Great Riots of New York Collections

Third Day of Draft Riots

Scenes in the City and at Head-quarters. Fight in Eighth Avenue. Cannon sweep the Streets. Narrow Escape of Captain Howell and Colonel Mott. Battle for Jackson’s Foundry. Howitzers clear the Street. State of Things shown by Telegraph Despatches. General Sandford sends out a Force against a Mob, at Corner of Twenty-ninth Street and Seventh Avenue. Colonel Gardin’s Fight with the Mob. Is Wounded. Mob Victorious. Dead and Wounded Soldiers left in the Street. Captain Putnam sent to bring them away. Disperses the Mob. Terrific Night. Tuesday had been a day of constant success to the police and military, and many … Read more

The Stamp-Act Riot of 1765

At the present day, when personal ambition takes the place of patriotism, and love of principle gives way to love of party; when the success of the latter is placed above constitutional obligations and popular rights, one seems, as he turns back to our early history, to be transported to another age of the world, and another race of beings. Nothing shows how thoroughly understood by the common people were the principles of liberty, and with what keen penetration they saw through all shams and specious reasoning, than the decided, nay, fierce, stand they took against the stamp act. This … Read more

Telegraph Bureau

Telegraph Bureau. Its Work. Skill and Daring and Success of its Force. Interesting Incidents. Hairbreadth Escapes. Detective Force. Its arduous Labors. Its Disguises. Shrewdness, Tact, and Courage. Narrow Escapes. Hawley, the Chief Clerk. His exhausting Labors.

Spring Election Riots of 1834

This country never committed a more fatal mistake than in making its naturalization laws so that the immense immigration from foreign countries could, after a brief sojourn, exercise the right of suffrage. Our form of government was an experiment, in the success of which not only we as a nation were interested, but the civilized world. To have it a fair one, we should have been allowed to build and perfect the structure with our own material, not pile into it such ill formed, incongruous stuff as the despotisms of Europe chose to send us. Growing up by a natural … Read more

Soldiers Beaten by the Mob

In the meantime, the mob that stood watching the spreading conflagration in Third Avenue increased rapidly, fed by tributaries from the tenement houses, slums, and workshops in that vicinity. But they were soon startled from their state of comparative quietness, by the cry of “the soldiers are coming.” The Invalid Corps, a small body sent from the Park, was approaching. As it came up, the soldiers fired, either blank cartridges, or over the heads of the crowd, doubtless thinking a single discharge would disperse it. The folly of such a course was instantly shown, for the mob, roused into sudden … Read more

Second Day of Riots

Riots In Every Part of the City

It is impossible to give a detailed account of what transpired in every part of the city. If there had been a single band of rioters, no matter how large, a force of military and police, properly armed, could have been concentrated to have dispersed it. But bodies of men, larger or smaller, bent on violence and devastation, were everywhere; even out at Harlem eight buildings were burned, and the lower end of Westchester was in a state of agitation and alarm. A mob of thousands would be scattered, only to come together at other points. A body of police … Read more

Rights of Municipalities

The rights of municipalities have been conceded from the first dawn of constitutional liberty indeed municipal freedom may be said to be the first step in the onward progress of the race toward the full recognition of its rights. To interfere with a great commercial city like New York, except by general laws, is as a rule unwise, impolitic, and, indeed, unjust. Like a separate State, it had better suffer many and great evils, than to admit the right of outward power to regulate its internal affairs. To do so, in any way, is fraught with mischief; but to do … Read more

Police Riot of 1857

Police Riot, Dead Rabbits’ Riot, Bread Riot

Orange Riots of 1870 and 1871

In a free country like ours, where toleration of all religions alike is one of the fundamental principles of the Government, one would naturally think that open persecution of any sect or body of religionists was impossible. But the Irish, unfortunately, have brought with them to this country not merely many of their old customs and national fetes, but their old religions feuds. Nearly two hundred years ago, William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, or William the Third, a Protestant, met the Catholic King, James the Second, of England, In deadly battle, in the vales of Meath, through which the … Read more

No Military in the City

The terrible punishment the rioters received at the hands of Carpenter had, however, only checked their movements for a time; and, as the sun began to hang low in the summer heavens, men looked forward to the coming night with apprehension. In the meantime, however, the authorities, conscious of the perilous condition of the city, had resorted to every means of defense in their power. Unfortunately, as mentioned before, nearly the whole of its military force, on which it depended in any great emergency, was absent. Lee’s brilliant flank movement around Hooker and Washington, terminating in the invasion of Pennsylvania, … Read more

Great Riots of New York 1712-1873

A History of all the Great Riots of New York from 1712 to 1873. Includes histories of the Black Riots, Draft Riots, Flour Riot, Stamp-Act Riot, Abolition Riots, Dead Rabbits’ Riot, Astor Place Riots, Spring Election Riots, Doctors’ Riot, and the Orange Riots.

Fourth Day of Riots

Only the principal disturbances of the third day were given, and of these the accounts were very succinct. The movements of the mobs and the conflicts with them were so similar in character, that a detailed description of them would be a mere repetition of what had gone before. After the police force, and the troops under General Brown had become organized so as to move and act together, each fight with the rioters was almost a repetition of its predecessor. Having adopted a plan of procedure, they seldom deviated from it, and the story of one fight became the … Read more

Flour Riot of 1837

Hunger will drive any people mad, and once let there be real suffering for want of food among the lower classes, while grain is piled up in the storehouses of the rich, and riots will surely follow. In the French Revolution of 1789, there was a great scarcity of provisions, which caused frightful outbreaks. It will never do to treat with scorn the cry of millions for bread. When, amid the general suffering in Paris, one said to Foulon, the minister of state, the people are starving for bread, he replied, “Let them eat hay.” The next day he was … Read more

Execution Appointed for Hughson

The day of execution appointed for Hughson, his wife, and Peggy was a solemn one, and almost the entire population turned out to witness it. The former had declared that some extraordinary appearance would take place at his execution, and every one gazed on him as he passed in a cart from the prison to the gallows. He was a tall, powerful man, being six feet high. He stood erect in the cart all the way, his piercing eye fixed steadily on the distance, and his right hand raised high as his fetters would permit, and beckoning as though he … Read more

Draft Riots of 1863

The ostensible cause of the riots of 1863 was hostility to the draft, because it was a tyrannical, despotic, unjust measure an act which has distinguished tyrants the world over, and should never be tolerated by a free people. Open hostility to oppression was more than once hinted in a portion of the press as not only a right, but a duty. Even the London Times said, “It would have been strange, indeed, if the American people had submitted to a measure which is a distinctive mark of the most despotic governments of the Continent.” As if the fact that … Read more

Doctors’ Riot, 1788

In former times “body snatching,” or digging up bodies for dissections, was much, more heard of than at present. The fear of it was so great, that often, in the neighborhood where medical students were pursuing their studies, persons who lost friends would have a watch kept over their graves for several nights, to prevent them from being dug up. Neither the high social position of parties nor sex was any barrier to this desecration of graves, and the public mind was often shocked by accounts of the young and beautiful being disinterred, to be cut up by medical students. … Read more

Dead Rabbits’ Riot of 1857

The origin of the term “Dead Rabbits,” which became so well known this year from being identified with a serious riot, is not certainly known. It is said that an organization known as the “Roach Guards,” called after a liquor dealer by that name, became split into two factions, and in one of their stormy meetings some one threw a dead rabbit into the room, and one party suddenly proposed to assume the name. These two factions became bitterly hostile to each other; and on the day before the 4th of July came in collision, but finally separated without doing … Read more

Continued Tranquility

On Saturday morning it was announced that the authorities at Washington had resolved to enforce the draft. It had been repeatedly asserted during the riot that it was abandoned, and the report received very general credence. Still, the official denial of it produced no disturbance. The spirit of insurrection was effectually laid. It is a little singular, that, in all these tremendous gatherings and movements, no prominent recognized leaders could be found. A man by the name of Andrews had been arrested and imprisoned as one, but the charge rested wholly on some exciting harangues he had made, not from … Read more

Commencement of the Mob

Meanwhile, events were assuming an alarming aspect in the western part of the city. Early in the morning men began to assemble here in separate groups, as if in accordance with a previous arrangement, and at last moved quietly north along the various avenues. Women, also, like camp followers, took the same direction in crowds. They were thus divided into separate gangs, apparently to take each avenue in their progress, and make a clean sweep. The factories and workshops were visited, and the men compelled to knock off work and join them, while the proprietors were threatened with the destruction … Read more