- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846312007
- eISBN:
- 9781846315138
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781846312007.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter concentrates on the events of the seaport riots, and the common and contrasting themes in the rioting that occurred across Britain. The rioting in Liverpool was fiercer and more ...
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This chapter concentrates on the events of the seaport riots, and the common and contrasting themes in the rioting that occurred across Britain. The rioting in Liverpool was fiercer and more sustained than that at any of the other seaports during 1919. The murder of Charles Wootton drew attention to the wider fortunes of the black population in Liverpool in 1919. There was enmity between black British and white foreign sailors in Cardiff. The violent row between white American service personnel and black British colonial sailors was not an isolated incident in south Wales. Soldiers and former troops had a prominent role in the rioting in south Wales. The ‘sex’ issue was passed as both a convenient and a ‘racy’ explanation for the rioting. Military service and ex-service personnel were involved as both victims and assailants in the riots around Britain's seaports.Less
This chapter concentrates on the events of the seaport riots, and the common and contrasting themes in the rioting that occurred across Britain. The rioting in Liverpool was fiercer and more sustained than that at any of the other seaports during 1919. The murder of Charles Wootton drew attention to the wider fortunes of the black population in Liverpool in 1919. There was enmity between black British and white foreign sailors in Cardiff. The violent row between white American service personnel and black British colonial sailors was not an isolated incident in south Wales. Soldiers and former troops had a prominent role in the rioting in south Wales. The ‘sex’ issue was passed as both a convenient and a ‘racy’ explanation for the rioting. Military service and ex-service personnel were involved as both victims and assailants in the riots around Britain's seaports.
