Big Apple History . Early New York . Riots in Astor Place!


	The Astor Place riots.

At one point in New York history the city assembled two hundred militia from the Seventh Regiment, four cavalry companies, and a light artillery unit all for the purpose of protecting one Shakespearean actor giving one performance.

Of course, Charles Macready was no ordinary star. He represented everything New York's working people and Irish immigrants hated. He was an Englishman and a snob, a symbol of English oppression of the Irish and of the rich lording it over the poor. (For working-class theatergoers, the only actor who could do Shakespeare justice was Macready's great rival, Edwin Forrest, an American who played in the hearty style that common people preferred.) When Macready appeared in "Macbeth" many working-class audience members booed him and pelted him with rotten vegetables.

Outraged upper-class gentlemen responded by coaxing Macready back for another performance at the Astor Theater, promising that they would maintain order this time. In order to keep their promise they had to call out the cavalry, and the militia, and the artillery.

Working class and Irish leaders called for a protest demonstration, saying the performance and the troops represented "English aristocracy" trying to oppress the people. On May 10, 1849, the night of the play, the battle lines were drawn. As the play began, a crowd of ten thousand workingmen, including native and Irish gangs like the Bowery Boys and the Dead Rabbits, started to throw stones through the theater windows and batter at the doors. The nervous militiamen opened fire, killing 22.

The next day almost brought a full-scale class-war in the streets, but the militia stared the crowd down and it scattered. Order was maintained -- for the time being.

Illustration: courtesy of the Collection of the New-York Historical Society.