Big Apple History . Business and Politics . New Yorkers Riot Over Draft


	Burning of the Coloured Orphan Asylum.

In July 1863 the troops of the 152nd New York Volunteers returned to New York from the Battle of Gettysburg. The city that greeted them was quite different from the one they left when they went off to war. Then, crowds had cheered them as they marched. Now, barricades lined the streets, and fires burned in all directions. What happened to their beloved city?

Like any great disturbance the draft riots had many causes. The gap between rich and poor was growing. While merchants and manufacturers grew rich on war profits, the poor were hurt by rising prices for food and other basics. Poor whites feared that, if freed, slaves from the south would come north and take their jobs.


Draft rioters lynch a black man.

One of the more immediate causes, though, was the draft, and in particular, the $300 rule of exemption. If a man could come up with $300 he was allowed to buy a substitute to serve his tour of duty on his behalf. Poor men, for whom $300 was a year's wages, could not afford to do the same and this injustice served as the final straw. First, mobs of working-class men attacked the homes and businesses of the elite. When police arrived, the mobs turned on the city's free black population. They burned the Colored Orphan Asylum and attacked and murdered African Americans on the streets.

After three days, the worst riot in American history was finally put down by troops. The costs were immense: more than 100 dead and $5 million in property damage.

Illustrations: courtesy of Culver Pictures.