I am honestly surprised none of my history teachers in high school taught about the Dead Rabbits Riot. It’s so related to what’s happening today with Donald Trump being president and many Americans feeling animosity towards immigrants and a sense of nativism.
The riot came about in 1857 when these two antipodal gangs the Dead Rabbits and the Bowery Boys got into a massive bloody fight. The Bowery Boys were complete nativists and despised the Irish. When Wood became mayor of New York, the nativists grew more unhappy and limited his actions by instilling certain laws. This of course made the Irish folks upset and gave them a reason to feel attacked (Wood helped employ many Irish people in the recession). Also, many nativists targeted the Irish in many political cartoons showcasing the Irish as utter buffoons and violent alcoholics . A law was enforced at the time that prohibited the sale of any alcohol on Sundays, something the Irish immigrants consumed consistently as a means of culture, business and at gathering places like saloons to socialize. Furthermore, nativists tried to run many Irish businesses out by increasing their taxes. Hence, the riots began.
What’s so awful and imperative for us to know about this riot is the consequences it caused. About a dozen people were killed from a dispute that grew out of not understanding another demographic in America and blaming them for their own troubles. If the nativists had been cognizant of the fact that Irish immigrants came from a different culture but were ultimately just good humans trying to make better lives for themselves here in America, no deaths would have occurred along with political and social tensions between ethnic groups. Nativists and Irish immigrants could have worked together and come up with a compromise or mutual understanding amidst a recession and help the economy and American families for the better. This is pretty much the case with America today. However, no riot with deaths have risen yet. Hopefully, we can all look back on this incident and recognize what’s better for Americans in the end.
