July 15, 2001

First Race Riot

Race riots are as old as history, and as recent as those now raging in Britain against East Indians and in Germany against Mid-east Muslims. America's first, major race riot is little remembered.

The anniversary of New York City's horrendous four-day riot of July 1863 is brought to mind by receipt of facsimile copies of Harper's Weekly published at the time.

The ongoing Christmas gift, via Smithsonian Institution, is a contemporary account of the War Between The States - second only to the Revolutionary War in national significance.

Harpers is especially interesting because it illustrates the civil war profusely with artist sketches. The camera was in use by Matthew Brady, but the process of converting photographs into print had not yet been perfected.

Seeds of the riot were sown Jan. 1, 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves.

Congress on March 3 passed the draft Enrollment Act containing a provision whereby a man could avoid military duty by paying $300 for a "substitute."

Then, a strike by New York dockworkers - most were immigrant Irish -- was broken by importing "Negroes" to replace them.

The draft substitute payment, common in European conscriptions, was meant to be humane. It allowed men with families to make a contribution to the war effort without hardship to their women and children.

The Confederacy already had adopted the practice in its draft. The "bounty" there was $1,000. Exceptions also were granted to any slaveholder responsible for 20 or more slaves.

Too much to bear for the newly arrived Irish was the combination of a military draft with "rich man" exceptions, and favoritism toward a class of laborers willing to work for "starvation wages." The usual admonition on help-wanted advertisements was: "No Irish need apply."

Annual earnings for common labor were about $500. Thus, purchasing a draft exemption was beyond reach of most Irish that made up almost half of New York's immigrant population.

Violence erupted July 13 as the first of 1,200 draft-names were being drawn from a lottery drum at the provost marshal's office. The drum was smashed and the building torched. Draft officials were badly beaten but managed to escape by a back door.  

Emboldened, the mob of 5,000 young men began looting stores and newspaper offices. By nightfall, the mob had grown to 50,000 or more.

Blacks - potent competitors for jobs - were an early target of rage. A cartman who had the bad luck to be working in the vicinity was beaten, hung and roasted. Others were shot. One couple was burned alive.

It was soon evident that the mobs were being organized by John Andrews, a southern sympathizer. He was an ardent Secession evangelist who went from corner to corner, saloon to saloon, haranguing crowds to violence.

Soon a chant began: "The rich man's war, the poor man's fight."

A four-story orphanage for 233 black children was looted then burned to the ground. A newspaper account said mob women and boys, carrying beds, stretched for ten blocks. The orphans were threatened but finally permitted to run to a nearby police station when firemen threatened mob ringleaders.  

Fine homes were burned after being stripped of valuables and the owners robbed and beaten. More than a hundred structures were destroyed. Damage was said to exceed $2 million - a sum in today's dollars being ten times greater.

The mob stripped Police Supt. John Kennedy of his clothes and stoned him nearly to death on the first day. He spent the rest of the riot in bed under critical medical care.

Militia Col. Henry O'Brien was stomped to insensibility, then  dragged through manure-filled gutters to his home. There, rioters with torches danced around his body for hours. They tortured him with sharp sticks, despite pleas for mercy from his family, until he ceased breathing.

An urgent plea by Provost Marshal James B. Fry for military reinforcements brought a detachment of armed marines and sailors from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The Invalid Corps of 200 soldiers, recovering from war wounds, also were pressed into service.

Finally, on Thursday, a company of soldiers arrived from Gen. George Meade's army. The men were detached from chasing the Confederate army retreating from the recent Battle of Gettysburg. Order was quickly established in New York City.

Rioters are recorded as having killed 30 blacks, eight soldiers, and two policemen. More than 800 people on both sides were injured. At least 84 rioters were killed, but unofficial estimates for them and their victims ranged up to 1,200.

Andrews, widely known as "Lee's left wing," was arrested at his home - along with his Negro mistress.

Merchants took up a collection of $50,000 to build another "colored" orphanage.

President Lincoln refused to investigate the causes of the riot, saying, "One rebellion at a time is about as much as we can conveniently handle."

Author: Lindsey Williams