Danver Steven L. (Edited). Revolts, Protests, Demonstrations, and Rebellions in American History: An Encyclopedia (ENG)
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Litwack, Leon F. North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free States, 1790–1860. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1961.
Schwalm, Leslie A. “ ‘Overrun with Free Negroes’: Emancipation and Wartime Migration
in the Upper Midwest.” Civil War History 50, no. 2 (2004): 145–174.
Excerpts from a New York Times Account
of the New York City Draft Riots (1863)
In the following exc erpt from an article entitled “Th e Reign of the Rabble,” the New Y ork
Times describes in detail the damage and disorder caused by the New York City draft rioters
in July 1863. The article contains numerous stories of individuals who were attacked by the
rioters.
In Roosevelt-street, near Pearl-street, about 4 p.m., an immense crowd reassembled, and
it was evident that they required but a spark to enkindle the most angry passions. The
character of the population in that vicinity is one well calculated to take the most active
and energetic part in the general riot. Seve ral negro habitations have been entirely
demolished in that neighborhood, and the poor tenants turned into the streets helpless.
The poor creatures look perfectly bewildered—they are unable to designate between
friend or foe. Many have lost all they ever had in the world, and some of them m ay
become charges on the county. The crowd carried away the weather boards and every
part of the negro habitations that can be detached to make firewood of. ...
At 6 o’clock P.M., the building, No. 64 and 76 Roosevelt-street, occupied by Mr. BEV-
ERLY as a colored seaman’s boarding hou se, was attacked by the rioters. The inmates
were taken from the premises, which were robbed and then set on fire. WILLIAM ARM-
STRONG, WM. HEATH and THEODORE TURNE R, all board ing there, w ere badly
beaten. They were sent to the New-York Hospital.
The colored boarding house of ALBRO LYONS, No. 20 Vandewater-street, was
attacked by th e rioters about 6 1/2 o’clock P.M., the doors broken open a nd the win-
dows entirely demolished; nine of the inmates were injured.
A man named JAMES SCOTT, aged 40 years, residing at No. 81 Roosevelt-St., in the
rear, was badly injured by the rioters; he was taken to the hospital.
About the same time THOMAS JOHNSON, a colored man, had one of his arms bro-
ken by jumping from the third story window of a house No. 62 Roosevelt-s treet, while
the house was on fire. He was rescued from the rioters by the police and was taken to
the station-house.
WILLIAM W. HILL, also colored, was dangerously injured by leaping out of a third-
story window of the same house.
MARY WILLIAMS, a colored woman, 24 years old, while being pursued by the infuri-
ated mob, jumped from a window of No. 74 Roosevelt-street to the pavement, and was
terribly injured—the building was then on fire. She was taken to Bellevue Hospital.
About 7 o’clock P.M. the house No. 2 Dover-street, occupied by WM. P. POWELL, as
a Colored Seamens’ House, was attacked by the rioters, the doors and windows broken,
446 New York Draft Riots (1863)
the occupants driven out and the furniture destroyed. The occupants were rescued by
the Police and taken to the Station-house for safety.
At 6 o’clock P.M. the house No. 11 James-slip, occupied by JAMES E. VALENTINE as a
liquor store, was attacked by the riotous mob in consequence of a colored woman taking
refuge there; she escaped when the rioters entered the place, who stole and destroyed
all the contents.
The mob took an iron safe from the store of Mr. BEARELY, No. 74 Roosevelt-street,
and Officers PENDERGAST and SWEENY, of the Fourth Ward, took it from them.
About 3 o’ clock P.M., a mob of from five to seven hundred persons commenced an
attack on some colored persons, in Baxter-street, near Park [in the Sixth Ward]. They
then went to the dining saloon of Mr. CROOK, Chatham-street, to beat the colored
waiters. Capt. JOURDON, sergeants WALSH and McGIVEN, with a platoon of men,
were promptly on hand and dispersed the crowd. They then left for the Fourth Precinct.
Mr. CROOK was compelled to close his place [and] no persons were assaulted or
injured there.
At 5 o’clock P.M., a colored woman named ELIZABETH HENNESSY, whi le standing
at the corner of Mott and Pell streets [in the Sixth Ward], was struck on the head by
an unknown ruffian, receiving a severe wound. She was taken to the New-York Hospital.
A gang of nearly 500 rioters attacked the colored people residing at Nos. 104 and 105
Park street [in the Sixth Ward], drove them into the street, assaulting them with stones
and other missiles; the Sixth Ward Police rescued the blacks, and took them to the
station-house. Capt. JONEDON, Sergts WALSH, QUINN, and KENNEDY, with a force
of men, soon dispersed the mob.
JOHN BROWN, a colored man, 40 years of age, of No. 74 Roosevlt-street, was
attacked late at night in the own [sic] house by a mob, and severely beaten about his head
and face. He escaped from the ruffians and ran to the station-house for protection.
Source: Excerpts from “The Reign of the Rabble,” New York Times, July 15, 1863.
A Rioter’s Letter to the New York Times
and the Newspaper’s Response (1863)
In the following letter to the Ne w York Times, one of the draft rioters attempts to justify his
actions by denouncing the unfairness of the draft law, which he believes forces poor men to fight
and die in a war that benefits only rich men, who have exempted themselves from military ser-
vice. In a vigorous response, the editors of the Times defend the draft law and denounce the let-
ter writer as a murderer and arsonist whose actions only harm the country and society.
To the Editor of the New-York Times:
You will, no doubt, be hard on us rioters tomorrow morning, but that 300-dollar law has
made us nobodies, vagabonds and cast-outs of society, for whom nobody cares when we
must go to w ar and be shot down. We are the poor rabb le, and the rich rabble is our
New York Draft Riots (1863) 447
enemy by this law. Therefore we will give our enemy battle right here, and ask no quar-
ter. Although we got hard fists, and are dirty without, we have soft hearts, and have clean
consciences within, and that’s the reason we love our wives and children more than the
rich, b ecause we’ve got not much besides them, and we will not go and leave them at
home for to st arve. Until that draft law is repealed, I for one am willing to knock down
more such rum-hole politicians as Kennedy. Why don’t they let the niggers kill the
slave-driving race and take possession of the South, as it belongs to them.
A [illegible] MAN, BUT A MAN FOR ALL THAT
Our correspondent is evidently very much in earnest, but he is in a very dense fog on
the subject of the draft. It may be very hard that a poor man should be compelled to
serve his country as a soldier, but he is not asked to do it gratuitously, and every possible
precaution is taken to provide for his wife and children. Thousands and hundreds of
thousands of such men have volunteered to defend their country now that its existence
is in danger, and have never dreamed that they became either “vagabonds” or a “rabble”
on that account. It i s true that men who have $300 can purchase exemption from this
honorable duty—but their $300 goes into the pockets of the poor men who may volun-
teer to take their places. Money will purchase exemption from a great many of the labors
of life, and there always will be a great many men willing to use it for tha t purpose; and
neither laws nor anything else can change this state of things.
But if o ur correspond ent thinks that thi s justifi es him in committ ing murder and
arson, or that he shows his love for his wife and children by plunging the society in which
they live into the midst of anarchy and crime, he will live to find out his mistake.
Source: New York Times, July 15, 1863.
448 New York Draft Riots (1863)
New Orleans Riot (1866)
The riots that took place in New Orleans in 1866 followed moves in Louisiana to
give greater freedoms to African Americans. Although the aim of the riot was to
try to prevent African Americans from receiving even limited rights, the reaction
in the North to the events was to harden opinion in the North behind hard-line rad-
icals who quickly gaine d enough support to push through far more sweeping
moves in favor of equal rights.
The Union forces had taken New Orleans in April 1862, and in May, they cap-
tured Baton Rouge, although they were then driven back to New Orleans. Fighting
continued by New Orleans, and some of the area around it remained in Union
hands. As New Orleans had been—and indeed, still was—the most cosmopolitan
center in the Confederacy, it was thought that moves to restore Union rule, and
also to improve the rights of African Americans, would have a better reception
there than elsewhere.
On December 8, 1863, Abraham Lincoln had p roclaimed, in his “Ten Percent
Plan,” that he intended to restore civil r ights to any state when e ssentially one-
tenth of the 1860 voting population resumed their allegiance to the Union, and this
was deemed to be the case for Louisiana. Fighting was continuing in other parts of
the state, notably Vicksburg, a nd Confederates did hold out until May 26, 1865,
but for New Orleans, the war was over. As a result, a constitutional convention
was held in 1864 in New Orleans to try to draw up plans for a postwar Louisiana.
This constitutional convention had been held under the supervision of General
Nathaniel P. Banks, who followed Lincoln’s reconstruction objectives. The con-
vention abolished slavery and affirmed civil rights for African Americans, but
did not unequivocally establish their right to vote, although those able to read
and write were enfranchised. It was in line with the attempt by Lincoln to help
the return to civilian rule, with the president hoping that a moderate policy might
win back former Confederates.
However, radicals within the Republican Party were unhappy with the limited
moves made in New Orleans, and they pushed for equal rights for African Amer-
icans to be enshrined in law. The elections held in Louisiana in 1865 had seen for-
mer Confederates regaining political power at the ballot box, and the radicals were
determined that not only should all African Americans be allowed to vote, but that
former Confederates should be deprived of the right to vote. The urgency to
449
introduce more changes followed the L ouisiana government enacting “Black
Codes,” which started placing restrictions on new (predominantly black) voters.
Indeed John T. Monroe, who had been mayor before the Civil War, was reinstated
as acting mayor on May 12, 1866, and the “Black Codes” drawn up by him and his
supporters were coming into force.
The radicals tried to work out legal moves by which they could regain power in
New Orleans, and they decided to use a loophole offered by a resolution that had
been passed by the 1864 Convention. This h ad called for the adjou rnment of the
convention, and although some d oubted its legality, it did provide a legal basis
for the reconvening of the convention. The maneuver that was used then involved
the new Republican governor of Louisiana, James M. Wells, proclaiming that the
president of the Louisiana Supreme Court, Judge R. K. Howell, had been president
of the 1 864 convention. As he had le ft the convention before it ended, it was
declared that he could not have been a member of it with voting rights. This
allowed Howell to “recall” t he convention two years later, al thoug h Judge E. H.
Durrell was actually the nominated president of the 1864 convention and had
refused to recall it.
The original convention had a quorum set at 76, and the Radicals contacted as
many of the former delegates as they could. They managed to get 43 of them to
meet at the Mechanics’ Institute in New Orleans. Of these 43, only 25 were white
delegates, but there were also some 200 supporters, most of these being African
American war veterans.
On July 27, 1866, some the 25 white members of the former convention pre-
pared to reconvene it inside the Mechanics’ Institute in New Orleans, with a large
crowd of supporters being add ressed by Anthony Paul Dostie and others outside.
Dostie addressed the throng with a stirring speech in favor of voting rights for
African Americans, and was followed by George Michael Hahn, a former sup-
porter of Stephen Douglas and the man who had been the U.S. military governor
of the state from March 1864 until March 1865. As there were only 25 former
members present, Howell declared a recess so that other members could be located
to formally enshrine in law the right to vote for African Americans.
Many of the Confederates and their supporters saw this reconvening as an
attempt to wrest power from them, and they felt that control of the state was slip-
ping from their hands. Democrats in New Orleans had alerted Lieutenant Gover-
nor Albert Voorhies, who in turn had sent a message by telegraph to President
Andrew Johnson as to what to do. Johnson’s reply was that “the military will be
expected to sustain, not obstruct or interfere with, the proceedings of the courts.”
Voorhies found this ambiguous and contacted Edwin M. Stanton, secretary of
war, who concurred wit h Johnson’s view. General Baird, the Union commander
450 New Orlean s Riot (1866)
in the region, had offered use of his troops to protect the conventi on, but had not
expected proceedings to start until 6:00 p.m.
The Confederates started mustering their supporters near the Mechanics’ Insti-
tute while their leaders worked out how the convention could be halted. The
opportunity arose when several hundred African American marchers, some play-
ing fifes or beating drums, arrived at the Mechanics’ Institute. One of the marchers
was jostled by a Confederate supporter, and the African American then punched
his adversary. The Confederate pulled out a revolver and fired. This alone di d
not lead to the riot—it was the actions of a nearby white newspaper boy who
started taunting the African Americans.
One of the policemen nearby grabbed the boy, but one of the African Americans
pulled out a pistol and opened fire at the boy, who was being dragged to police
lines. The police then opened fire on the African American marchers, and then for-
mer Confederates armed with makeshift weapons than charged into the affray,
attacking the remaining African Americans and radical Republicans who fled for
safety into the Mechanics’ Institute. A large mob of Confederates and police then
opened fire at the building, and while some of the supporters of the convention and
its members sought ref uge in the main hall where the convention was to be held,
others fled by leaping out of the building or hiding in cupboards.
Some people tried to surrender, and Rev. Dr. Horton held up his white handker-
chief offering himself up to be arrested by the police, but the police and the Con-
federates continued firing at the building, eventually killing Horton and also
Dr. Anthony P. Dostie and John Henderson, the main radical Republicans who
were in the building. Using chair legs as clubs, three times Confederates forced
their way into the main hall, and three times they were driven back. On the fourth
occasion, a larger mob managed to force its way into the hall.
Finally, soldiers arrived, but by then many people had been killed. The official
report stated that 38 were killed (of whom 34 were African Americans), and 146
wounded (of these, 119 were African Americans). All those killed were members
of, or supporters of the convention, except one white attacker who was acciden-
tally shot dead by the police. Ten police were wounded, and after the riot, some
261 African Americans and four whites were arrested and jailed for rioting. None
of the Confederate supporters or the police were ever arrested or punished.
Most of the newspapers were extremely critical of the police actions, although
the pro-Confederate papers blamed the rioting on northern demagogues and Afri-
can Americans. Cyrus Hamlin, the son of former vice president Hannibal Hamlin,
felt the slaughter was worse than he had seen on battlefields, and it was the
northern newspapers such as the New York Daily Tribune that launched into an
attack on the perpetrators of the rioting and the police. Radical Republicans
New Orleans Riot (1866) 451
blamed the instructions by Andrew Johnson seeking to see him as responsible for
the rioting by the delay in using soldiers.
As Louisiana was under mart ial law, Union soldiers were able to restore order
in New Orleans itself, and in the November 1866 elections, the Republicans won
an overwhelming majority of seats in the U .S. Senate and House of Represen-
tatives. In spite of Andrew Johnson’s exercising his right of veto, the
Reconstruction Bill gained more than two-thirds of Congress and was passed into
law and implemented in Louisiana. The law enforced the right to vote for African
Americans, but r emoved the franchise from anybody ass ociated with the New
Orleans Riot and closely linked to the Confederate cause.
—Justin Corfield
See also all entries under Stono Rebellion (1739); New York Slave Insurrection (1741);
Antebellum Suppressed S lave Revolts (1800s–1850s); Nat Turner’s R ebellion (1831);
New Orlean s Race Riot (1900); Atlanta Race Riot (1906); Springfield Race Riot (1908);
Houston Riot (1917); Red Summer (1919); Tulsa Race Riot (1921); Civil Rights Movement
(1953–1968); Watts Riot (1965); Detroit Riots (1967); Los Angeles Uprising (1992).
Further Reading
Bell, Caryn Cosse
´
. Revolution, Romanticism, and the Afro-Creole Protest Tradition in
Louisiana, 1718–1868. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997.
Hollandsworth, James G. An Absolute Massacre: The New Orleans Race Riot of July 30 ,
1866. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004.
Reynolds, Dona ld E. “The New Orleans Riot of 1866, Reconsidered.” Louisiana History 5
(Winter 1964): 5–27.
Riddleberger, Patrick, W. 1866: The Critical Year Revisited. Carbondale: Southern Illinois
University Press, 1979.
Vandal, Gilles. The New Orleans Riot of 1866: Anatomy of a Tragedy. Lafayette: Univer-
sity of Southwestern Louisiana, 1983.
452 New Orlean s Riot (1866)
Carpetbaggers
This term or epithet was a derisive one used in the South by southerners to
describe northerners who arrived in the South during the period of Reconstruction
with their worldly goods wrapped in a carpet. Specifically, it applied to newly
arrived politicians or prospective p oliticians, or businessmen, who arrived in the
South with the aim o f making their fortune there. I t derived from the “carpet-
bag,” a bag made from c arpets , in which one would carry their goods around the
United States and elsewhere, and w as aimed at showing that the people brought
very little with them, and any money they made was essentially from the work of
southerners.
The people who were labeled as carpetbaggers, and often depicted in cartoons
with a large sack slung over their shoulder, varied from those who did arrive to
make their fortune in the S outh, and also many others who were genuinely con-
cerned with th e welfare of African Americans who had recently been freed from
slavery and enfranchised. Part of the hope of some of these “carpetbaggers” was
to help the African Americans adapt to their new freedoms, and with injections
of government funds, a small number of the “carpetbaggers” were undoubtedly
involved in corrupt practices.
In the New Orleans Riot of 1866, the term “carpetbagger” was used to describe
the white members and supporters of the constitutional convention in 1864 and
those who sought to have it reconvened in 1866. George Hahn had been born in
Bavaria, brought up in New York, and had been in New Orleans since the age of
10. He had long been an opponent of slavery. He opposed Louisiana’s secession,
and when he renewed his oath as a notary, he omitted the new oath of allegia nce
to the Confederacy. Likewise, Anthony Paul Dostie was also from Louisiana, hav-
ing been the former state auditor of public accounts; and John Henderson was the
son of a former senator from Mississippi.
In spite of this, however, the presence of a large number of northern soldiers
in the South during Reconstruction allowed many southern politicians to portray
most of the officials of the new administration, especially the military mem-
bers, as northerners with little in common with, and little interest in, the
people of the South, and intent only o n making money in the South—money
that would, undoubt edly, be taken north soon afterwards. The term “scalawag”
was often used at the same time to denote s outherners who worked with the
“carpetbaggers.”
—Justin Corfield
453
Further Reading
Current, Richard Nelson. Those Terrible Carpetbaggers. New York: O xford University
Press, 1988.
Martinez, J. Michael. Carpetbaggers, Cavalry and the Ku Klux Klan: Exposing the Invis-
ible Empire during Reconstruction. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007.
Overy, David H. Wisconsin Carpetbaggers in Dixie. Madison: State Historical Society of
Wisconsin, 1961.
Vandal, Gilles. The New Orleans Riot of 1866: Anatomy of a Tragedy. Lafayette: Univer-
sity of Southwestern Louisiana, 1983.
Reconstruction (1863–1877)
Following the start of the Civil War, it became clear th at as the Union won back
territory, it would have to establish some method of governing over the former
southern states in a manner that should be, if possible, democratic; and also allow
the freedom of all former slaves and the enfranchisement of as many of them as
possible. Abraham Lincoln was so keen to win the war and to show the North as
magnanimous victors, that his policy was for the reinstatement of a civilian
administration as soon as only 10 percent of the population of any former
Confederate state returned to Union hands. Although Lincoln pushed through the
immediate abolition of slavery in all the Confederate states, the states were still
given some role in deciding on the franchise, as shown by many former
Confederate politicians introducing the “Black Codes” to restrict the voting rights
of African Americans.
Radical Republicans wanted a ll African Americans to be granted equal rights
throughout all of the form er Confederacy. After Lincoln’s assassination, the new
president , Andrew Johnson, wanted to follow the moderate policies espoused by
Lincoln. However, radical s in the Republican Party felt that the coming en d of
the Civil War was the perfect opportunity to finally push through laws for equal
rights, and also to deny the vote to Confederates.
Initially, the radical Republicans certainly did not have the support of the
majority of people in t he northern sta tes, although t hey had powerful advo-
cates for their cause. In June 1866, the Fourteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution affirmed that U.S. citizenship applied to African Americans,
and this sparked disturbances in the South and t he introduction of the “Black
Codes.” It was the riot in New Orleans in July 1866 that tipped the balance in
favor of the radicals. They won a resounding victory in the November 1866
congressional election and we re able to embark on what became known as
454 New Orlean s Riot (1866)
Radic al Re construction, which lasted until 1877 and saw Republican governors
elected in a number of sou thern state s, many of w hich did not see Republican
governors elected again until the 1970s.
Among the white population in the South, there was growing resentment against
the reconstruction policies. These policies saw the U.S. Army administering most
of the southern states, and the states not being readmitted to the Union unt il they
had fulfilled stringent legal requirements, includi ng the ac cept ance of the Four-
teenth Amendment, and then later the Fifteenth Amendment, to the U.S.
Constitution.
—Justin Corfield
Further Reading
Gao, Chungchang. African Americans in the Reconstruction Era. New York: Garland Pub-
lishing, 2000.
Richter, William L. The ABC-CLIO Companion to American Reconstruction, 1862–1877.
Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1996.
Smith, Page. Trial by Fire: A People’s History of the Civil War and Reconstruction.New
York: McGraw-Hill, 1982.
New Orleans Riot (1866) 455
Political cartoon from 1868 illustrates
violent resistance on the part of Southern
whites to the postCivil War
Reconstruction Acts. (Library of
Congress)