The Dead Rabbits riot in 1857 occurred due to conflicts between the Dead Rabbits, an Irish-American gang, and the Bowery Boys, a nativist, anti-Catholic, and anti-Irish gang. This tension rooted from two democratic groups in Five Points – one that supported the mayor Fernando Wood and the other that did not. Many Irish Catholic immigrants supported him because of his efforts to provide food and jobs during the recession. Moreover, he attempted to prevent the sale limitation of alcoholic beverages. On the other hand, people did not support Wood because he did not follow Tammany’s leadership and broke his promise to enforce temperance legislation, infuriating many Democrats, Whigs, and Republicans. When Wood was reelected and won the Sixth Ward Election, the Democrats who did not support him joined the Republicans to punish him by enforcing laws that limited his power and responsibilities. For instance, the License Law raised the price of liquor license and banned the sale of alcohol on Sundays, and the Metropolitan Police Act disbanded the city’s police department and replaced it with a state appointed force. Ultimately, many small businesses and shops couldn’t afford liquor anymore and Wood couldn’t have any influence on the police. In fact, a lot of Irish immigrants drank liquor as a social activity and had jobs in the police department as a way to move up in society. These legislations incensed the immigrants since they felt like they were being targeted and their freedom and rights were being taken away. Eventually, tension between the opposing gangs, the Dead Rabbits and the Bowery Boys, rose and broke out into the Dead Rabbits riot on July 4, 1857.
I have never witnessed any overt ethnic or racial violence similar to the Dead Rabbits Riot, but I have heard moments of racial tension on the NYC subway. A couple of days ago, a passenger on a Brooklyn train attacked a 27-year-old Hispanic man. He demanded the man to leave America by saying, “Go back to your country,” and other racist insults. Ethnic conflicts occur all the time, from the news to these Trump stories, so it was not surprising when I heard of this situation. Especially on trains as it is a public space, people incite verbal, and even violent, tension about culture or race.
