Creator
Riverboat Princess
Coverage
Mississippi River
Date
April 19, 1857
Description
The riverboats Princess and Natchez were said to be the fastest paddle steamers on the Mississippi. During the late antebellum period, the sister riverboats made the round-trip journey to Vicksburg each week, departing New Orleans at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesdays and Saturdays, respectively. Paddling 300 miles upstream, they stopped at a dozen rural backwaters carrying hundreds of passengers and transporting 400-pound bales of cotton destined for the textile mills of New England and Europe. Mississippi riverboats that operated in the Deep South, such as the Princess and Natchez, were mostly manned by African Americans, many of whom were slaves leased from riverside plantations. Waiters and barbers ranked high in the hierarchy of riverboat workers. On the lower decks, there were more slaves than free blacks laboring as firemen and roustabouts. About two percent of the riverboat labor force was enslaved women who worked as chambermaids.