Working on the Dock of the Bay: Labor and Enterprise in an Antebellum Southern Port

An examination of the role and struggles of enslaved dockworkers prior to emancipation

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, short...