NYC Draft Riots (1863)

Mon Jul 13, 1863

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The NYC Draft Riots began on this day in 1863, the culmination of racist white anger and working-class discontent over new conscription laws, passed to bolster the ongoing Civil War. The riots were suppressed by the U.S. Army.

The rioters were overwhelmingly white working-class men, mostly Irish immigrants or of Irish descent, who feared free black people competing for work. They also resented that the wealthy, who could afford to pay a $300 (equivalent to $6,200 in 2019) commutation fee to hire a substitute and avoid the draft.

Although the event ostensibly began as anger against conscription, the disorder quickly devolved into a race riot. The exact death toll during the New York draft riots is unknown, but historian James M. McPherson has estimated that around 120 people were killed. Most of those killed were Irish, who were the majority of the rioters.

Eleven black people were lynched. The event lasted three days and was suppressed by the U.S. Army on orders from President Lincoln. The race riot remains one of the largest of its kind in U.S. history.

  • PlantJam@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    Referring to the Irish in 1863 as “white” is hilarious.

    Can you expand on this? Was “white” just not commonly used at the time? Or were the Irish just though of as less-than and therefore also not-white?

    • FlightyPenguin@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      The latter. Whiteness is a social construct that has been used as a convenient way to stratify classes since the 17th century, and it isn’t always about skin color. Plenty of pale ethnicities have been left out at various times, then subsumed when it suited the powerful to balance the in from the out. The new insiders would naturally fight to protect their new higher status from their former peers who were now lesser than they. Irish settlers were the outsiders of the day, like Latin American migrant workers are today. It’s about exploiting the powerless and keeping a pecking order in place.

      • roig@lemmy.worldOPMBEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Fully agree. I would add that racist behaviours in racialized ethnicities (as the Irish people in NY at that time) is not, historically, extraordinary.

    • MrMonkey@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      The 2nd. There was much hatred of the Irish for most of their history, even today. Nobody would event think about calling an irishman “white”, same for Italians at the same time.

      No Irish Need Apply

      The “white” concept is fairly new and changes often. Irish definitely weren’t “white” at this time.

      The current use of “white” is a stupid concept trying to split humanity into two groups: “white” and “colored”, with some quantum-races too. Jewish people, hispanics, etc can be “white” or not depending on the situation.

      I’m not “white”, I’m Swedish and German. Don’t deny my heritage by lumping me in with everyone else.