Williamsburg Regional Library

The oyster wars of Chesapeake Bay, John R. Wennersten

eng

Bibliography: pages 138-142

illustrations

index present

non fiction

The oyster wars of Chesapeake Bay

bibliography

7551367

John R. Wennersten

In the decades following the Civil War, Chesapeake Bay became the scene of a life and death struggle to harvest the oyster, one of the most valuable commodities on the Atlantic coast. Like the gold and silver mines of the Western frontier, the American oyster industry ballooned into a multi-million dollar business and the same get-rich-quick spirit prevailed. Nearly seven thousand men fought on the Bay for oysters until the resource was almost exhausted in the early twentieth century. First the shallow-water tongers fought with the deep-water dredgers whose scooplike instruments left few oysters for reproduction. Later, Maryland and Virginia violently disputed their state boundaries for the sake of oyster-fishing rights in the Bay and Potomac River. This regional and social history is brimming with episodes involving watermen, law enforcement officers, government officials, Bay scientists, immigrants, and oyster shuckers, all of whom were drawn into the lethal conflict

Follow the water -- Flush times on the Chesapeake -- Hunter Davidson and the oyster police -- Paddies and water Arabs -- Hell on the half-shell -- Hard times -- Gunfire on the Potomac -- The vanishing oystermen -- The Maryland oyster navy : 1891, Joseph B. Seth, Commander -- Output of Maryland oysters, 1839-1910

adult