Best of the History Guy: Riots

foreign the Civil War was the most violent Insurrection in the history of the United States but many Americans don't seem to know that the second most violent Insurrection in the history of the United States occurred during the Civil War and that much less well-known Insurrection says much about the tensions and challenges that the nation was facing during the war and challenges some of what you might think you know about where sympathies lie during the Civil War the 1863 New York City draft riots are history that deserve to be remembered when the first shots of the Civil War were fired in the attack on Fort Sumter in April of 1861. few in the nation could anticipate how destructive the war would be but any illusions of a war easily won were shattered in 1862 as the Battle of Shiloh became the bloodiest battle in the history of the nation only to be eclipsed later in the year by the Battle of Antietam still the deadliest day in the history of the United States President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January of 1863 a measure whose underlying purpose was to keep European nations from entering the war on behalf of the Confederacy but the devastation of War continued the Battle of Chancellorsville eclipsed Antietam as the deadliest battle in the nation's history and then was itself eclipsed in the Epic three-day Battle of Gettysburg fought July 1st to the 3rd in New York the nation's largest city the war had only highlighted underlying tensions the city had been the epicenter of mass immigration in the first half of the 19th century prior to 1830 nearly all population growth in the U.S was internal and 98 of the population was native born in the decade between 1820 and 1830 around 140 000 people immigrated to the U.S in the decade between 1850 and 1860 that number had grown to 1.7 million the foreign-born population of the United States had nearly doubled between the 1850 and the 1860 censuses Irish immigration made up almost 40 percent of the foreign-born population in 1860 Germans almost a third some 90 percent of the mass immigration of the Antebellum Period came North as new immigrants could not compete with the Free Labor of Southern slaves and it was Northern cities that were the most transformed by 1860 nearly half of the population of New York City was foreign born this Mass migration resulted in inevitable conflict and Aid of his backlash in New York the Rival Street gang said the nativist Bowery Boys and the Irish Dead Rabbits had led to Violent confrontation in 1857 called the dead rabbit's Riot that resulted in eight deaths and required the intervention of the New York State militia to restore order the tension set also affected New York City politics where the Democrat machine of Tammany Hall actively recruited immigrant populations whereas the abolitionists were often anti-immigrant bigots the anti-immigrant know-nothing party had gained political clout in the 1850s and politics in New York City began to be defied by immigrant and anti-immigrant factions Democrat Fernando wood had been elected to a second term as mayor of New York City in 1860 supported strongly by the Dead Rabbits wood was one of the democratic copperheads who opposed the war and was sympathetic to the southern cause in 1861 he appealed to the city's Board of aldermen for New York to secede from the union and declare itself a free City although the council bulk did his suggestion it might seem contradictory that the abolitionists were the nativists and the relatively pro-slavery Democrats were the party of immigrants but the economics made sense the economy of New York City was tied to exports and prior to the Civil War nearly half of those exports were Southern cotton and the revenues those exports earned is what funded the patronage that supported the Democratic Party Machine mayor wood courted The Immigrant vote arguing that New York should take care of its own working class before fighting a war over the working class in other states in the face of increasingly vocal abolitionists in the city Democrats had inflamed their Irish and German immigrant supporters by arguing that abolition would cause an influx of new black freedmen to the city who would compete for labor to these immigrants already living in poverty in crowded slums the Emancipation Proclamation had been the realization of their fears meanwhile the union had suffered a string of defeats and reverses in the first two years of the Civil War and the Press was increasingly defeatist as hope for a quick Victory had given way to the reality of the terrible conflict even as the Union Army needed new recruits to make good its losses and shift the tide of the war voluntary enlistments had plummeted in March of 1863 Congress had passed the enrollment act a form of national conscription intended to replenish the ranks of the Union Army the ACT required the enrollment of every male Citizen and those immigrants who had filed for citizenship between the ages of 20 and 45. men would then be drafted by Lottery to meet enlistment quotas the ACT included a provision that was intended to soften opposition but which became particularly controversial a person drafted could avoid service if they could find a substitute that is pay someone else to take their place or pay a commutation of three hundred dollars his most working-class individuals could not afford such a fee that meant that the ACT disproportionately affected the working class and gave rise to the slogan rich man's War Poor Man's fight and the ACT further contributed to the tension over labor as black men were not subject to the act as they were not yet considered citizens anti-war newspapers work to inflame sentiment in the months between the passage of the Act and the first draft libraries decrying the fact that the 300 commutation was a third the average price of a slave in the South making a working-class white man less valuable than a Slave the first drawing of draft numbers occurred in New York City in July of 1863 less than two weeks after the bloody Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg in a city that was seething with tensions over class and race the first drawing of 1200 games on July 11th went peaceably enough but the city seeth over the next day and the Powder Keg erupted when the second drawing of names began on Monday the 13th at the U.S Provo Marshal's Enrollment Office at 3rd Avenue and 47th Street a rowdy crowd gathered and as more names started to be drawn suddenly a gunshot rang out as if On Cue the crowd erupted attacking the office with paving stones and trying to storm the building to destroy the enrollment documents setting the building on fire when the volunteer fire departments tried to fight the fires the Riders attacked them and destroyed their equipment other Riders attacked street cars killing the horses and breaking up the cars while still more tore down the telegraph lines to prevent communication to the rest of the city as the writing spread the Metropolitan Police Department tried to quell the violence but the force was outnumbered and the New York State militia had been sent to the great battle at Gettysburg leaving the city virtually undefended when Police Superintendent John Kennedy arrived to assess the situation the crowd attacked and brutally beat him while they were unable to quell the riots the police had some success containing them when a mob attacked the offices of the New York Tribune a prominent Republican and abolitionist newspaper with the intent of hanging editor Horace Greeley a group of nearly 100 officers attacked the mob from the rear causing them to clear the building the staff of the New York Times turned back the mob themselves by Manning Gatling guns the mob targeted homes of draft supporters well-known Republicans and the wealthy on Fifth Avenue looting as they went they set fire to the 8th and Fifth District police stations the largely Irish Catholic rioters targeted Protestant Charities such as the Magdalene Asylum and the Five Points Mission when the Proprietors of the Bull's Head Hotel on 44th Street refused to serve them of alcohol they burned the hotel to the ground the mob brutally targeted black people seeking it seems to eradicate them from the labor force they especially targeted black workers near the docks where they had been seen as the biggest threat to labor black men were beaten stabbed and lynched in the streets and their bodies mutilated businesses that served black patrons were burned the crowd burned the pharmacy owned by James McCune Smith on West Broadway thought to be the first Pharmacy owned by a black man in America the mob targeted the colored orphan asylum on Fifth Avenue between 43rd and 45th streets a symbol of white charity towards blacks and black upward Mobility the police and staff were able to evacuate the 223 children but the mob looted and burned the building and savagely beat a white Irishman who tried to intervene on behalf of the children the mob continued looting and burning through the next day but by Wednesday troops hastily sent from Pennsylvania started to arrive by Thursday thousands of federal troops were in the city the mob and militia continued to Skirmish but the troops had the upper hand a final confrontation on the night of the 16th killed a dozen people in all about 120 people were killed in the New York City draft riots most all of them black men at least 11 of those were lynched in the streets thousands of people were injured and property damage was estimated between 1 and 5 million dollars the equivalent of roughly 20 to 100 million in today's dollars in all 50 buildings were destroyed in the draft riots some historians have likened the amount of damage to a Confederate Victory on the battlefield 67 people were tried and convicted for crimes committed during the draft riots but largely did not see long sentences and Lincoln reduced the draft quotas for New York City by almost half as a result of the riots but the tensions that drove the riots largely reduced afterwards it became clear quickly that the draft was not going to affect nearly as many people as once thought and that it didn't disproportionately affect working-class white people because the union had a reason to protect its industrial labor force former anti-immigrant unionists started to embrace immigration of way of increasing both the industrial potential and the available pool of Manpower during the war some 200 000 German immigrants and 140 000 Irish immigrants fought for the union during the Civil War and the former anti-immigrant unionists saw them as largely having earned their place in the nation as a result of that service by the end of the 19th century anti-immigrant racism had become focused on immigrants from China with European immigrants being seen as more benign Sympathy for the Confederate cause slowly faded in New York state which eventually contributed more than 450 000 troops to the union cause during the Civil War in the end the largest impact of the 1863 draft riots was on the black population of Manhattan while there are several relief organizations who try to provide relief to victims of the riots black people were understandably reticent to return back to Manhattan after the violence and property owners were reticent to least so black tenants for fear of reprisals Manhattan which prior to the Civil War had seen one of the largest populations of black freedmen saw its black population decrease by more than 20 percent when the colored orphanus Island was eventually rebuilt it was rebuilt on what was at the time the very outskirts of the city and the white working class again took control of the workforce continuing discrimination and Jim Crow laws eventually caused what was called The Great Migration of blacks to New York City after the war but they mostly relocated to the new Harlem neighborhood while the Immigrant tensions that were part of the the draft riots had largely decreased the racial tensions which underlie the 1863 draft riots had not been resolved and in fact those still impact the city and the nation today the 1863 New York City draft riots changed the city but they also challenged that perception that the Civil War was somehow a fight between a supposedly enlightened North and a racist South it is history that deserves to be remembered Toronto the capital of the Canadian province of Ontario is today Canada's largest city with a metropolitan population of some 5.9 million it is a modern city full of skyscrapers a center of business and finance of Science and Technology and of culture but of course Toronto was not always as Urban as it is today it has a wild Rough and Tumble Frontier past that in many ways underlies the development of the city in the entire country of Canada in the the shift from Frontier Town to modern city in Toronto really tracks back to a single event a seminal event that changed the path of what will become one of the world's great cities and I'm talking of course of that important day when a fireman and a clown walked into a brothel it is history that deserves to be remembered Toronto in the middle of the 19th century was rapidly growing the population nearly tripled in the 30 years between 1851 and 1881 growing from around 30 000 to just short of ninety thousand as ever-growing railroad networks connected to the rails across the border in the United States brought in Commerce and immigrants but Toronto was still in many ways a Frontier Town In 1855 there were more than 150 taverns in the city of just 40 000 people on July 12 1855 the circus clowns of SB house Star Troop Menagerie and circus in Toronto for a brief two-night engagement had arrived that morning and set up the circus and then done their first performance as the show was set up for two nights they did not have to tear sets down and so decided to spend that rare night off at the home of Mary Ann Armstrong on King Street near the corner of King and Jarvis this was not some ordinary house but rather a brothel one of many in Toronto it happened by chance to be a brothel frequented by one of the city's Volunteer Fire companies thus firemen and clowns were competing for the attention of the ladies of the house and while it may seem like the start of a joke a fireman and a clown walk into a brothel it spelled the possibility for real trouble because both firemen and clowns were different In 1855 then you might imagine them today Seth B Howes was a pioneer of the American circus in fact some called him the father of the American circus houses had been the first Menagerie in North America to exhibit lion cubs in the 1830s and in 1853 had brought one of the largest circuses that had ever been seen in the Americas to New York early circuses tend to operate from established venue but in North America a few cities were large enough to sustain long-term residential circuses rather circuses like SB house Star Troop Menagerie and circus were traveling Affairs where performers in traveling menageries would travel by Wagner train from town to town that meant that all the materials props costumes and even the arena itself in the form of a big top tent had to be moved put up and taken down by performers and circus workers so a mid-19th century circus clown was not just well a clown but a hard-working roustabout accustomed to strenuous labor and a rough lifestyle for likewise a Toronto fireman of 1855 was not the professional public servant that you would expect today Toronto did not have official City fire Services until 1871. while the city had a position of chief engineer who exercised a modicum of Municipal Control In 1855 firefighting was done by Loosely organized Volunteer Fire companies who elected their own officers these companies operated as Social Clubs as much as fire brigades and to get an idea of how the Social Clubs operated a common term for firemen of the day was rowdies being a Rowdy was no main task the work was dangerous thankless and strenuous it was also performed with very little supervision by men who received very little training while the large casks of water used to fight fires were moved by men called Carters and pulled by horses the fire wagons that pumped the water were usually hand-drawn the men of volunteer fire brigades had to hand push a wagon often in a foot race with other companies and then operate pumps powered by hand to fight the fire being the first to a fire was a matter of Pride so the rowdies of 1855 including the men of Toronto's Hook and Ladder Fire Company the company of men who frequented Marianne Armstrong's brothel on King Street would have been young strong competitive and brave in an incident on June 29th of 1855 was ample proof that the men of the hook and ladder Fire Company well deserved the title rowdy The Hook and Ladder fire company was responding to a fire on Church Street arriving at the same time as another fire company they decided to fight each other rather than the fire when some of Toronto's 50 police constables tried to separate the brawling fire brigades the firemen joined together to turn on the police giving them a thorough beating as the building burned to the ground the unseemly of hair had been called the fireman's riot and so stuffing the roustabout clowns of SB house Star Troop Menagerie and circus into the same how Seville repute as the rowdies of the Toronto Hook and Ladder Fire Company all of whom had had probably willed too much to drink seems in retrospect to have been well a recipe for disaster how precisely the two gangs managed to get in a brawl the night of the 12th is still a matter of dispute some blame a particularly loudmouth clown others say that the Clown's cut in line another story claims that a fireman named Frazier knocked the hat off a clown named Meyer either deliberately or accidentally and refused to pick the Hat up when requested for nearly 300 years between the 13th and 19th centuries Affair was regularly held in the suburb of Dublin named Donnybrook the fair was accompanied by copious amounts of liquor and spurred so many public brawls that the term Donnybrook became a generic term for a free-for-all brawl and a full-scale Donnie Brook occurred in the home of Mary Ann Armstrong on King Street the night of July 12 1855. the roustabout seemed to have gotten the better of the rowdies with two members of the Toronto hook and ladder company coming out badly beaten and so the first round went to the clowns but there would be another round because this fight between clowns and firemen had implications for an older and more entrenched conflict in the city of Toronto because in Toronto the grand orange Lodge of British America held sway the Orange Order was established in 1795 as a masonic-style Protestant Fraternal Order based primarily in Northern Ireland and dedicated to preserving what was called Protestant ascendancy or the political and social domination of Ireland the idea came to the new world with Irish immigrants and there were Orange Order lodges in Canada at least as early as the War of 1812 with a lodge formed in Toronto in 1830. the order was particularly popular in Toronto which would eventually earn the nickname The Belfast of Canada In 1855 there were 20 Orange Order lodges in Toronto and they dominated local governance while the order had benevolent roles especially helping Protestant immigrants to settle it had a hold on Toronto politics that very much resembled the machine politics of New York's Tammany Hall but creating deep social and economic ties between Protestants of all social strata the Orange Order was able to maintain the power that among other things kept the new influx of Irish Catholics fleeing the Great Famine restricted to the lowest menial labor by taking control of important Municipal organizations such as the volunteer militia much of the Machinery of local government and for a Time the police and fire departments the order was able to place great pressure on magistrates and juries which then gave Orangemen a degree of immunity from the law such immunity allowed the order to utilize violence as a political tool between 1839 and 1866 the Orange Order was evolved in 29 riots in Toronto one of those was the fireman's Riot of June 29th while firemen were volunteers participation the volunteer fire brigades was considered an honor one larger reserve for members of the Orange Order after the fireman's Riot the firemen had been charged with assault and were brought to trial but the constables themselves Orangemen deliberately confused their testimony on the stand allowing the firemen to go free a reformist newspaper at the time objected it is plainly asserted by those who have access to the best information that during the days which have been allowed to elapse since the fire a compromise has been affected between the constables and the firemen who are too much birds of a feather long to differ and so when the clowns roughed up the hook and ladder company and Mary Ann Armstrong's brothel they had picked a fight with men who were connected to what was called the corporation that ran the city of Toronto and those men had a virtually free license to commit acts of violence the next day after the circus performed the mob showed up orangeman seeking Revenge to where the circus had been camped at the fair green a big grassy space on the waterfront just a few blocks east of St Lawrence Market the Farmers and Merchants would set up stalls nearby were told to clear out the presence of police meant little they were also orange men and the crowd attacked the circus people throwing stones in bottles the circus people held them off for some time until the hook and ladder company arrived they attacked the tents tearing them down with their fire Hooks and somewhat ironically setting fire to them they tipped over circus wagons they beat the circus workers brutally newspapers reported that some dived into the lake to avoid being beaten the riot was only quelled when the mayor showed up and some of the troop of militia Witnesses said the mayor himself prevented a fireman from killing one of the circus clowns by prying an Ax from the man's hands despite the violent attacks there were no fatalities the extent of the injuries to the circus employees is unknown as they had no incentive to report to the police the circus pulled up stakes and left town as fast as they could but the people of Toronto were unimpressed when of the 17 men that were accused of having participated in the riot only one was convicted as with the fireman's Riot the constables of the Town conveniently could not recall any of the other men of having been there and once again the orange men had escaped consequence for their violence eventually an inquiry was demanded and that led to a process that eventually reformed both departments both of the Departments had people being appointed in such a way that they were really more accountable to politicians and to the people or the law and so the province finally made the uh necessary amendments in 1858 and a provincial board was created to look at better methods of community policing and the entire Toronto police department was fired and started again from scratch the modernization of these Public Services helped to Shepherd Toronto from a Wild Frontier Town into a modern city Toronto saw enormous growth during the latter half of the 19th century and by the turn of the century boasted more than two hundred thousand residents and became a city so well known for its strict moral code that it was called Toronto the good and that all started because a fireman and a clown walked into a brothel [Music] there seems to be kind of a curious Gap in the teaching of U.S history for that period that comes after the war of 1812 but before the Civil War the period called the Antebellum Period and while we don't talk about that period all that much that period between 1820 and 1860 really largely defined the nation a stretching Newfound muscle the nation's politics its demographics its geography it's economy and its culture transformed radically during that period offering new opportunities but also new challenges and the stresses of all those changes seem to come together in May of 1849 in the nation's largest city over the most pressing issue of the day who played the best Macbeth the Shakespeare Riot of 1849 is history that deserves to be remembered the United States experienced enormous growth in the first half of the 19th century between 1800 and 1850 the population in the United States more than quadrupled from 5.3 million to over 23 million While most of the growth was internal natural growth in an area of high birth rates and low mortality rates as the 19th century progressed the nation saw an ever increasing number of immigrants in the decade between 1820 and 1829 the nation welcomed some 128 000 immigrants in the decade 1840 to 1849 that number had grown to more than 1.4 million many were Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Famine some 60 of those immigrants entered through New York City the city was growing in a period of Rapid urbanization in 1810 not one city in the United States had a population over a hundred thousand by 1850 nearly a third of the U.S population lived in a city with a population over one hundred thousand the population of New York City was around eighty thousand at the turn of the 19th century but by 1850 it was nearly seven hundred thousand the rapid urbanization was driven by rapid industrialization creating entirely New Economic classes and New Economic stresses one trend of particular note was the growth of a class of the extremely wealthy in 1844 poet Nathaniel Parker Willis Quinn the term the upper ten thousand Willis was using the term as a compliment but the term quickly became a point of contention while the upper tens represented the opportunity in the nation John Jacob Aster the richest man in America and America's first multi-millionaire had made a fortune in the fur trade but had started in America working in a butcher shop the measure between the privileged few and the teaming masses was becoming more obvious a verse from an 1863 song by popular vaudevillian Tony Pastor said the upper 10 000 wear jewels and Lace but the lower ten thousand have rags in their place meanwhile industrialization was growing a working class that was benefiting from rising wedges and newly found Expendable income in New York a working-class culture grew epitomized by the so-called Bowery Boys and gals the name derived from the street a neighborhood of New York called The Bowery which had started as a neighborhood of the wealthy but by the 1830s was a neighborhood of the working class while certainly Rough and Tumble The Bowery Boys and gals were also proud they developed distinct styles of dress spoken at kind of street slang and had a reputation for being Rowdy and boisterous a European visitor described them who are the boys and gals of New York sometimes a stout clerk in a jobbing house often or a junior partner at a Wholesale grocery and still more frequently a respectable young butcher with big arms and broad shoulders in a blue coat with a silk hat and a crepe wound about its base in many ways they represented the very nature of the brass Young Nation they loved Independence and freedom valued loyalty and patriotism and had to disdain for the aristocracy they saw the growing trend of immigration as a threat to their wages they could turn towards violence and the Bowery Boys was a term for various New York street gangs that were anti-immigrant anti-irish and anti-catholic and brawled with other gangs in one place where the cultures met was at the place where people of all classes sought entertainment and Diversion the theater in its growth the U.S had struggled to develop its own theatrical Traditions there was not yet a quintessential American Theater voice but the character of the theater was changing along with the changing Nation The Bowery Boys were Avid but Rowdy theater goers they liked a song or dance they would demand that the performers repeat it if they disliked an act they might hiss or cat call or throw rotten vegetables in contrast to the more well-heeled clientele they drank smoked and converted with prostitutes at the theater there were various views of this clientele Francis trollope a British author who published her experience traveling in America under the title domestic manners of the Americans they cried the incessant spitting and the mixed smell of onions and whiskey but put Walt Whitman had a more romanticized view of the noble Working Class theater audience packed from ceiling to pit with its audience mainly of alert well-dressed full-blooded young and middle-aged men the best average of american-born mechanics and into this atmosphere came the egos of two of the greatest actors of their times William Charles mccritty was considered perhaps the greatest British actor of his generation and Edwin Forrest was the first truly American Stage star growing up in a time when most stage actors in America were British Edwin Forrest began his theatrical career traveling through rough theaters of the American West before having great success at the Bowery theater in New York in 1826. the newspaper the national Advocate said of his performance of Shakespeare's Othello at just the age of 21. there is not the slightest doubt in our minds but Mr Forest May reach the highest ranks of drama what set Forest apart was what the advocate referred to as Natural Spirit he played a more boisterous robust and frankly American version of Shakespeare a decade later he was one of the most famous actors in America and seen by many to be the very embodiment of American Theater when he traveled to England to perform in the country of Shakespeare there he found General success although not Universal approval of the British press and there he also made the acquaintance of William Charles McCready considered by most to be not just the greatest actor of the Day in England but also in a successful tour in the United States McCready was complementary a forest according to the advocate even if his supporters in the Press were not the two form something of a rivalry when McCready had a second tour of the United States in 1843 forced contrived to play in theaters in the same cities giving audiences in essence a choice of the American or the British version of Shakespeare the Rivalry was generally good-natured and both found success in their tour even as American papers tended to prefer their native son the Rivalry turned sour however when Force returned to England in 1845 to less success especially with his portrayal of Macbeth Forrest became convinced that McCready and his supporters were conspiring against him Forrest heckled one of mccready's performances and the British press turned against him carrying on an ugly back and forth between forest and the editors of the London newspaper the times so when William McCready returned to the United States in 1848 for another theatrical tour the Ravelry was more than just a challenge between the egos of two actors it was really seen in the United States as representing the challenges of the times it was it was a matter of patriotism and pride Francis trollope complained that the American Working Class theater audiences were so patriotic that if Yankee Doodle was called for they seem to think that their reputation as a citizen depended upon the amount of noise that they made it was seen as that that contest between nativists and Europeans and especially the English the hatred of whom even the Bowery Boys and Irish immigrants agreed upon it was seen as that challenge between the upper tens and the working class and the difference between the populist Jacksonian Democrats and their more conservative Whig rivals the particular bone of contention it seems was that Forest supporters found it offensive that McCready had failed to invite Forrest to visit his home when he was in England in 1845. newspapers happily stoked the Flames of the Rivalry as it sold papers four supporters promised to his McCready off the stage but found only limited success in places like Boston and Philadelphia where McCready was still popular enough among theater goers to receive a civil reception the Boston newspaper the bee lamented the Rivalry in poor treatment of McCready even as they opined that we desire to see less art and more nature than Mr McCready throws into his style but New York was the center of forced support and the feud was coming to a head when McCready was scheduled to play Macbeth in what was built as his last performance in the United States at The Astor Opera House on May 7 1849. opened in 1847 The Astor opera house was intended specifically to exclude the Rowdy patrons of Bowery Street originally intended to only offer opera The Astor House's higher ticket prices and strict dress code that required white gloves and evening dress was aiming for an audience of the upper tans Force supporters bought hundreds of tickets to mccready's Performance and attacked him with a wave of hisses and rotten vegetables while the rest of the audience shouted Shame Shame at the Ravel rousers the actors had to continue the play in pantomime as the audience could not hear them over the noise finally the theater drew the curtain as the audience members had started to throw chairs this was a sorry display to be sure but would likely have been written off just as Frontier manners had a group of New York Elite who took the behavior of the mob as an embarrassment to the city not signed a petition from accrediti to complete his engagement arguing that the good sense and respect for order prevailing in this community will sustain you on the subsequent nights of your performance thus McCready was scheduled for a final performance on May 10th the situation was not just inflamed by the theatrical rivalry and conflicts of the times earlier that year a Whig Caleb Smith Woodall had won the mayoral election in New York the Tammany Democrats on opportunity to gain political points and embarrass woodhole by further inflamming the working-class crowd Tammany supporters distributed hand bills asking shall Americans or English rule this city the police warned the mayor that they did not have the resources to quell a serious Riot and the mayor mobilized 300 members of the militia a bloody confrontation was in the works the night of the performance more than ten thousand people filled the streets they attacked the Astra house with bottles and bricks and had running battles with the police the New York Tribune wrote the pieces of bricks and paving stones rattled in on The Terraces and lobbies the confusion increased till Opera House resembled a fortress besieged by an invading Army rather than a placement for the peaceful Amusement of civilized community then the writers tried to set fire to the theater as McCready slipped out the back in Disguise the mayor sent in the militia afraid of losing control of the city the crowd fending the frustration that the poor half of the elite attacked the militia with paving stones still the mayor and police did not want to order the militia to fire but the militia commanders explained that they would not just stand to be pelted with stones and they had to be either allowed to fire or they would leave finally the mayor gave the order the first volley was fired above the crowd and when the attacks did not stop the next volley was into the crowd the crowd regrouped and continued throwing stones the militia finally had to bring up their Cannon the threat of which finally caused the crowd to disperse 18 people were killed in the shooting many of them bystanders the Evening Post listed the casualties included Bridget Fagan Irish 30 years old shot in the left leg just below the knee lives in 11th Street between Avenues one and two she was two blocks off walking with her husband on their way home fell into his arms and Henry Otten grocer corner of Hester and Orchard Street was shot through the stomach and died in the 15th Street Ward station house while we were there his aged mother was present and her Lamentations were truly heart rendering several more died of their wounds over the next few days the New York Herald described the people killed all were unanimous and that they lived in trying times and a very dangerous neighborhood more than 50 police and 140 militia had also been injured The Astor Place Riot was the deadliest of numerous riots and insurrections that occurred in New York City during this tumultuous period and resulted in more civilian casualties due to military activity than had occurred in the United States since the Revolutionary War clashes between rioters and police continued for a couple of days but were quelled by the presence of troops a jury later acquitted the militia of any wrongdoing arguing that their actions were Justified but 10 instigators of the riot were tried and convicted and served jail sentences William McCready went back to England and never returned to the United States he retired from acting in 1851 and died in 1873 at the age of 80. Edwin Forrest continued acting in the United States despite suffering partial paralysis due to gout he died of a stroke in 1872 at the age of 66. the astral Place riots had some important and long-term impacts on the United States for example New York City police officers were armed more heavily as a result of the astorplace riots but the aster place never recovered its reputation became known as the disaster place and it closed and more upscale entertainment was moved Uptown American popular culture split between highbrow entertainment and entertainment for the working class like Vaudeville and Shakespeare which was once so popular among all classes in America that miners in California would stage impromptu Shakespearean plays based on memory faded from American popular culture the flat hat that's most often called a boater but also commonly called a skimmer or a Bashers made from woven Senate straw the straws plated in woven at Angles and the head is typically the natural straw color although usually with a wide plain or striped gross grain ribbon band hats are typically slightly elliptical and have a flat crown and a thick flat brim the style of hat was purportedly based on flat hats worn by Sailors was invented in the town of Luton in bedfordshire which was a center for straw hat making from the 17th century while the design seems simple they actually made many different styles over the years in 1822 one London Chop offered 42 different styles the Huntington press of Huntington Indiana noted in 1922 last year's style saw predominance of saucer brims just what variety will be in favor next year is rather doubtful the Hat was particularly suited to Summer being light but strong and was commonly worn doing summer activities such as boating thus its most common name straw hats did have their difficulty though they tended to warp when wet and as one New Yorker noted in The Daily News in May of 1922 rainy days that required the use of an umbrella all day and cool Bluey days which often occurred during the summer months or good days to leave the straw hat at home and substitute a soft hat cap or Derby because they used natural straw and were out in the sun straw hats tended to last only one season before the straw would start to inferl and the bright ribbon would fade the Hat was first made popular in the first half of the 19th century as a children's Hat by the 1860s it was being worn commonly by women but it wasn't until the 1880s that it became popular among men the Hat reached its popularity in a time when it was expected that a man would always wear some type of hat out of doors what was associated with leisure activities the boater was actually seen as a semi-formal hat the summer version of a Hamburg by the turn of the century Straub voter hats were considered an essential part of Summer wear but they were subject to the odd cultural device of fashion rules fashion rules are strange things whose Origins are often obtuse but in late 19th century America the rules were serious fashion rules represented class struggles economic and immigration Trends the people who work in decided what was out and whether a person wore what was in or out was used as a social measuring stick for example while the exact origin of the long-held fashion prohibition against wearing white after Labor Day is unclear its early enforcement was really a measure of wealth wealthy families could afford to escape East Coast cities during the hot and muggy Summers going to the countryside where it was cooler as cities in the time were filthy for a number of reasons but especially because of a cold soot smoke it was impossible to keep a white dress clean in the city thus wearing white in summer while may have something to do with reflecting heat was actually a class measure it separated the wealthy from those poor souls who had to spend summer in New York City boater hats had a similar tradition felt hats were expected to be worn in the winter in straw hats in summer this is more than just a matter of practicality the shift came to be specifically recognized as straw hat day it's not clear Windstar had they originated but a 1908 issue of the New York Times opined that straw hat should come with the strawberries that is it became appropriate to wear star hats at the time that strawberries ripened the op-ed went so far as to a pine that New Yorkers who wanted to wear straw hats before what was then recognized as the appropriate Day June 15th should move South where strawberries ripened earlier the rule apparently relaxed however with time as by the mid-1920s straw hat day in New York was definitely recognized to be May 1st although the official day varied all over the country there might have been reasons for such a rule but one was certainly economic hat manufacturers knew when to have items in stock and straw hat day is a genius selling technique literally a day when people were expected to buy a new hat but there was the corresponding day in the fall felt hat day the day that men were expected to give up their straw hats and shift a felt by the turn of the century that day seems to have been generally recognized as September 15th was the Genesis of a Wall Street tradition stockbrokers would traditionally wear their straw hats to work on the trading floor that day and as a symbolic nod to the end of Summer at the end of the day they would throw their hats on the ground and crush them perhaps they were buying stock and hat companies well some were willing to challenge the rule the Wall Street tradition became something of a national tradition if a man was seen wearing the Hat after September 15th someone would snatch it off his head and crush it a fate that was usually accepted good-naturedly still there were those who questioned the rule the New York Times editorialized on September 15 1922 the origin of this law is obscure certainly it's not based on American meteorology but reflection justifies at least the suspicion that it originated in the dark machinations of the only class that has an interest in its perpetuation the times had reason to complain the city at the time was in the midst Straw Hat chaos the trouble started the evening of September 13th although it was two days before straw hats were supposed to disappear for winter it was a particularly hot day drawing out hordes of late season skimmers on the streets of Gotham but the long worn day also Drew out hoodlums with the times described as boys and others with undeveloped Minds who Delight in Destruction for its own sake on the theory that they had the right to declare open season on straw hats on other person's heads the paper reported scores of rowdies on the east side and other parts of the city started smashing other people's hats if hat smashing seems frivolous Peter a hatting the aptly named magistrate of the city's men's Night Court disagreed a man's hat he explained is just as much a man's property and just as much to be defended as a man's watch the magistrate wasn't just talking theoretically when a group abused tried to start smashing the hats of a group of Dock Workers the workers fought back the fighting turned into a brawl which stopped traffic on the Manhattan Bridge there were dangers of riots breaking out in several parts of the city straw hot bonfires were started police reserves had to be called out seven hat Smashers were brought to the Night Court by police on the night of the 13th magistrate hatting slapped him with stiff five dollar fines and threatened to Jail the next hat Smasher brought in the threat was intended to send a message to hit a man's hat the magistrate declared is a simple assault and in this court it will be treated as such The Hope was that the magistrates strong stand would curb the behavior it didn't more hat smashing occurred the following two nights the Buffalo times observed that the appearance of a straw hat was a signal for Rapid entrance of gangs of hoodlums gangs of use attacked hats and sometimes the owners if they tried to defend their property 25-year-old Harry Gerber had to be taken to Harlem Hospital after he was badly kicked and beaten while trying to fight off Straw Hat Vandals often the use would use a long stick with a hooked nail at the end to grab hats run off people's heads they even Line Streetcar tracks using the sticks to knock the hats off passengers as the cars Roll by one New Yorker reported that the mob of hat Smashers along Amsterdam Avenue numbered as much as a thousand the Tribune declared that the carnival prevailed from the battery to the Bronx even playing close police were accosted the Buffalo times explained the police were kept busy but there weren't enough of them and there were too many hats the times reported that in some cases hundreds of boys and young men terrorized whole blocks and lamented that as soon as police broke up the gangs in one District the hoodlens resumed their activities elsewhere having continued his hard stance to those arrested but many were youths too young to be tried as adults according to the Tribune when police brought seven boys all below the age of 15 into the 104th Street Station Lieutenant invited the boy's fathers to come to the station and spank them in the invitation was cordially accepted but some were old enough for the Magistrate's court Morris Sikowitz who was apprehended by New Yorker Harry old bomb who chased him down after he and a group of hoodlums knocked off his hat Sikowitz was 16 old enough to be tried in court and so I was charged with disorderly conduct hatting fully planned to make good on his promise to Jail the next hat Smasher brought into his courtroom even old bomb objected intervening on behalf of the boy thinking that a jail sentence was excessive but it was the appearance of sikowitz's 70 year old gray-haired mother that caused hatting to relent for her sake sending the boy home with a fried but having declared I'll send the next one to jail The Unlucky offender was a Silverman sentenced to three days in jail the violence quieted after the night of the 15th New Yorkers seemed to have finally accepted that straw hat season was over Buffalo times gave two reasons for this one the weather turned noticeably cooler and two most of the straw hats had been destroyed the night before the street sweepers were said to have been kept quite busy sweeping up all the broken straw hats it's hard to Divine the underlying cause of the straw hat riots it might have had something to do with class but really it might have just been the weather September 15th was described as a perfect day in New York which brought out not just a lot of men in straw hats but also the hoodlums that wanted to destroy them but a few newspapers didn't know that the straw hat instructions seemed to occur most in the vicinity of hat stores which did a Brisk business selling felt hats to replace the broken straw hats suggesting that there might have been some sort of bounty paid to the hoodlums under the table there were some examples of straw hat violence in subsequent years but the straw hat Riots of 1922 where more than a dozen people were arrested were by far the worst slowly with time the the boater hat fell out of fashion and that prohibition of September 15th faded in 1925 President Calvin Coolidge was famously photographed wearing a straw hat all the way on September 20th perhaps shattering the rule for good oh yeah foreign 1974 was a depressing news here in the United States President Richard Nixon was embroiled in the Watergate scandal which would eventually force him to resign in November the first U.S president to do so the United States economy was in a deep recession the result of double digit inflation and the ongoing energy crisis Tricia Hurst the granddaughter of publishing magnet William Randolph Hearst was kidnapped in February and by April had claimed that she had joined her captors cause leading to Nightly News stories and on June 4th in the event that perhaps best defined the trying times of the day beer was too cheap in Cleveland Ohio it is history that deserves to be remembered it was Tuesday June 4th and the Texas Rangers were playing a night game at Cleveland stadium the first of a three-game series coming off of two consecutive hundred lost Seasons Texas was 25-25 four games back from the American League West leading Oakland Athletics the Cleveland Indians were 24 and 25 two and a half games back from the AL East leading Boston Red Sox Fritz Peterson a southpaw who'd been traded to the Indians by the Yankees in April was cited to start for the Indians he was three and three on the season Cleveland Municipal Stadium the first sports venue in the United States built entirely with public financing opened in 1931. it's one of the first multi-purpose stadiums and had been home to the Cleveland Indians since its opening and to the Cleveland Browns originally with the All-American football conference and then with the National Football League since 1946 when configured for baseball the stadium seated 74 400 fans making it the largest in professional baseball in 1974. but Cleveland was a struggling City noted for its River pollution the Kyogre through the city was famous for literally Catching Fire one such fire in 1969 had caught the attention of the nation via Time Magazine prompting the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency the Cleveland area had been a flash point for anti-vietnam war sentiment after shootings by the National Guard at nearby Kent State University in 1970. the city was in financial difficulty crime was on the rise in 1962 there have been 59 murders in Cleveland in 1972 there were 333 the city had a difficult reputation and people were leaving in droves the city lost roughly 177 thousand inhabitants between 1970 and 1980 and the Cleveland Indians simply weren't very good they finished at the bottom of the American League east in 1973 and weren't doing much better in 1974. commentator Paul Jackson of ESPN said of them the 74 Indians were a smorgasbord of mediocre and forgettable talent playing in an open-air mausoleum it had become difficult to fill the massive 74 400 seat Stadium on May 13th a mere 4234 had showed up on a chilly night for a game against Boston on average 85 percent of the Stadium's tickets went unsold but the game against Texas on the muggy night June 4th attracted to respectable 25 134 Crown twice what was expected the reason cheap beer the club was running a promotion 12 fluid ounce cups of stro's 3.2 percent beer for just 10 cents each there was a limit of six beers per purchase but no limit on the number of purchases made during the game the promotion wasn't new several teams in the league including Texas had done the promotion Cleveland had done its first such promotion in 1971 when the bear was only five cents it was an effective promotion for the stadium so much so that the vendors had trouble serving everyone but Tucker a columnist for the independent Press Telegram of Long Beach California equipped as a Frenchman is inspired by fine wine or a Russian by classic vodka so does a Clevelander react to 10 cent beer the late Tim Russert known for being the longtime moderator of the show Meet the Press was 24 at the time and attended the game in a statement that perhaps defined much of the crowd that night he said I had two dollars in my pocket you do the math perhaps there was more going on that night than cheap beer it was particularly hot and muggy the June date caught the college age crowd just as they were coming home for summer and as Anthony castrovents of mlb.com noted in 2014 it was a full moon that night in fact Witnesses note that much of the crowd seem to have not waited for the cheap beer and many seem to have arrived already drunk or high and for some reason they also showed up with their pocket stuffed with firecrackers the crowd started throwing them before the game even started and they continued throughout the writing this may have had something to do with the team's last meeting a week earlier on May 29th in Arlington which had had a bench emptying brawl during the eighth inning of what would be a Raiders 3-0 victory Rangers fans had thrown beer and food at the Indians Team as they were returning to the Dugout the Indians are Furious catcher Dave Duncan had to be restrained to keep him from going into the stands to brawl with the crowd Indian second baseman Jay brohammer who had been at the bottom of the pile promised Revenge Rangers manager Billy Martin added to the fuel after the game a Cleveland reporter asked him if he was afraid of fans retaliating in Cleveland he responded nah they don't have enough fans to worry about Cleveland media kept the city riled over the course of the next week on the morning of the fourth several newspapers ran a story recalling the May 29 fight and noting hopefully the battling will be strictly in the form of baseball the Newark Advocate of Newark Ohio ran the story under the headline Rangers and Indians to resume base brawling brohammer was quoted as saying that he had cooled down and wasn't looking for a fight instead he hoped to get revenge by winning all three games of the upcoming series Indians manager Ken esperante doubted that there would be any trouble saying that when these things happen they're spontaneous and not planned the Cleveland fans on the other hand might have been making plans of Their Own Texas quickly took the lead in the second inning after a home run by outfielder Tom grieve but a buzz was in the air or rather in the crowd at the end of the second inning a woman hopped the fence ran over to the Indians on Deck Circle ripped off her shirt bearing her breasts to the raucous approval of the crowd and then tried to kiss the Umpire amazingly it wasn't the weirdest thing that would happen that night nor the only Act of exhibitionism the fun was not all good-natured Not only was a crowd throwing firecrackers and keeping the grounds crew busy throwing garbage under the field but when Rangers pitcher Fergie Jenkins got hit in the stomach with a line drive the crowd started chanting hit him again meanwhile the beer kept flowing unable to keep up the vendors reportedly gave up trying to check IDs and started filling up whatever container was handed to them nineteen-year-old van Terry yurkick recalled I had a big dog and suds mug maybe 32 ounces looked like a mini keg another witness said that as the crowd which he described as notably younger and longer-haired than usual grew progressively more drunk there were some Antics every half inning or so young fans ran into the field and Dodge security when grieve hit a second home run in the fourth extending the Rangers lead to five to one a naked man ran into the field and slid into second base in the fifth inning a father-son team jumped onto the field and boomed the crowd another Streaker ran across the field carrying his clothes with him but still wearing his left sock as he approached the fence he threw his clothes over planning his escape the crowd could see what he could not a Cleveland police officer was on the other side of the fence catching both the clothes and the offender the game had to be halted in the sixth says the crowd was doing firecrackers into the bullpen umpire Nestor shylack cleared the bullpen but was trying to let play continue fans were no longer just throwing beer and firecrackers but also rocks batteries in any part of the stadium that wasn't bolted down a group of fans started trying to tug the padding off the left field wall drawing the grounds crew away from picking up the growing pile of trash that was landing on the field despite the Antics the game continued and Cleveland managed to tie the game at five all in the bottom of the ninth with two out in the winning run on second but then 19 year old Terry yurkick the fan with the dogs and suds mug decided that he wanted a souvenir was not a good decision he jumped the fence ran up behind Texas outfielder Jeff Burrows and grabbed his hat there's some controversy regarding what happened next according to your kick Burrows kicked him but because of the slope of the diamond from the Rangers Dugout all Billy Martin could see was Burl's legs and it looked like he'd been knocked down more fans were climbing onto the field and Martin thought Jeff was out there all by himself I saw knives and other things we just couldn't let our teammate get beat up he ordered his team under the field carrying bats to protect boroughs it was not a good decision seeing the Rangers leave The Dugout sparked the already riled and inebriated mob fans stormed the field greatly outnumbering the players Martin recalled now I know how the people of the Alamo felt the crowd was carrying knives chains clubs made from Stadium seats Stadium security was overwhelmed although it's hard to see what they could have done in any case and no one had considered asking for a greater police presence seeing the melee and Rangers players being injured esperante ordered the Indians onto the field the two teams who have been fighting each other so recently made common cause against the mob outnumbered they fought their way back to the dugouts and retreated into the locker rooms behind locked doors shylac bleeding from a cut on his head from a thrown bottle called the game as soon as the players made it inside he said he didn't do it earlier for fear it would spark retaliation against the players the game was called a forfeit going into the record books it's a 9-0 loss for the Indians fans kept rioting stealing everything they could take including literally stealing the Stadium's bases so really the organist played Take Me Out to the Ball Game director of Stadium operations Dan Zerby ordered the light shut off and the Cleveland Police arrived and restored order despite the apparent violence there were no serious injuries and less than a dozen arrests area hospitals reported seven people treated and released Martin was quoted saying that's the closest you'll ever see to a guy getting killed in baseball Zerby opined there is no doubt in my mind what caused the problem it was the beer shylak called The Crowd uncontrollable Beast Indians vice president Alva Banda said in the end there was no way that even a thousand policemen could have controlled a few that were determined to act up but nonetheless blamed shylak and the crew for family control the game and protested the forfeit newspapers had a field day The Windsor Star headline read South tried fans Force forfeit some responded with humor but others took the right seriously and called for an end to beer sales at baseball games despite the calls to change the sport and stop selling beer at Major League Baseball games nothing really changed the American League issued a memorandum instructing all teams to let them know in advance if they're going to have any promotional events and the Indians decided that the next time they had a 10 cent beer night that they would limit patrons to four beers per night no exceptions and actually in the end it appeared that this is one of those spontaneous events the Indians and the Rangers played the next two nights they split the wins and there were no incidents and the Indians held another 10 cent beer night in July and that went without incident or at least without a riot the Rangers finished the season 84 and 76 second in the American League West behind the A's who won the series that year they were the first and so far only team in Major League Baseball history to finish over 500 after two consecutive 100 lost seasons Burroughs was the American League MVP Hargrove The Rook of the year and the Associated Press named Billy Martin the American League manager of the year the Cleveland Indians finished 77 and 85 a lackluster fourth in the American League East 10 cent beer and I perhaps summed up well a dismal decade for Cleveland and their baseball team the prospects for both would eventually improve but not really until the 1990s Terry yurkick the fan Whose desire for a souvenir apparently sparked the riot perhaps summed up the attitude of clevelanders to both their city and their baseball team at the time he said it never occurred to us that they would forfeit we were disappointed yes but the Indians weren't very good then it's not like it cost them a pennant or anything I hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short Snippets have forgotten history between 10 and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that Thumbs Up Button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section I will be happy to personally respond be sure to follow the history guy on Facebook Instagram Twitter and check out our merchandise on teespring.com and if you'd like more episodes on forgotten history all you need to do is 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Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 205,643

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy

Id: ICPj08Z_RNc

Length: 59min 0sec (3540 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 16 2022