Landscapes of Resistance: A View of the Nineteenth-Century Chesapeake Bay Oyster Fishery

The introduction of industrialized harvesting techniques to the Chesapeake Bay oyster fishery in the 19th century was resisted by communities of oyster tongers who represented traditional fishing methods. Maryland oyster tongers contested the advancement of industrial harvesting through various means. Important to this opposition was the development of an occupational identity that promoted traditional values and fishing practices and rejected wage labor. Natural and cultural landscapes of the working and domestic spheres helped shape and reproduce this occupational identity in part by placing constraints on aspects of the lifeways of oyster tonging communities. Ultimately, these landscapes became emblems of the distinctive life and economic choices of oyster tongers.