IRISH-AMERICAN-L Archives

From: "" <>
Subject: Re: [IRISH-AMER] {Possible Spam} "Irish Confetti" - NYC Draft Riots1863 - Relationships w/blacks
Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2008 22:51:46 -0000
References: <22b301c87bc4$d95aeb80$201ecac6@jean>
In-Reply-To: <22b301c87bc4$d95aeb80$201ecac6@jean>

As more of a reader rather than a writer on this forum, I don't often get
too involved here..............

But Jean's piece seems fairly balanced and believable to me here in Ireland
!

Keep up the good work Jean !!

Kind regards,

Stuart
www.irelandandirish.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jean R." <>
To: <>
Cc: <>
Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2008 5:51 PM
Subject: {Possible Spam} [IRISH-AMER] "Irish Confetti" - NYC Draft Riots
1863 - Relationships w/blacks


> SNIPPET: The incidence of rioting in America surged in the 1830s and
> more
> often than not, it seemed, the Irish were involved. On many occasions
> they
> were the victims of mob violence, as in Philadelphia's so-called Bible
> Riots
> of 1844 or the burning of a Marine Hospital (that housed sick immigrants,
> mostly Irish) on Staten Island in NY in 1858. At least as often, however,
> the Irish took a central role in the rioting. When abolitionists held
> rallies in the 1830s and 1840s, for example, they were frequently attacked
> by mobs of angry Irishmen who feared labor competition with free blacks.
> Clashes on July 12, the day Protestant Irish Orange parades took place,
> became annual events in cities like NY. The worst riot involving the
> Irish
> (indeed, the worst in all of American history) was the Draft Riot of 1863.
> The association with the Irish with rioting became so strong by
> mid-century
> that paving stones, often pulled up and hurled during riots, came to be
> known a "Irish confetti."
>
> The worst incident associated with the Irish was the NYC Draft Riots that
> occurred in July 1863. The poor performance of the Union Army and the
> unanticipated carnage produced by the war left the LINCOLN administration
> desperate for soldiers. In March 1862, Congress authorized the first
> military draft in U.S. history. All male citizens (and immigrants who had
> applied for citizenship) aged 20-45 were eligible to be drafted into the
> Union Army. The draft proved to be extremely unpopular, especially among
> the urban poor, large numbers of whom were Irish. Many had been willing
> to
> fight when the war was simply about restoring the Union. But LINCOLN's
> announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in January had fundamentally
> changed the goals of the war. Working-class Irish in NY and other
> Northern
> cities had long been told by Democratic politicians that the greatest
> threat
> to their livelihoods (such as they were) was the abolition of slavery. It
> would result, they were told, in ex-slaves flooding Northern labor markets
> to compete with the poor Irish. Adding to their discontent was the fact
> that wealthy men could avoid serving in the army by paying a "commutation
> fee" of three hundred dollars (the annual wage earned by labourers) to the
> government, or by hiring a substitute to serve in their place. More and
> more, they argued, it was becoming "a rich man's war and a poor man's
> fight." On Monday July 13, 1863, mobs of workers - mostly Irish -
> registered their opposition to the draft by tearing up NYC for four days.
> Although they focused much of their anger against symbols of the war like
> draft offices and institutions associated with the Republican Party, the
> rioters also assaulted African Americans, killing at least eleven.
>
> It is important to remember that far more Irish Americans fought and died
> for the Union cause than participated in the riot. And when it came time
> to
> suppress the violence, Irish Americans played a leading role. As
> "Harper's
> Weekly," a journal rarely friendly to the Irish put it: "It must be
> remembered in palliation of the disgrace which, as Archbishop HUGHES says,
> the riots of last week have heaped upon the Irish name, that in many wards
> of the city, the Irish were during the late riot staunch friends of law
> and
> order; that Irishmen helped to rescue the colored orphans in the asylum
> from
> the hands of the rioters; that a large proportion of the police, who
> behaved
> throughout the riot with the most exemplary gallantry, are Irishmen; that
> the Roman Catholic priesthood to a man used their influence on the side of
> the law; and that perhaps the most scathing rebuke administered to the
> riot
> was written by an Irishman - James T. BRADY.
>
> The racial dimension of the Draft Riots, as well as many less spectacular
> incidents of anti-Black violence by the Irish, indicate the existence of a
> high level of racism. Yet the relationship between Irish and blacks was
> complex to say the least. On the one hand, many Irish Americans,
> especially
> those living in large urban centers of the North, developed virulent
> anti-Black sentiments. This occurred for several reasons. First, the
> Irish
> viewed black workers as competitors for low-paid work as laborers and
> domestic servants. As if to emphasize the perception, on several
> occasions
> in the 1840s and 1850s, factory owners and shipyard operators used free
> blacks as replacement workers during strikes by Irish workers. Second,
> the
> Irish flocked to the Democratic Party, which in the antebellum era was the
> part of the slave South. Democratic politicians and their newspapers took
> every opportunity to emphasize the inferiority of the slave and to depict
> abolitionists as godless radicals bent on bringing about social
> revolution.
> Some historians, most notably Noel IGNATIEV in his provocative book, "How
> the Irish Became White," have argued that adopting anti-Black racisms
> allowed the Irish to gain admittance into American society (albeit at the
> bottom). While his thesis is too simplistic (the Irish would be
> considered
> a lesser "race" into the 20th century), its general conclusion is
> persuasive. On the other hand, there were many significant positive
> aspects
> to the Irish and African American relationship. For one thing, as the two
> poorest and least liked groups, Irish and blacks frequently shared the
> same
> overcrowded neighborhoods. Not surprisingly, cases of intermarriage
> between
> African American men and Irish women resulted. -- Excerpts, "Edward. T.
> O'DONNELL (Holden, MA), "1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Irish
> American History" (Broadway Books NY 2002).
>
>
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