Reading the American Past: Printed Page 289

DOCUMENT 15–3

The New York Draft Riots

In 1863, Congress instituted a draft to provide soldiers for the Union army. Strongly opposed by Democrats, the draft met resistance in many northern cities, but in New York it sparked nearly a week of deadly riots in mid-July — shortly after Union successes at Gettysburg and Vicksburg — that killed more than one hundred people, mostly black Americans. Racism, ethnic hatreds, job competition, and other forces boiled among white, heavily Irish, and Democratic mobs, causing them to target the city's black population. Immediately after the riots, a group of city merchants collected funds to help African Americans who had suffered during the riots. In the excerpt below from the merchants' detailed report, a portrait of New York's African Americans is combined with accounts of specific incidents that illustrate the fury of the rioters and the innocence of the victims. The riots demonstrate the intense hostilities — racial, partisan, ethnic, and economic — that the Civil War generated in the North.

Report of the Committee of Merchants for the Relief of Colored People Suffering from the Late Riots in the City of New York, 1863

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY

Driven by the fear of death at the hands of the mob, who the week previous had, as you remember, brutally murdered, by hanging on trees and lamp posts several of their number, and cruelly beaten and robbed many others, burning and sacking their houses and driving nearly all from the streets, alleys and docks upon which they had previously obtained an honest though humble living — these people had been forced to take refuge on Blackwell's Island, at Police Stations, on the outskirts of the city, in the swamps and woods back of Bergen, New Jersey . . . and in the barns and out-houses of the farmers of Long Island. . . . At these places were scattered some 5,000 homeless and helpless men, women, and children. . . .

During the month ending August 21st there have been 3,941 women, and 2,443 men, making a total of 6,384 persons of mature age, relieved; full one-third being heads of families, whose children were included in the relief afforded by your committee, making a total of 12,782 persons relieved.

Of the 2,443 men relieved, their occupations were as follows:

Of the 3,941 women, were

INCIDENTS OF THE RIOT

ABRAHAM FRANKLIN

This young man who was murdered by the mob on the corner of Twenty-seventh St., and Seventh avenue, was a quiet, inoffensive man, 23 years of age, of unexceptionable character, and a member of Zion African Church in this city. Although a cripple, he earned a living for himself and his mother by serving a gentleman in the capacity of coachman. A short time previous to the assault upon his person, he called upon his mother to see if anything could be done by him for her safety. The old lady, who is noted for her piety and her Christian deportment, said she considered herself perfectly safe; but if her time to die had come, she was ready to die. Her son then knelt down by her side, and implored the protection of Heaven in behalf of his mother. The old lady was affected to tears, and said to our informant that it seemed to her that good angels were present in the room. Scarcely had the supplicant risen from his knees, when the mob broke down the door, seized him, beat him over the head and face with fists and clubs, and then hanged him in the presence of his mother.

While they were thus engaged, the military came and drove them away, cutting down the body of Franklin, who raised his arm once slightly and gave a few signs of life.

The military then moved on to quell other riots, when the mob returned and again suspended the now probably lifeless body of Franklin, cutting out pieces of flesh and otherwise mutilating it.

AUGUSTUS STUART

Died at the Hospital, Blackwell's Island July 22d, from the effects of a blow received at the hands of the mob, within one block and a half of the State Arsenal, corner 7th Avenue and 35th street, on Wednesday evening, July 15th. He had been badly beaten previously by a band of rioters and was frightened and insane from the effects of the blows which he had received. He was running towards the Arsenal for safety when he was overtaken by the mob from whom he received his death blow.

Mrs. Stuart, his wife, says that some of the rioters declared that at the second attack upon him he had fired a pistol at his pursuers; but she says that if he did, he must have obtained the weapon from some friend after he had left home, a few minutes before, for he had no weapon then, nor was he ever known to have had one. He was a member of the church.

PETER HEUSTON

Peter Heuston, sixty-three years of age, a Mohawk Indian, with dark complexion and straight black hair, who has for several years been a resident of this city, at the corner of Rosevelt and Oak streets, and who has obtained a livelihood as a laborer, proved a victim to the late riots.

His wife died about three weeks before the riots, leaving with her husband an only child, a little girl named Lavinia, aged eight years. . . . Heuston served with the New York Volunteers in the Mexican War, and has always been loyal to our government. He was brutally attacked on the 13th of July by a gang of ruffians who evidently thought him to be of the African race because of his dark complexion. He died within four days at Bellevue Hospital from his injuries.

At the end of the Mexican War Heuston received a land warrant from the government, which enabled him to settle on a tract of land at the West, where he lived but a short time previous to his coming to this city.

JEREMIAH ROBINSON

Mrs. Nancy Robinson, widow of the above, killed in Madison near Catherine street, says that her husband in order to escape dressed himself up in some of her clothes, and in company with herself and one other woman left their residence and went towards one of the Brooklyn Ferries.

Robinson wore a hood, which failed to hide his beard. Some boys seeing his beard, lifted up the skirts of his dress, which exposed his heavy boots. Immediately the mob set upon him and the atrocities they perpetrated upon him are so indecent, they are unfit for publication. They finally killed him and threw his body into the river.

His wife and her companion ran up Madison street and escaped across the Grand street Ferry to Brooklyn.

WILLIAM JONES

A crowd of rioters in pursuit of a negro, who in self defence had fired on some rowdies who had attacked him, met an innocent colored man returning from a bakery with a loaf of bread under his arm. They instantly set upon and beat him and after nearly killing him, hanged him to a lamp-post. His body was left suspended for several hours and was much mutilated.

A sad illustration of the painful uncertainty which hung over the minds of the wives and children of the colored men was found in the fact that two wives and their families, were both mourning the loss of their husbands in the case of this man, for upwards of two weeks after its occurrence. And so great was the fear inspired by the mob that no white person had dared to manifest sufficient interest in the mutilated body of the murdered man while it remained in the neighborhood to be able to testify as to who it was. At the end of two weeks the husband of one of the mourners to her great joy returned, like one recovered from the grave. . . .

WM. HENRY NICHOLS

Died July 16th, from injuries received at the hands of the rioters on the 15th of July.

Mrs. Statts, his mother, tells this story: —

The father of Wm. Henry died some years ago, and the boy has since, by good behavior, with persevering industry, earned his own living; he was a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in good standing. I had arrived from Philadelphia, the previous Monday evening, before any indications of the riot were known, and was temporarily stopping, on Wednesday, July 15th, at the house of my son, No. 147 East 28th street.

At 3 o'clock of that day the mob arrived and immediately commenced an attack with terrific yells, and a shower of stones and bricks, upon the house. In the next room to where I was sitting was a poor woman, who had been confined with a child on Sunday, three days previous. Some of the rioters broke through the front door with pick axes, and came rushing into the room where this poor woman lay, and commenced to pull the clothes from off her. Knowing that their rage was chiefly directed against men, I hid my son behind me and ran with him through the back door, down into the basement. In a little while I saw the innocent babe, of three days old, come crashing down into the yard; some of the rioters had dashed it out of the back window, killing it instantly. In a few minutes streams of water came pouring down into the basement, the mob had cut the Croton water-pipes with their axes. Fearing we should be drowned in the cellar, (there were ten of us, mostly women and children, there) I took my boy and flew past the dead body of the babe, out to the rear of the yard, hoping to escape with him through an open lot into 29th street; but here, to our horror and dismay, we met the mob again; I, with my son, had climbed the fence, but the sight of those maddened demons so affected me that I fell back, fainting, into the yard; my son jumped down from the fence to pick me up, and a dozen of the rioters came leaping over the fence after him. As they surrounded us my son exclaimed, “save my mother, gentlemen, if you kill me.” “Well, we will kill you,” they answered; and with that two ruffians seized him, each taking hold of an arm, while a third, armed with a crow-bar, calling upon them to stand and hold his arms apart, deliberately struck him a heavy blow over the head, felling him, like a bullock, to the ground. (He died in the N. Y. hospital two days after). I believe if I were to live a hundred years I would never forget that scene, or cease to hear the horrid voices of that demoniacal mob resounding in my ears. . . .

CASE OF BRUTALITY

At a late hour on Wednesday night, a colored man, named Charles Jackson, was passing along West street, in the neighborhood of Pier No. 5; North river. He was a laboring man, and was dressed in a tarpaulin, a blue shirt, and heavy duck trousers. As he was passing a groggery [tavern] in that vicinity, he was observed by a body of dock men, who instantly set after him. He ran with all the swiftness his fears could excite, but was overtaken before he had gone a block. His persecutors did not know him nor did they entertain any spite against him beyond the fact that he was a black man and a laborer about the docks, which they consider their own peculiar field of labor. Nevertheless they knocked him down, kicked him in the face and ribs, and finally by the hands of their leader, deliberately attempted to cut his throat. The body, dead they supposed it, was then thrown into the water and left to sink. Fortunately life was not extinct and the sudden plunge brought the poor fellow to his senses, and being a good swimmer he was enabled instinctively to seek for the net work of the dock. This he soon found, but was so weak from the loss of blood and so faint with pain that he could do no more than hold on and wait for day. The day after, Messrs. Kelly and Curtis, of Whitehall, discovered him lying half dead in the water.

From Report of the Committee of Merchants for the Relief of Colored People Suffering from the Late Riots in the City of New York (New York: George A. Whitehorne, 1863).

Questions for Reading and Discussion