Appalachian Conservation Corps Cultural Steward Jordan Lewis shares her research into the history of food rioting in the American colonies at Morgan’s Grove Park on Saturday. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Food insecurity is a major concern for people today, following the cuts in nearly 20% of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits and the continued high cost of groceries, in spite of supply concerns no longer providing a good reason for the inflation.

The modern solution to dealing with these concerns might be uncertain, but 350 years ago, the answer for many was to hold a food riot, according to Appalachian Conservation Corps Cultural Steward Jordan Lewis at Morgan’s Grove Park on Saturday.

Lewis has conducted a significant amount of research surrounding this subject and has found that food rioting proved to often be an effective means of enacting social control during the turbulent times of the Revolutionary War.

“The history of the food riots is something that gets lost, since there was so much going on at the time,” Lewis said, mentioning at least a third of the rioters were women. “It’s just one element of so many but such an important aspect of what the women, in particular, of that time were experiencing.”

Throughout her research, she has found that food riots were often led by women, due to the duty of providing meals being relegated to one of their domestic tasks. This left the men in their lives often unaware of the price gouging and falsified supply issues that were being perpetrated by many food sellers.

Lewis said one such example of this ignorance taking place was experienced by future first lady Abigail Adams, who wrote about a food riot, which her husband simply wrote off as an unreasonable annoyance.

“One of the common complaints you’ll see during this period is of merchants, who are hoarding goods. They’re taking large supplies of foodstuffs, and they’re putting them in warehouses to wait for their price to inflate. So, they’re artificially inflating prices by holding goods from the market,” Lewis said. “This is one of the things that people in the American colonies are not going to take very kindly to, at this time. We also see that these food riots are going to grow out of these non-importation, non-exportation boycott movements that were started in the 1760s because of the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act. They used many of the same tactics that were used in the boycotts in the food riots.”

Through newspaper records and diary entries, a total of 37 food riots can be proved to have taken place from 1775-1779. In some instances, keys to a merchant’s secret store were demanded, while in other cases, merchants were tarred and feathered for their unjust actions.

“When I was first beginning this research, I thought food riots were mainly happening in urban areas, but it turns out it’s happening in rural towns, as well, throughout New England and the northern colonies,” Lewis said. “There were many factors going into this — of course, there was genuine scarcity of goods because of the conflicts that were igniting, but they also had to deal with inflation and the lack of metal specie, which many merchants insisted upon receiving, rather than the ever-depreciating-in-value paper money.”

For Lewis, learning more about the food riots has given her a different perspective on what it means to be an American.

“A lot of people’s vision of democracy in colonial times was a much more participatory kind of democracy than what we see today,” Lewis said. “One of the things I love the most about the 18th century is that you see so many different people all trying to figure out at the same time what democracy means and how we should enforce it.”

While Lewis does not advocate for people to start holding food riots in the modern day, she said it would not be an unexpected development to see taking place, considering the uncertain times Americans are once again living in.

“We’re at a point in time where it feels particularly contentious,” Lewis said. “How people can enact change may be for them to become more active in their communities, rather than rewriting the political system entirely. That’s more actionable for a lot of people.”