This guide provides information and links to websites that detail the many racially inspired slaughters of African Americans in the United States of America by those considered white Americans.
Reprint of two reports; The late Detroit riot, including excerpts from newspapers, etc., is reprinted from the copy in the Charles F. Heartman collection of material relating to Negro culture, Heartman historical series no. 72. Report of the Committee of Merchants for the Relief of Colored People, suffering from the late riots in the city of New York, was originally published by G.A. Whitehorne, New York, 1863.
For five days in July 1863, at the height of the Civil War, New York City was under siege. Angry rioters burned draft offices, closed factories, destroyed railroad tracks and telegraph lines, and hunted policemen and soldiers. Before long, the rioters turned their murderous wrath against the black community. In the end, at least 105 people were killed, making the draft riots the most violent insurrection in American history. In this vividly written book, Iver Bernstein tells the compelling story of the New York City draft riots. He details how what began as a demonstration against the first federal draft soon expanded into a sweeping assault against the local institutions and personnel of Abraham Lincoln's Republican Party as well as a grotesque race riot. Bernstein identifies participants, dynamics, causes and consequences, and demonstrates that the "winners" and "losers" of the July 1863 crisis were anything but clear, even after five regiments rushed north from Gettysburg restored order. In a tour de force of historical detection, Bernstein shows that to evaluate the significance of the riots we must enter the minds and experiences of a cast of characters--Irish and German immigrant workers, Wall Street businessmen who frantically debated whether to declare martial law, nervous politicians in Washington and at City Hall. Along the way, he offers new perspectives on a wide range of topics: Civil War society and politics, patterns of race, ethnic and class relations, the rise of organized labor, styles of leadership, philanthropy and reform, strains of individualism, and the rise of machine politics in Boss Tweed's Tammany regime. An in-depth study of one of the most troubling and least understood crises in American history, The New York City Draft Riots is the first book to reveal the broader political and historical context--the complex of social, cultural and political relations--that made the bloody events of July 1863 possible.
For five days in July 1863, at the height of the Civil War, New York City was under siege. Angry rioters burned draft offices, closed factories, destroyed railroad tracks and telegraph lines, and hunted policemen and soldiers. Before long, the rioters also turned their murderous wrath against the black community. In the end, at least 105 people were killed, making the draft riots the most violent insurrection in American history. Iver Bernstein tells the story of the New York City draft riots, detailing how what began as a demonstration against the first federal draft quickly expanded into a sweeping assault against local institutions and the personnel of Abraham Lincoln's Republican Party as well as a grotesque race riot. In a tour de force of historical detection, Bernstein shows that to evaluate the significance of the riots we must enter the minds and experiences of a cast of characters: Irish and German immigrant workers, Wall Street businessmen who frantically debated whether to declare martial law, nervous politicians in Washington and at City Hall. An in-depth study of one of the most troubling and least understood crises in American history, The New York City Draft Riots is the first book to reveal the complex social, cultural, and political relations that made the bloody events of July 1863 possible.
In July 1863, over a thousand Irish dockworkers rioted against the Civil War draft in New York City in a four-day upheaval, targeting black workers and citizens.
This episode of New York: A Documentary Film details New York's enormous growth as a booming commercial center and multi-ethnic port, and the mounting tensions that set the stage for the nation's bloodiest riot. Filmmaker Ric Burns examines how New York City swelled into the nation's greatest industrial metropolis as a massive wave of German and Irish immigration turned the city into one of the world's most complex urban environments, bringing with it a host of new social problems. The program reveals how the city's artists, innovators and leaders, from poet Walt Whitman to Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux (the designers of Central Park) grappled with the city's growing conflicts—which culminated in the catastrophic Civil War Draft Riots of 1863. Part of the series New York: A Documentary Film. Distributed by PBS Distribution. (120 minutes) Distributed by PBS Distribution.
“New York, 1825-1865: Order and Disorder.” Films On Demand, Films Media Group, 2003, fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=95565&xtid=44171. Accessed 20 July 2020.
Bonacich, Edna. “Abolition, the Extension of Slavery, and the Position of Free Blacks: A Study of Split Labor Markets in the United States, 1830-1863.” American Journal of Sociology, vol. 81, no. 3, 1975, pp. 601–628. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2777646. Accessed 20 July 2020.
Lofton, Williston H. “Northern Labor and The Negro During the Civil War.” The Journal of Negro History, vol. 34, no. 3, 1949, pp. 251–273. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2715903. Accessed 20 July 2020.
The article discusses the New York City Draft Riot of 1863 and conflict between police, minorities, and the underclass in American history. It discusses declining support for the U.S. Civil War in New York, the U.S. legislation the Enrollment Act and popular resistance to it, mob violence against police, symbols of the Republican Party, and African Americans beginning on July 13, 1863. It also discusses the role of Irish Americans in the riots.
Brookhiser, Richard. “Taking It to the Streets.” American History, vol. 50, no. 2, June 2015, pp. 20–21. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=shib&db=khh&AN=101581097&site=ehost-live.
The author analyzes the article published in "The New York Times" on July 14, 1863 about the draft riots in New York City during the American Civil War, highlighting the key elements of the article and the defining moments in American history. Topics discussed include the racial, political and economic tensions between the Democratic population, the Republican federal government and the African American population, the reaction against the conscription lottery, and the crimes against blacks.
Vaughn, Vanessa E. “Volume 2: THE HOME FRONT: The Draft Riots.” Defining Documents: The Civil War (1860-1865), Jan. 2014, pp. 347–356. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=shib&db=khh&AN=127106512&site=ehost-live.
The article discusses draft riots in New York City during the U.S. Civil War. The author discusses the immigrant communities and gangs of Lower Manhattan and how the threat of an attack by Confederate general Robert E. Lee led to the passage of draft laws that exempted those who could pay a certain amount or find a replacement. Outrage over the conscription laws led to a violent protest against the draft by workers from Lower Manhattan as well as looting and the lynching of blacks.
Rutkowski, Alice. "Gender, Genre, Race, and Nation: The 1863 New York City Draft Riots." Studies in the Literary Imagination, vol. 40, no. 2, 2007, p. 111+. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A183991930/AONE?u=lincclin_sjrcc&sid=AONE&xid=d9b62824. Accessed 20 July 2020.