Reitano, Joanne R. The Restless City: A Short History of New York from Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.
Walt Whitman characterized New York as a “proud and passionate city”, defiant and intolerant of limits. New York’s conflicts over religion, education, labor and home rule, sprouted from the city’s economic growth from 1840-1865, validated Whitman’s characterizations and provided a constructive chaos that confronted the human dynamics of change. Whitman understood the value New York placed on the new rather than the old, which led to the eventual acceptance of New York’s immigration influx that made it a “city of the world”.
New York became the center of the nation’s commerce, and not without the creation of a great economic disparity. By 1845 the top 4% accounted for 80% of the city’s wealth. Slums began to sprout in the five streets near Chatham Square, where the Old Brewery, a brewery turned tenement, became the last refuge of the poor. The growing unrest of the poor in the 1840’s led to the 1849 Astor Place Riots, which resulted in a total of 29 deaths. Born from the conflict between an English actor and an American actor over a part in Hamlet, the Astor Place Riots symbolized the intense hatred between the aristocrats and impoverished criminals of New York City. Gang members attended the English Actor Macready’s performance in the Astor Opera House, a symbol of aristocratic wealth in New York. At the start of the play, they hurled rotten eggs and chairs at Macready. Following this incident, a few of New York’s elite released an open letter urging Macready to return to the stage, promising him protection. Macready heeded the call to the stage, and the gangsters returned; however, this time the police were present and thwarted an attempted attack on Macready. While unrest grew amongst the protestors outside the Opera House, 350 militia members arrived to “missiles of rocks and paving stones.” Eventually the militia fired on the crowd, dividing the national discussion on disparity of classes in New York City. Several Philadelphia papers asked why the mob leaders were not simply arrested and the show closed, and why the militia was called upon to stop the protest. The oddity that was the Astor Place Riots brought New York to the center of class conflict discussion.
The growing class conflict of the mid-19th century was in many respects a direct result of the colossal influx to New York of Irish immigrants during the potato famine crisis. The Irish were thrown to the depths of society, constituting half of the people arrested and 70% of alms recipients. The arrival of so many Irish immigrants sparked a nativist movement in New York, built upon the clashes of Protestantism and Irish Catholicism. This anti-Catholic sentiment lead to the founding of many New York Catholic parochial schools. Because the Irish were impoverished, these schools were underfunded; Bishop John Hughes politicized the funding of religious schools, amassing great support for the Democratic Party. The Catholics’ efforts eventually led to the establishment of a nonsectarian education board, making education more “ecumenical”.
While some responded to the growing Irish Catholic presence with attempts to convert them to Protestantism, many preachers engaged in harsh anti-Catholic that inspired violent conflict. However, nativism conflicted with New York culture, and was destined to fade into the past.
Fernando Wood, a controversial figure of the mid-19th Century, served three terms as mayor, demonstrating both corruptness in his elections and generosity in his work with the impoverished. Wood naturalized immigrants and allowed gangs free reign on election days to ensure that these immigrants voted for him. On the positive side, however, Wood promoted architectural safety, efficient transportation, education, and public works that celebrated the glory of NYC. Most notable was Wood’s struggled with State politicians for control of New York City affairs, which led to Wood’s call for a “free city”, or essentially a secession from the state. In Wood’s final year as mayor, panic ensued. The 1857 Excise Law made “liquor license fees too expensive for small businessmen, restricted the sale of alcohol by the drink, and prohibited the consumption of alcohol on Sundays and election days.” This Republican law was a direct attack on the German and Irish immigrant culture; the main purpose of the law was to curb Wood’s political corruption and alcohol consumption at the same time. Republican followed this law with the Metropolitan Police Act, making the New York City police department independent of the city and removing Wood from its control. Wood’s opposition to the law caused police officers to choose between the Metropolitan and Municipal forces. Wood’s continued defiance incited the first of many riots in his final term as mayor, culminating in the 1857 Bread Riot, in which people demanded work as a right to live. The conflicts caused by the Republicans successfully removed Wood from office causing him to lose his next election.
New York class conflict was epitomized in the 1863 Draft Riots. In the worst riot in U.S. history, the mob attacked the provost marshal’s building where the draft lottery was taking place. The central issue to the mob was that the rich could buy substitutes for 300 dollars, a sum unaffordable by any of the working class. All week long, they targeted Republican sites spanning New York City, and expanded their violence to African-Americans, Jews, Germans, and Chinese. These riots were the pinnacle of lower class outrage in the 1800’s; the riots resulted in Republicans convincing Lincoln to halve New York State’s draft quota, and the organization of an emergency fund to substitute any firemen, policemen, impoverished family men by William Tweed. Furthermore, the riots drove many blacks out of New York. The significance of these riots in the context of the time period are often forgotten. At a time of great national divide, the draft riots evoked fear that New York would secede from the nation, damaging the financial center of the union. Whitman, truly discouraged by the 1863 riots, found hope that the city “which could raise such as the late rebellion, could also put it down.”
