Blockade to Stockade: Blockade Runners, Globalization, and Confederate Supply

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

During the American Civil War, Glasgow-built blockade runners emerged as crucial supply conduits to the Confederacy, prolonging the conflict and sustaining chattel slavery by clandestinely running cargo into Confederate ports. This paper delves into the historical archaeology of blockade runner cargos, an area relatively unexplored beyond shipwrecks. It investigates the material culture carried as cargo, beyond munitions to explore luxury and mundane items that provided a sense of normality amidst conflict. Through an analysis of archival records and material culture, market demands and choices were unveiled, shedding light on the role of these vessels in supplying non-combat necessities. By comparing artifacts recovered from Confederate and POW areas at Camp Lawton (9JS1) which held Union Prisoners of War outside of Millen, Georgia, the research establishes a direct link between supply lines and terrestrial sites in the South. And the flow of supplies into the interior of the Confederacy along rail lines from the open port of Wilmington, North Carolina to Millen, where it passed into illicit markets utilized by guards and POWS inside the stockade. Ultimately, this research illustrates global connections between the Confederacy, Glasgow, and the 1860s economic boom rooted in enslaved labor, despite Britain's earlier abolition of slavery.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38020.0