Pre-Civil War
Before the Civil War, Richmond was rapidly growing and was considered the most industrialized city in the South. With the location of the James River and Kanawha Canal, that stretched 197 miles westward, it helped depict this time in the city as a significant hub for trade and commerce in the South. This became the first major transportation artery for emerging industries because it connected farmers, rural flour mills, iron furnaces, and coal mines. Canal boats carried grain, tobacco, wood, coal, iron, and hides from the middle of Virginia to Richmond where goods could be shipped worldwide. Because of the location of the James River, many factories began building in this area in the early 1830s. Tobacco had been the staple crop since the 1700s, expanding to fifty tobacco factories by the 1800s making Richmond the world’s largest tobacco production center. The Franklin Manufacturing Company opened the first papermill in 1835 here because the James River was an ideal place to use the power of water for millwork. The transportation industry continued to grow with the invention of the wood-burning locomotive and iron rails that connected cities along Virginia’s fall line to the interior, which had difficult terrain. The first railway, Chesterfield & Manchester Railroad, opened in 1828 and helped transport coal from the mines faster. In 1837, the Tredegar Iron Works was the first iron forge and rolling mill built in Richmond because, “the railroads and canal brough with them pig iron and raw materials that supplied the Iron Works.”4 These railroads ended up supplying Confederate armies. “Five railroads which supplied Confederate armies emanated from Richmond. The city had large warehouses for tobacco and cotton which were used to trade for arms and munitions with foreign nations.”5 The layout of the city combined residential areas, commercial districts, and industrial sites.
Fig. 1 [ides, William, “Map of Richmond, Ellyson, 1856,” Online Exhibitions, accessed July 16, 2024, https://www.virginiamemory.com/online-exhibitions/items/show/2.]
Pre-Civil War maps also show Richmond’s history of slavery. The maps emphasized the spatial distribution of wealth and race with affluent white neighborhoods distinctly separate from areas where free African Americans and enslaved people lived. As you can see from the map of Richmond from 1856, slave markets and quarters were marked which highlights how heavily Richmond relied on enslaved labor. These maps give us not only a geographical idea, but a reflection of the social hierarchies and economic dependencies at the time. “In Richmond, the slave trade was interwoven into the fabric of the city, close to the state’s governmental center, its religious structures, and its retail district, yet was simultaneously concealed. With storefronts and signs to advertise their businesses, the slave trade participated in the modern urban commercial culture.”6 Maps don’t typically show the public
As Richmond continued to industrialize, enslaved people were trained to adapt to the labor demands brought on by modern industries. By the 1860s, tobacco manufacturing was boosting the economy of the city. More than fifty-three tobacco factories employed more than four thousand workers, most, if not all of them being enslaved people. Richmond also had the largest iron mills in the south, Tredegar Iron Works being one of the biggest. Enslaved people were trained to work the iron foundries even replacing skilled positions previously held by white workers. These industries centered around the system of slavery; the milling and tobacco industries needed agricultural products which tied the countryside to the urban hub creating a circle of demand.
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