The New York City Draft Riots: A Role Play In this activity you research roles as either Irish immigrants or African-American residents in the midst of the New York City Draft

Riots that took place in July 1863. You will gather evidence from primary sources to develop your characters, based on actual census

records, and then enact a role play debating whether to stay in the city or flee (if they are African American) and whether to participate

in the riots or protect their black neighbors (if they are Irish immigrants).

Objectives

1. You will be able to describe the conflicting viewpoints of and weigh social pressures on African Americans

and Irish Americans in the midst of the New York City Draft Riots. 2. You will perform a role-play of characters debating their actions during the New York City Draft Riots.

Instructions 1. Step 1: You will divide into two groups, one to represent the African-American household and one to

represent the Irish household. You will be researching and performing a role play of black and Irish New

Yorkers debating their options during the New York City Draft Riots of 1863.

Here is the situation:

o It is Wednesday, July 15, 1863--the third day of the riots.

o In one house, three African Americans discuss their options. Should they seek help from

neighboring families, flee, or stay put? They've heard about the violence in the streets, but

know that they also may not be safe in their home. They have lived on the block for many

years and are friendly with their neighbors.

o Next door an Irish family discusses the violence. They know that their African-American

neighbors are in danger, but cannot agree on whether to help them or not.

2. Step 2: Each group will divide into 3 smaller subgroups. Each subgroup will be responsible for a different

"character" to research for the role-play.

African-American household (Family #192 from the 1855 Census)

Matthew Fletcher, Male, 48: A well-established local printer and landowner

John Johnston, Male, 36: Although ineligible for conscription, is interested in enlisting in the Union

Army

Hannah Day, Female, 42: Has heard stories about the violence in the streets--knows that the rioters are

mainly targeting men

Irish household (Family #194 from the 1855 Census)

Edward Galher, Male, 53, Policeman: Has been out in the streets for two days for two days trying to put

down the riot and has seen the violence firsthand

Catherine Galher, Female, 55: Sees many similarities between the experiences of the Irish and African

Americans in America

John Galher, Male, 26: As a male citizen of draft age, is concerned about his future

3. Step 3: All students will get two background documents (the background essay on the riots and 1855

Census page) and the character talking points worksheet. Then, depending on whether you are portraying

Irish or African-Americans, you will get either of the two packets:

o African-American household documents: "Men of Color, To Arms!"; African-American Victims

Describe the New York City Draft Riots; The Emancipation Proclamation (excerpt)

o Irish household documents: New York City Policy Respond to the Draft Riots; Congress Issues the

Conscription Act; The People of Ireland Ask the Irish in America to Support Abolition

4. Step 4: You will prepare for roles by (in their subgroups) reviewing the readings and selecting evidence and

information you wish to include in the exchange. You should record your talking points on the worksheet,

noting the source where each point comes from. Think about the arguments and evidence the characters would

use, and how he/she would counter the arguments of the opposing household members.

5. Step 5: Each subgroup should choose a member who will play its role for the whole class. The three African-

American characters will perform first, then the three Irish characters. Each character should explain what

they think their household should do and try to convince the others of this position.

6. Step 6: After the role-plays have been performed, we will have a class discussion.

How did different characters see issues differently, and why?

How did the perspectives of individual group members vary, depending on what role they played and on

how they interpreted the role and the historical evidence?

Were the arguments that were presented in the role play grounded in the historical evidence and context

provided?

Historical Context In New York implementation of the National Conscription Act of July 11, 1863, triggered four days of the worst rioting

Americans had ever seen. Violence quickly spread through the entire city, and even homes in wealthy neighborhoods

were looted. Both women and men, many of them poor Irish immigrants, attacked and killed Protestant missionaries,

Republican draft officials, and wealthy businessmen. However, New York City's small free black population became

the rioters' main targets. Immigrants, determined not to be drafted to fight for the freedom of a people they resented,

turned on black New Yorkers in a rage. Rioters lynched at least a dozen African Americans and looted the burned the

city's Colored Orphan Asylum. Leading trade unionists joined middle-class leaders in condemning the riots, but to no

avail. The violence ended only when Union troops were rushed back from the front to put down the riot by force. At the

end, over one hundred New Yorkers lay dead.

The New York City Draft Riots: A Role Play

African-American Household

The Situation It is Wednesday, July 15, 1863—the third day of the riots. In one house, three African Americans discuss their options. Should they seek help from neighboring families, flee, or stay put? They've heard about the violence in the streets, but know that they also may not be safe in their home. They have lived on the block for many years and are friendly with their neighbors. Next door an Irish family discusses the violence. They know that their African-American

neighbors are in danger, but cannot agree on whether to help them or not. The Cast of Characters African-American household (Family #192 from the 1855 Census)

Matthew Fletcher, Male, 48: A well-established local printer and landowner John Johnston, Male, 36: Although ineligible for conscription, is interested in enlisting

in the Union Army Hannah Day, Female, 42: Has heard stories about the violence in the streets—knows

that the rioters are mainly targeting men The Sources

New York State Census Page of the Five Points, 1855 Background Essay on the New York City Draft Riots "Men of Color, To Arms!" African-American Victims Describe the New York City Draft Riots The Emancipation Proclamation (excerpt)

The Task You will be researching and performing a role play of black and Irish New Yorkers debating their options during the New York City draft riots of 1863. In your character groups, carefully review the documents. Think about the evidence and

arguments your character would make in the situation. Also, think about what the other

characters in your household will say and how you can counter their arguments. Select evidence and information that you wish to use in the role-play. Record your talking points on the worksheet, making note of where the evidence comes from.

Character Name: ___________________________________________________________

KEY POINTS YOUR CHARACTER WILL MAKE SOURCE

The New York City Draft Riots: A Role Play

Irish Household

The Situation It is Wednesday, July 15, 1863—the third day of the riots. In one house, three African Americans discuss their options. Should they seek help from neighboring families, flee, or stay put? They've heard about the violence in the streets, but know that they also may not be safe in their home. They have lived on the block for many years and are friendly with their neighbors. Next door an Irish family discusses the violence. They know that their African-American neighbors are in danger, but cannot agree on whether to help them or not. The Cast of Characters Irish household (Family #194 from the 1855 Census)

Edward Galher, Male, 53, Policeman: Has been out in the streets for two days for two days trying to put down the riot and has seen the violence firsthand

Catherine Galher, Female, 55: Sees many similarities between the experiences of the Irish and African Americans in America

John Galher, Male, 26: As a male citizen of draft age, is concerned about his future

The Task You will be researching and performing a role play of black and Irish New Yorkers debating their options during the New York City draft riots of 1863. In your character groups, carefully review the documents. Think about the evidence and

arguments your character would make in the situation. Also, think about what the other

characters in your household will say and how you can counter their arguments. Select evidence and information that you wish to use in the role-play. Record your talking points on the worksheet, making note of where the evidence comes from.

Character Name: ___________________________________________________________

KEY POINTS YOUR CHARACTER WILL MAKE SOURCE

Background Essay on the New York City Draft Riots

The worst episode of large-scale urban violence in American history, the New York City draft riots were sparked by the passage of conscription

laws which made thousands of male New Yorkers between the ages of 18 and 45 eligible to be drafted into the Union Army. Poor and working-

class New Yorkers, many of them Irish immigrants, were especially resentful towards the draft law. Their anger was further inflamed by an

exemption in the law that allowed those who could afford to pay $300 for a substitute to avoid the draft. But the city's African-American

population was the main target of the rioters' anger during four days of looting, lynching and burning. The drafts were finally quelled by Union

Army troops, but only after nearly a hundred people had been killed.

By 1860, one of every four of New York City's 800,000 residents was an Irish-born immigrant. While many labored in several

of the city's skilled trades, the vast majority of Irish immigrants worked as unskilled laborers on the docks, as ditch diggers and

street pavers, and as cartmen and coal heavers. In several of these occupations they competed directly with the city's African-

American workers. The city's African-American community, which dated to before the Revolutionary War, grew during the

first four decades of the nineteenth century, establishing and sustaining churches, newspapers, literary societies, and free

schools. Black workers lived in close proximity to white workers in racially mixed communities that dotted the lower half of

Manhattan. Increased immigration from Europe after 1840 diminished employment opportunities for black New Yorkers.

Working-class African Americans competed directly with immigrants, especially newly arrived Irish, for unskilled jobs, a

competition that often turned ugly and violent in the years before the war.

When the Civil War began in 1861, large numbers of New York City's white workers did not embrace the fight to preserve the

Union. Many resented the war effort, which brought economic hardship and increasing unemployment to the city's working-

class neighborhoods, especially following a sharp economic downturn in the war's first year. Competition for jobs between Irish

and black workers, already intense before the war, increased dramatically in the conflict's early years and racial tensions

mounted in work places and in working-class neighborhoods throughout the city. Even the return of wartime prosperity in 1862

did not lessen these tensions, as living costs rose faster than wages, further undercutting working-class living standards. In

spring 1863, in the midst of a strike of Irish dock workers, strikers attacked and beat African-American strike-breakers before

federal troops arrived to protect the black workers.

In New York, implementation of the National Conscription Act on July 11, 1863, triggered four days of the worst rioting

Americans had ever seen. Violence quickly spread through the entire city, and even homes in wealthy neighborhoods were

looted. Both women and men, many of them poor Irish immigrants, attacked and killed Protestant missionaries, Republican

draft officials, and wealthy businessmen. However, New York City’s small free black population became the rioters’ main

target. Immigrants, determined not to be drafted to fight for the freedom of a people they resented, turned on black New Yorkers

in a rage. Rioters lynched at least a dozen African Americans and looted and burned the city’s Colored Orphan Asylum.

Leading trade unionists joined middle-class leaders in condemning the riots, but to no avail. The violence ended only when

Union troops were rushed back from the front to put down the riot by force. At the end, over one hundred New Yorkers lay

dead.

"Men of Color, To Arms!"

In this 1863 editorial, Frederick Douglass calls all able-bodied African Americans to take up arms in defense of the Union. He encourages them

to travel to Boston in order to join one of the first regiments of black soldiers forming there.

A war undertaken and brazenly carried on for the perpetual enslavement of colored men, calls logically and loudly for colored men to help suppress it. ...There is no time to delay… Liberty won by white men would lose half its luster. "Who would be free themselves must strike the blow." "Better even die free, than to live slaves." This is the sentiment of every brave colored man amongst us. There are weak and cowardly men in all nations. We have them amongst us. They tell you this is the 'white man's war'; that you 'will be no better off after than before the war'; that the getting of you into the army is to 'sacrifice you on the first opportunity.' Believe them not; cowards themselves, they do not wish to have their cowardice shamed by your brave example. …by all the ties of blood and identity which make us one with the brave black men now fighting our battles in Louisiana and in South Carolina, I urge you to fly to arms, and smite with death the power that would bury the Government and your liberty in the same hopeless grave. … I wish I could tell you that the State of New York calls you to this high honor. For the moment her constituted authorities are silent on the subject. They will speak by and by, and doubtless on the right side; but we are not compelled to wait for her. …This is our golden opportunity. Let us accept it, and forever wipe out the dark reproaches unsparingly hurled against us by our enemies. Let us win for ourselves the gratitude of our country, and the best blessings of our posterity through all time.

SOURCE | Frederick Douglass, "Men of Color, to Arms!," The North Star, 2 March 1863; fromThe African American Experience: the History of Black

Americans from 1619 to 1890, http://unitus.org/FULL/afro-1.pdf.

CREATOR | Frederick Douglass

ITEM TYPE | Newspaper/Magazine

African-American Victims Describe the New York City Draft Riots

On July 20, four days after federal troops put down the 1863 Draft Riot, a group of Wall Street businessmen formed a committee to aid New

York's devastated black community. The Committee of Merchants for the Relief of Colored People Suffering from the Late Riots gathered and

distributed funds, and collected the following testimony.

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 the 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 a 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.

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: 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....

Knowing that their rate 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 few minutes streams of water came pouring down into the basement, the mob had cut the Croton

[city] 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 flewout 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. I, with several others, then ran to the 29th street Station House, but we were here refused admittance,

and told by the Captain that we were frightened without cause. A gentleman who accompanied us told the Captain of the facts,

but we were all turned away. I then went down to my husband's, in Broome Street, and there I encountered another mob, who,

before I could escape commenced stoning me. They beat me severely.

Interesting Statement

I am a whitewasher by trade, and have worked, boy and man, in this city for sixty-three years. On Tuesday afternoon I was

standing on the corner of Thirtieth street and Second avenue, when a crowd of young men came running along shouting. Almost

before I knew of their intention, I was knocked down, kicked here and there, badgered and battered without mercy, until a cry of

"the Peelers [police] are coming" was raised; and I was left almost senseless, with a broken arm and a face covered with blood,

on the railroad track. I was helped home on a cart by the officers, who were very kind to me, and gave me some brandy before I

got home. I entertain no malice and have no desire for revenge against these people. Why should they hurt me or my colored

brethren? We are poor men like them; we work hard and get but little for it.

White Women

Some four or five white women, wives of colored men applied for relief. In every instance they had been severly dealt with by

the mob. One Irish woman, Mrs. C. was so persecuted and shunned by every one, that when she called for aid, she was nearly

insane.

SOURCE | 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, 1863);

from History Matters: the U.S. Survey Course on the Web, http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6216.

CREATOR | Committee of Merchants for the Relief of Colored People

ITEM TYPE | Pamphlet/Petition

The Emancipation Proclamation (Excerpt)

In addition to abolishing slavery in the rebellious Confederate states on January 1, 1863, Lincoln's Proclamation announced that the Union

Army and Navy would accept black men in their ranks. Nearly 200,000 African Americans joined Union forces by the end of the Civil War.

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves

within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be

then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval

authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or

any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom."

...I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army

and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and

as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do....order and declare that all persons held as slaves within

said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free

...And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I

recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the

United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the

considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

SOURCE | Abraham Lincoln, "Emancipation Proclamation," 1 January 1863, National Archives,

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/

CREATOR | Abraham Lincoln

ITEM TYPE | Government Document

New York City Police Respond to the Draft Riots

This account, originally published as a series of articles for the New York Times, details the activities of police in the 6th precinct during the 1863

Draft Riots. The 6th precinct was in the northern part of the 6th Ward, home of New York's "Five Points" neighborhood.

Sixth Precinct.

This precinct, Capt. JOHN JOURDAN, No. 9 Franklin Street, had no little work to do. At 3 P. M. on Monday an attack was

made by a large mob on premises of colored people at No. 42 Baxter Street. Capt. JOURDAN, with Sergeants WALSH and

McGIVEN and the second platoon, were soon at the spot, and after a severe fight, in which the force was boldly opposed, the

rioters were dispersed, many of them badly injured. Of the force, Roundsman RYAN was the only one hurt; he was knocked

down and his club wrenched from him, but was at once on his feet again and in the thickest of the fray. Soon after, the Captain,

with same officers and platoon, repaired to CROOK’S, No. 74 Chatham Street, which was being assailed by a mob. A charge

was made unexpectedly upon the rascals, the locust liberally used, and a general scattering ensued. At 5 1/2 P. M. some three

hundred men, women, and boys attacked the dwellings of colored people in Pell, near Mott, Street; with the same officers and

force, the Captain repaired thither, charged upon and routed the assailants. In this cowardly attack by the rioters, Elizabeth

Hennesy, a colored woman, 57 years of age, was struck and severely injured by a brick; she was rescued by the police, and

conveyed to the City Hospital.

SOURCE | David M. Barnes, The Draft Riots in New York, July, 1863: The Metropolitan Police, Their Services During Riot Week, Their Honorable

Record (New York: Baker & Godwin, 1863): 42; from the Internet Archive, http://www.archive.org/details/draftriotsny00barnrich

CREATOR | David M. Barnes

ITEM TYPE | Book (excerpt)

Congress Issues the Conscription Act

Between July 13 and 16, 1863, the largest riots the United States had yet seen shook New York City. In the so-called Civil War draft riots, the

city's poor white working people, many of them Irish immigrants, bloodily protested the federally-imposed draft requiring all men to enlist in the

Union Army. The rioters took out their rage on their perceived enemies: the Republicans whose wealth allowed them to purchase substitutes for

military service, and the poor African Americans who were their rivals in the city's labor market and for whom the war was being faught. African

Americans, who were not recognized as citizens, were excluded from conscription.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all able-

bodies male citizens of the United States, and persons of foreign birth who shall have declared on oath their intention to become

citizens under and in pursuance of the laws thereof, between the ages of twenty and forty-five years, except as hereinafter

excepted, are hereby declared to constitute the national forces, and shall be liable to perform military duty in the service of the

United States when called out by the President for that purpose.

That any person drafted and notified to appearmayfurnish an acceptable substitute to take his place in the draft; or he may pay to

such person as the Secretary of War may authorize to receive it, such sum, not exceeding three hundred dollars and thereupon

such person so furnishing the substitute, or paying the money, shall be discharged from further liability under that draft. And

any person failing to report after due service of notice, as herein prescribed, without furnishing a substitute, or paying the

required sum therefor, shall be deemed a deserter, and shall be arrested by the provost-marshal and sent to the nearest military

post for trial by court-martial, unless, upon proper showing that he is not liable to do military duty, the board of enrolment shall

relive [sic] him from the draft.

SOURCE | "An act for enrolling and calling out the national Forces, and for other Purposes," Congressional Record, 37th Congress, 3rd Session, Ch. 74, 75, 3

March 1863; from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, http://www.gilderlehrman.org/search/display_results.php?id=GLC03951

CREATOR | U.S. Congress

ITEM TYPE | Laws/Court Cases

The People of Ireland Ask the Irish in America to Support Abolition

This call for unity was written in Ireland by Irish and American abolitionists in the summer of 1841. The petition was eventually signed by 60,000

Irish men and women. Catholic abolitionists in Ireland wanted their countrymen in America to draw connections between slavery in the United

States and Ireland's 18th-Century Penal Laws, which stripped Catholics of many civil rights.

DEAR FRIENDS: You are at a great distance from your native land! A wide expanse of water separates you from the beloved

country of your birth.

The object of this address is to call your attention to the subject of SLAVERY IN AMERICA that foul blot upon the noble

institution and the fair name of your adopted country.

Slavery is the most tremendous invasion of the natural, inalienable rights of man, and of some of the noblest gifts of God, 'life,

liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' All who are not for it must be against it. NONE CAN BE NEUTRAL.

America is cursed by slavery! WE CALL UPON YOU TO UNITE WITH THE ABOLITIONISTS, and never to cease your

efforts until perfect liberty be granted to every one of her inhabitants, the black man as well as the white man.

JOIN WITH THE ABOLITIONISTS EVERYWHERE. They are the only consistent advocates of liberty. Tell every man that

you do not understand liberty for the white man, and slavery for the black man; that you are for LIBERTY FOR ALL, of every

color, creed, and country.

Irishmen and Irishwomen! Treat the colored people as your equals, as brethren. By your memories of Ireland, continue to love

liberty hate slavery CLING BY THE ABOLITIONISTS and in America you will do honor to the name of Ireland.

SOURCE | Charles Lenox Remond, et al., "Address from the People of Ireland to their Countrymen and Countrywomen in America," The Liberator, 25 March

1842.

CREATOR | Charles Lenox Remond

ITEM TYPE | Pamphlet/Petition