This month we are marking the 160th anniversary of one of the most dramatic moments in New York City history – the Civil War Draft Riots which stormed through the city from July 13 to July 16, 1863.
Thousands of people took to the streets on Manhattan in violent protest, fueled initially by anger over conscription to the Union Army which sent New Yorkers to the front lines of the Civil War. (Or, most specifically, those who couldn’t afford to pay the $300 commutation fee were sent to war.)
In many ways, our own city often seems to have forgotten these significant events.
There are very few memorials or plaques in existence at all to the Draft Riots, a very odd situation given the numerous markers to other tragic and unsettling moments in New York City history.
In particular, given the number of African-Americans who were murdered in the streets during these riots, and the numbers of Black families who fled New York in terror, we think this is a very significant oversight.
In this episode, a remastered, re-edited edition of our 2011 show, we take you through those hellish days of deplorable violence and appalling attacks on abolitionists, Republicans, wealthy citizens, and anybody standing in the way of blind anger. Mobs filled the streets, destroying businesses (from corner stores to Brooks Brothers) and threatening to throw the city into permanent chaos.
Visit the website for more information
FURTHER LISTENING
Fernando Wood: The Scoundrel Mayor of New York
The Hoaxes and Conspiracies of New York
And did you see this performance from the musical Paradise Square, set during the Draft Riots?
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#263 Ebbets Field and the Glory Days of the Brooklyn Dodgers
#262 Secrets of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine
#261 The Huddled Masses: Emma Lazarus and the Statue of Liberty
#260 Journey to Grey Gardens: A Tale of Two Edies
#259 Crossing to Brooklyn: How the Williamsburg Bridge Changed New York
#258 Tales from Tribeca History
#257 Frozen In Time: The Great Blizzard of 1888
#256 DUMBO: Life on Brooklyn's Waterfront
#255 The Rescue of Grand Central
#254 The Destruction of Penn Station
#253 Opening Day of the New York City Subway
#252 The Underground Railroad: Escape through New York
#251 McGurk's Suicide Hall: The Bowery's Most Notorious Dive
#250 The Empire State Building: Story of an Icon
#249 Madam C.J. Walker: Harlem's Hair Care Millionaire
#248 Sitting Down with Roz Chast of the New Yorker
#247 Rodgers and Hammerstein: The Golden Age of Broadway
#246 Tales from a Tenement: Three Families on the Lower East Side
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