Civil War - New York City Draft Riots - July 13 through 16, 1863 (1 Viewer)

[jazzeum]

Between July 13 and July 16, 1863, New York City saw some of its worst civil strife in history. This was triggered by inequities in the military draft, stoked by resentments over wartime hardship, and inflamed by hatred of the Lincoln administration’s anti-slavery policies and African-Americans who were seen as its beneficiaries. For four days, thousands of poor and working-class whites attacked people, destroyed and looted buildings, and battled badly outnumbered police officers and state militiamen until the arrival of federal troops. The number of casualties was somewhere between 100 and 1,200. The rioters spared nobody, whether poor or well to do. Numerous African Americans were lynched. The disturbances were finally brought under control on July 16, 1863.

Brooks Simpson in his Crossroads blog discusses the draft riots and has brought together the articles that appeared in the Disunion blog as well as articles by other bloggers.

The link is http://cwcrossroads.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/the-new-york-city-draft-riots-of-1863/

See here for a slide show of the events of those days, http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2013/07/12/opinion/12disunion-Draftriots.html