Confederate Hunger: Food and Famine in the Civil War South

Historians know that over the course of the American Civil War, the Confederacy essentially starved to death, a result of the Union blockade, the breakdown of slavery on the homefront, and not enough food being grown.  What we don’t know, however, is what that felt like for ordinary people, on the most intimate and individual scale.  Confederate Hunger explores the ways that the war affected what people ate, and how food choices became symbols of nationalism, resistance, and survival.

Lipitz Lecture, co-sponsored by the Dresher Center for the Humanities and Department of History and College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS)