On page 18 of “Brownsville, Brooklyn,” Wendell Pritchett writes: “Separating fact from myth, reality from nostalgia, is difficult.” Throughout the readings, especially the two chapters from Anbinder, I found it difficult to get a clear picture of how life in Five Points actually was. In both Pritchett and Anbinder’s novels, the hellish descriptions of Five Points and Brownsville are contradicted by tales of immigrant success and by hints that residents of these impoverished neighborhoods may have actually been relatively happy.
Anbinder reveals on page 37: “There may have been irredeemable individuals, yet the immigrants who dominated Five Points survived and eventually thrived in their new homeland. Five Points had more fighting, drinking, and vice than almost everywhere else; but also more dancing and nightlife, more dense networks of clubs and charities, and opportunities both small and large for those who seized them.”
A description of Five Points from Davy Crockett’s An Account of Col. Crockett’s Tour to the North and Down East on page 26 of “Five Points” also gives conflicting positive and negative descriptions: “The buildings are little, old, frame houses and looked like some little country village…. It appeared as if the cellar was jam full of people; and such fiddling and dancing nobody ever saw before in this world. Black and white, white and black, all hugemsnug together, happy as lords and ladies, sitting sometimes round in a ring, with a jug of liquor between them: and I do think I saw more drunk folks, men and women, that day, than I ever saw before.”
“I thought I would rather risk myself in an Indian fight than venture among these creatures after night. I said to the colonel, ‘…these are worse than savages; they are too mean to swab hells kitchen.”
Whether or not the conditions described are over exaggerated, I find it hard to imagine that anyone could be happy living in the Five Points tenements. The sweltering heat, the freezing cold, the filth, the excrement, and the perpetual darkness that flooded the tenements – conditions that should have been unbearable were endured by hundreds of desperate people. Reading about these miserable living conditions makes me especially grateful to be writing this from my own, quiet, clean, warm bedroom.
Multiple times in “Five Points,” Anbinder describes the tenements as prisons and the tenants as inmates held captive by their poverty. I found this ironic considering that the Common Council had petitioned in 1830 to replace the tenements with an actual prison but were unable to pass it because “disease would spread uncontrollably in a prison built on such low damp ground.” I scoffed at the idea that what was considered to be unfit for prisoners was suitable for hundreds of struggling, hardworking people.
Living day-to-day, unable to pay the rent, and constantly smelling shit it’s amazing to me that only some of the Five Points residents sought comfort in prostitutes and alcohol or relieved stress through the medium of drunken brawls. Hell, if I had to live in a literal shit hole and risk dying either from cholera or apartment fires everyday, I would drink every night until I blacked out and take a swing at anyone who insulted me or my ethnic background. The loathsome attitude felt by outsiders towards the Five Points residents is completely ridiculous. Instead of judging the Five Pointers, it might have been nice if someone (other than religious missionaries) tried to help them.
I got the impression from the Anbinder readings that tenement living was a lucrative industry for landlords, sub-landlords, the media (specifically newspapers), and the tourism industry. All four managed to make money off other people pain. Landlords and sub-landlords overcharged the struggling immigrants for shelter and skimped out on spending money to reduce fire hazards and protect the safely of their tenants. The newspapers sold millions of copies by covering stories about the miserable tenants and their misfortune and tour guides charged middle and upper class people money for tours of Five Points like some twisted kind of amusement park. Of course, it makes perfect sense why in capitalistic society, no one would help the Five Points residents: because Five Points was good business.
Like last week, I found the Anbinder readings to be the most captivating. The descriptions of the Five Points tenements were disgusting and yet oddly captivating. Initially, I was completely appalled by the practice of “slumming,” but I can understand why people would find Five Towns fascinating. As terrible as it was, I imagine slumming to be somewhat like stepping into a reality TV show filled with riots, fights, racial tensions, sex, alcohol addictions, and scandal. Really, how different is it from reality TV? Given the opportunity, I probably would have gone slumming too. It’s amazing how people are so captivated, so entertained by the suffering other people.
To the well off, helping the infamous Five Pointers was out of the question but Anbinder provides a handful of examples of the poorest of people helping each other. On page 88 Anbinder quotes a journalist: “The kindness of these poor people to each other is frequently astonishing but must be witnessed to be appreciated” and a House of Industry Publication: “a woman and five children in a room without a fire, and for the last two days they had no food save for a morsel given them by a neighbor almost as poor as themselves….”
The more I read about Five Towns, the more anti-capitalistic my thoughts became. The drive for money and luxury items really is a terrible thing. It creates animosity between classes and justifies the exploitation of other human beings. The poor being victimized most often, I was not at all surprised by the socialist movement in Brownsville, Brooklyn. For those suffering under capitalism, socialism seems like a reasonable solution. While socialism has its pitfalls, you have to admit capitalism is pretty screwed up. Maybe I really am a Marxist….
