Unnamed English Blockade Runner

Aunt Jenny tells Bayard about this "Englishman" among the blockade runners she knew in Charleston during the Civil War: "He must have been a gentleman once or associated with gentlemen" (244). For most of the Civil War the Union Navy blockaded the ports of the Confederate states, including Charleston, South Carolina. "Blockade runners" were sailors who snuck their ships past the Union ships to bring supplies to the South. This unnamed English seaman was presumably an officer. His smuggling, although motivated by money, made him a hero to Aunt Jenny and her peers. Although Jenny never mentions the name she knew him by, she tells Bayard that "he changed his name" and he liked rum (244).