The Oyster Wars (1959) w/ Christine Keiner

It’s March 20th. This day in 1959, a skirmish between the fisheries police and an oyster boat results in the death of a Virginia oysterman — and sheds light on a decades-long battle known as the “Oyster Wars.”

Jody, NIki, and Kellie are joined by Dr Christine Keiner of RIT to discuss why there was so much tension and violence along the Chesapeake Bay, going all the way back in the mid-1800s.

Be sure to check out Christine’s book The Oyster Question: Scientists, Watermen, and the Maryland Chesapeake Bay since 1880

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

This Day In Esoteric Political History is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories.

If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com

Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Our website is thisdaypod.com Follow us on social @thisdaypod

Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices