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The New York City Draft Riots of 1863

January 29, 2017 by Miguel Hernandez 11 Comments

A drawing from a British newspaper showing armed rioters clashing with Union soldiers in New York.In September of 1862, President Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation. It would take effect January 1, 1863, and free slaves in areas of the nation still in rebellion against the Union. Despite its limitations, free blacks, slaves, and abolitionists across the country hailed it as one of the most important actions toward full abolition.

To immigrant New Yorkers (principally Irish) the Emancipation Proclamation was confirmation of their worst fears  – that they would be replaced in the labor market by recently emancipated blacks from the South.

In March 1863, a stricter federal draft law was passed. All male citizens between 20 and 35 and all unmarried men between 35 and 45 were subject to military duty. The federal government entered all eligible men into a lottery. Those who could afford to hire a substitute, or pay the government $300, could avoid enlistment. African Americans, who were not considered citizens, were exempt from the draft.

On Saturday, July 11, 1863, the first draft lottery was held. For 24 hours the city remained quiet, but on Monday, July 13, 1863, between 6 and 7 am, five days of mayhem and bloodshed began.

At first, targets included only military and governmental buildings, and people who interfered with the mob. By the afternoon of the first day however, some of the rioters had attacked black people, their businesses, and other places symbolic of their presence in New York.

Rioters attacked a black fruit vendor and a nine-year- old boy at the corner of Broadway and Chambers Street for example, before moving to the Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue between 43rd and 44th Streets.  At 4 pm on July 13th, over 200 children were in their school when several thousand men, women and children armed with clubs, brick bats, etc., advanced on the orphanage and looted its bedding, clothing, food, and other articles, before setting fire to the building, burning it to the ground.

In an attempt to quell the violence of the largely Irish Catholic mob, Archbishop John Hughes delivered an appeal for peace from his residence near St. Patrick’s Cathedral. By mid-day, the first of more than 4,000 federal troops – fresh from the Battle of Gettysburg – arrived in the city. Within hours of their arrival they faced-off against rioters in what is now the city’s Murray Hill neighborhood. The officers of the Irish-American 69th New York Regiment noting that “citizens of Irish birth” were responsible for the riots, requested to be “ordered to New York to aid in repressing the violence and disorder which now afflict the people of our own city.” A similar reaction emerged from the rank and file of the Irish-American 9th Massachusetts who, according to one of its officers, “wished for a chance to give those fellows [the rioters] a taste of our quality, and show them how the Irish Ninth could charge.”

The New York Draft riots was a three-day orgy of violence that even today holds the record of being the worst, bloodiest, most destructive and brutal riot of in New York history.  Estimates of the number of people killed in the four days of rioting ranged from 74 to 1,200. Eleven Black men were lynched. Property valued at $5 million was destroyed, and it was estimated that 3,000 black residents (out of a black population of 12,000) were made homeless.

The black population of New York City declined dramatically after the draft riots. In the census of 1860, New York’s black population was 12,414; and by 1865 it was estimated at 9,945. While other Northern cities, including Boston, Buffalo and Detroit, experienced racial violence sparked by the inception of the draft, none were as virulent as the riots in New York City.

Illustration: A drawing from a British newspaper showing armed rioters clashing with Union soldiers in New York.

This is a part of a series about 18th and 19th century racial and ethnic riots in the city of New York. The terms Negro and Black are used here in their historical context.

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Filed Under: History Tagged With: Black History, New York City, riots

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Bonnie J. Hays says

    January 30, 2017 at 12:18 PM

    As in many riots, the victims expand from those originally targeted. As is noted, government and military buildings were the targets and finally the chosen victims were blamed and attacked. A bit of obscure history is that Leonard Jerome, father of Jenny Jerome, soon to be Lady Randolph Churchill, stood on the stairs of the New York Times with a Gatling Gun protecting his interest from these rioters. Leonard Jerome married in Palmyra, NY at the Western Presbyterian Church, April 5, 1849 to Miss Clarissa Hall, they began their life together in Palmyra NY. After a few years they moved to the growing city of Rochester to work in the newspaper business. The family left Rochester for New York City with sights on the New York Times. After Jenny Jerome was born in 1854 in a Brooklyn walkup, Leonard made many productive and beneficial partnerships. His love of newspapers and horses, lead him to take interest in the New York Times and horse racing. His mansion on 26th and Madison was enormous and a location that saw many notable visitors. Leonard Jerome’s nick name was the “King of Wall Street”. There are many streets and parks named after him. He had a connection to Mr. Vanderbilt and acquired Belmont Race Track. Leonard also began the National Jockey’s Club as well as an Opera School.

    Reply
  2. Bonnie J. Hays says

    January 30, 2017 at 12:20 PM

    This is one of the most interesting topics and very great write up. How appropriate that it is this time that it is chosen for publication.

    Reply
  3. MeMyselfAndI says

    September 16, 2017 at 10:51 AM

    This article was great! I was able to get a B on my report. It brought my grade up a lot!

    Reply
  4. George Main says

    September 17, 2017 at 5:46 PM

    My great-great grandfather Jacob Christman died in NY at this time. He left a widow and 4 children. A price they all paid for his service in putting down the riots. Wish I knew more about him. He was born in Bainbridge

    Reply
  5. George Main says

    September 17, 2017 at 5:47 PM

    How do you moderate death?

    Reply
  6. Max says

    October 3, 2017 at 3:48 PM

    Hello, My Name is Max from and I and my group would like to interview you for a history fair project we are doing in school. Get back to us as soon as you can! (I left my email in the description.)

    Reply
  7. Chase Weinkam says

    October 16, 2017 at 8:28 PM

    I am also doing a history fair project in this topic. I found your writing very interesting and easy to understand. I’d love more info on this from your perspective. Thank you

    Reply
  8. briana says

    January 25, 2018 at 7:37 PM

    cool

    Reply
  9. A. P. Terhune says

    July 11, 2019 at 9:34 AM

    This telling of the so-called “anti-draft riots” is almost entirely fictitious. I don’t know where to begin. First of all, ‘immigrant Irish’ would have been British subjects and not liable to be drafted. So that was never a factor. If the protests in July 1863 had a leader, it was John Urquhart Andrews from Portsmouth, Virginia and Brooklyn. (To call the protests “Irish” is insane anyway: most people in those days were of Irish descent. According to the census, 30% of New Yorkers in 1855 were Irish-born; presumably 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd, 4th-generation New Yorkers of Irish extraction made up a far bigger percentage.) In fact, the recent draft call-up itself wasn’t much of a factor; these speeches and protests against the Lincoln regime had been going on at Cooper Union and elsewhere all year. Nobody burned down the Colored Orphan Asylum while inmates and teachers were still inside. Everyone had fair warning to vacate; the place was empty. The arson was most likely part of an urban-clearance project by the City. This was City land, and City wanted to develop Midtown Manhattan, and get rid of the low-rent leases along Fifth Avenue in the 40s. The nearby hotels, taverns, ice-cream parlors, stockyards and slaughterhouses were also burned and cleared away. The Asylum was soon rebuilt but up in Hamilton Heights at West 143rd St. George Templeton Strong believed the fire(s) had been set by the head science professor at Columbia, who shortly afterwards scarpered off to Richmond where he designed bombs and secret weapons for the Confederacy.

    Reply
  10. James Kaplan says

    July 12, 2019 at 8:17 AM

    So far as I know Mr. Hernandez 2017 article on the New York City Drafts Riots is basically correct. See Barnet Schecter’s excellent book, the Devil’s Work which provides a more detailed account of the 1863 Draft Riots and generally follows the conclusions in the article you criticize.
    James S. Kaplan
    President, the Lower Manhattan Historical Association

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. President Donald J. Trump and racial America | Donald J. Trump No. 45 says:
    January 12, 2018 at 1:38 PM

    […] Irish riots in 1863 in New York started almost a century of white-v.-black riots, with black towns wiped out by white […]

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