing these wharf laborers' experiences, Thompson's book contextualizes the struggles of contemporary southern working people.
Like their postbellum and present-day counterparts, stevedores and draymen laboring on the wharves and levees of antebellum cities - whether in Charleston or New Orleans, New York or Boston, or elsewhere in the Atlantic World - were indispensable to the flow of commodities into and out of these ports. Despite their large numbers and the key role that waterfront workers played in these cities' premechanized, labor-intensive commercial economies, too little is known about who these laborers were and the work they performed.
Though scholars have explored the history of dockworkers in ports throughout the world, they have given little attention to waterfront laborers and dock work in the pre-Civil War American South or in any slave society. Aiming to remedy that deficiency, Thompson examines the complicated dynamics of race, class, and labor relations through the street-level experiences and perspectives of workingmen and sometimes workingwomen. Using this workers'-eye view of crucial events and developments, Working on the Dock of the Bay relocates waterfront workers and their activities from the margins of the past to the center of a new narrative, reframing their role from observers to critical actors in nineteenth-century American history. Organized topically, this study is rooted in primary source evidence including census, tax, court, and death records; city directories and ordinances; state statutes; wills; account books; newspapers; diaries; letters; and medical journals.
Like their postbellum and present-day counterparts, stevedores and draymen laboring on the wharves and levees of antebellum cities - whether in Charleston or New Orleans, New York or Boston, or elsewhere in the Atlantic World - were indispensable to the flow of commodities into and out of these ports. Despite their large numbers and the key role that waterfront workers played in these cities' premechanized, labor-intensive commercial economies, too little is known about who these laborers were and the work they performed.
Though scholars have explored the history of dockworkers in ports throughout the world, they have given little attention to waterfront laborers and dock work in the pre-Civil War American South or in any slave society. Aiming to remedy that deficiency, Thompson examines the complicated dynamics of race, class, and labor relations through the street-level experiences and perspectives of workingmen and sometimes workingwomen. Using this workers'-eye view of crucial events and developments, Working on the Dock of the Bay relocates waterfront workers and their activities from the margins of the past to the center of a new narrative, reframing their role from observers to critical actors in nineteenth-century American history. Organized topically, this study is rooted in primary source evidence including census, tax, court, and death records; city directories and ordinances; state statutes; wills; account books; newspapers; diaries; letters; and medical journals.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
South Carolina
United States
Target group
College/higher education
US School Grade: Twelfth Grade and over
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
28 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
630 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-61117-474-8 (9781611174748)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Michael D. Thompson
Working on the Dock of the Bay
Labor and Enterprise in an Antebellum Southern Port
E-Book
04/2015
1st Edition
University of South Carolina Press
from
€63.99
Available for download
Person
Michael D. Thompson is a UC Foundation Assistant Professor of American History at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, USA. He earned his B.A. in history from the University of Michigan and his M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Emory University, USA. Thompson's manuscript for Working on the Dock of the Bay was awarded the 2011 Hines Prize from the College of Charleston's Program in the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World (CLAW). He resides in Ooltewah, Tennessee, with his wife, Melissa, and children, Benjamin and Lily.