{"product_id":"working-on-the-dock-of-michael-d-thompson-9781611178579","title":"Working on the Dock of the Bay: Labor and Enterprise in an Antebellum Southern Port","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn examination of the role and struggles of dockworkers--enslaved and free--in Charleston between the American Revolution and the Civil War\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eWorking on the Dock of the Bay\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThough 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, \u003ci\u003eWorking on the Dock of the Bay\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Michael D. Thompson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1611178576\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781611178579\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of South Carolina Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/17\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 312\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.02lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.70d","brand":"Michael D. Thompson","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43938782445823,"sku":"9781611178579","price":31.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_c58920b9-fab1-4548-90ff-3ab54cfb69be.jpg?v=1681437687","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/working-on-the-dock-of-michael-d-thompson-9781611178579","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}