new york city draft riot essay

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New York Draft Riots

By: History.com Editors

Updated: September 6, 2022 | Original: October 27, 2009

The New York Draft Riots occurred in July 1863, when the anger of working-class New Yorkers over a new federal draft law during the Civil War sparked five days of some of the bloodiest and most destructive rioting in U.S. history. Hundreds of people were killed, many more seriously injured, and Black New Yorkers were often the target of the rioters’ violence.

New York City Divided Pre-Civil War

As the business capital of the nation, New York City had not welcomed the onset of the Civil War , as it meant losing the South as an important trading partner.

Cotton was an extremely valuable product for New York’s merchants: Before the Civil War, cotton represented 40 percent of all the goods shipped out of the city’s port. And long after the slavery trade was made illegal in 1808, the city’s underground market in enslaved people continued to thrive.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, there was even talk of New York seceding from the Union itself, so entwined were the city’s business interests with the Confederate States .

As the war progressed, New York’s anti-war politicians and newspapers kept warning its working-class white citizens, many of them Irish or German immigrants, that emancipation would mean their replacement in the labor force by thousands of freed enslaved people from the South.

In September 1862, President Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation (which would take effect early the following year), confirming the workers’ worst fears.

At the time, Lincoln’s decision for emancipation sparked protests among workers in the city, as well as soldiers and officers in New York regiments who had signed up to preserve the Union, not to abolish slavery.

New Federal Draft Law Sparks Unrest

Facing a dire shortage of manpower in early 1863, Lincoln’s government passed a strict new conscription law, which made all male citizens between 20 and 35 and all unmarried men between 35 and 45 subject to military duty.

Though all eligible men were entered into a lottery, they could buy their way out of harm’s way by hiring a substitute or paying $300 to the government (roughly $5,800 today).

At the time, that sum was the yearly salary for the average American worker, making avoiding the draft impossible for all but the wealthiest of men. Compounding the issue, Black men were exempt from the draft, as they were not considered citizens.

Riots over the draft occurred in other cities, including Detroit and Boston, but nowhere as badly as in New York. Anti-war newspapers published attacks on the new draft law, fueling the mounting anger of white workers leading up to the city’s first draft lottery on July 11, 1863.

Riots Begin

For the first 24 hours after the lottery, the city remained suspiciously quiet, but rioting began early on the morning of Monday, July 13.

Thousands of white workers—mainly Irish and Irish-Americans—started by attacking military and government buildings, and became violent only toward people who tried to stop them, including the insufficient numbers of policemen and soldiers the city’s leaders initially mustered to oppose them.

By that afternoon, however, they had moved on to target Black citizens, homes and businesses.

In one notorious example, a mob of several thousand people, some armed with clubs and bats, stormed the Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue near 42nd Street, a four-story building housing more than 200 children.

They took bedding, food, clothing and other goods and set fire to the orphanage, but stopped short of assaulting the children, who were forced to go to one of the city’s almshouses.

Riots Cause Violence and Bloodshed

In addition to Black people themselves, rioters turned their rage against white abolitionists and women who were married to Black men.

White dockworkers, long opposed to the Black men working on the docks alongside them—a demonstration against employers hiring Black workers on the docks had turned violent earlier in 1863—took the opportunity to destroy many of the businesses near the docks that catered to Black workers, and attack their owners, as part of their effort to erase the Black working class from the city.

By far the worst violence was reserved for Black men, a number of whom were lynched or beaten to death with shocking brutality. In all, the published death toll of the New York City draft riots was 119 people, though estimates of the actual number of people killed reached as high as 1,200.

How the Draft Riots Ended

New York leaders struggled with the task of containing the draft riots: Governor Horatio Seymour was a Peace Democrat, who had openly opposed the draft law and appeared sympathetic to the riot.

New York City’s Republican mayor, George Opdyke, wired the War Department to send federal troops but hesitated on declaring martial law in response to the rioting.

On July 15, the third day of the protests, rioting spread to Brooklyn and Staten Island. The following day, the first of more than 4,000 federal troops arrived, from New York regiments who had been fighting in the Battle of Gettysburg .

After clashing with rioters in what is now the Murray Hill neighborhood, the troops were finally able to restore order, and by midnight of July 16 the New York City draft riots had come to an end.

Aftermath and Legacy

In addition to the death toll, the riots had caused millions of dollars in property damage and made some 3,000 of the city’s Black residents homeless.

The New York Draft Riots remain the deadliest riots in U.S. history, even worse than the 1992 Los Angeles Riots and the 1967 Detroit Riots .

When the Colored Orphan Asylum attempted to rebuild on the same site after the riots, neighboring property owners protested, and the orphanage would eventually be relocated to the sparsely settled area north of the city that would later become Harlem.

Stunned by the riots, the abolitionist movement in New York City revived itself slowly, and in March 1864, less than a year after the draft riots, New York City saw its first all-Black volunteer regiment in the Union Army march with pomp and circumstance through the streets before boarding their ship in the Hudson River.

But despite this meaningful victory, the draft riots would have a devastating impact on the city’s Black community. While the 1860 census recorded 12,414 Black New Yorkers, by 1865 the city’s Black population had declined to 9,945 by 1865, the lowest number since 1820.

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William F.B. Vodrey, Blood in the Streets: The New York City Draft Riots . Leslie M. Harris, The New York City Draft Riots of 1863 . John Strausbaugh, City of Sedition: The History of New York City During the Civil War (Grand Central Publishing, 2016). John Strausbaugh, White Riot: Why the New York Draft Riots of 1863 Matter Today. Observer .

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The new york city draft riots (1863).

The New York City Draft  Riots  remain today the single largest urban civilian insurrection in United States history. By the start of the  Civil War  in April 1861, New York City,  New York  Mayor Fernando Wood called for the city to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy, but the response from most New Yorkers was unenthusiastic.  Nonetheless, two years later when the U.S. government instituted the first military draft, anti-government sentiment particularly among the city’s large  Irish -born population, grew quickly.  One could escape the draft by paying a $300 fine (about $5,500 today). The rich were able to afford the fines, while the disenfranchised and poor white men, who in New York City were often Irish, were forced to enlist because they were frequently the sole source of income for their families.

When the draft came to New York City in July 1863, anti-government anger turned to anti-government and anti-black violence. The anti-black violence was driven by the resentment that the Irish would have to compete with freedpeople for jobs in the city because the Union had embraced emancipation .

On the first day of the draft, July 11, the city was relatively quiet. However, by day three, July 13, tensions boiled over. Volunteer firefighters from Engine Co. No. 33, were known for their violent nature. Angry at their commissioner, they set fire to their own company firehouse which attracted an angry mob. Led by the firefighters, the mob continued down 3rd Avenue, ransacking and burning businesses in their wake. They focused on those enterprises known to employ African Americans including Brooks Brothers, Harper’s Weekly, Knickerbockers, and other wealthy businesses.  They also attacked the homes of prominent white  abolitionists . When the mob reached the  Colored Orphans’ Asylum , filled with mostly women and children, it began looting the building before setting it on fire. The 200 children inside were led out of the back by their benefactors and taken to safety.

There were many accounts in New York City newspapers of black individuals killed during the riot. Although there were an estimated 663 deaths, only 120 were reported to the police.  Of those, however, 106 were African Americans. One account of Ebrahim Franklin’s death was typical.  Franklin was in church, praying. He was a disabled man who made his living working as a carriage driver. He lived with his elderly mother whom he supported. The mob reached him just as he was rising to his feet from his prayers and beat him to his death. They then dragged him outside and hung him in the church yard in front of his mother. Finally, they mutilated his corpse.

Although the Union had won two major victories over the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg in  Pennsylvania  and the Siege of Vicksburg in  Mississippi  on July 3, President Abraham Lincoln was forced to send 4,000  Union troops to stop the violence sweeping across the city. With the arrival of the troops, including some who had fought at Gettysburg, the violence ended on July 16. One of the ringleaders, John Urhardt Andrews, was arrested and jailed for his role in the riots. Several arrests were made, but there were no other convictions.

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Barbara Maranani, “The most violent insurrection in American history,” History.com, July 5, 2013, http://www.history.com/news/four-days-of-fire-the-new-york-city-draft-riots; John Strausbaugh, “White Riot: Why the New York Draft Riots of 1863 Matter Today,” Observer.com, July 11, 2016, http://observer.com/2016/07/white-riot-why-the-new-york-draft-riots-of-1863-matter-today/; Iver Bernstein, The New York City Draft Riots : Their Significance for American Society and Politics in the Age of the Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).

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The Draft and the Draft Riots of 1863

Written by: A. James Fuller, University of Indianapolis

By the end of this section, you will:.

• Explain the various factors that contributed to the Union victory in the Civil War

Suggested Sequencing

Use this Narrative after the Chapter 8 Introductory Essay: 1860-1877 to introduce students to the reactions of citizens and immigrants to the conscription laws during the Civil War.

How do you force someone to fight for someone else’s freedom? This question reveals the irony of the policy of conscription that the U.S. government implemented during the Civil War. The Confederacy had introduced conscription first and experienced its own widespread popular opposition. But as the conflict wore on and casualties mounted, the Northern rush to enlist to put down the rebellion and preserve national unity eventually ebbed, and the question became relevant to the Union. In July 1862, Congress passed a militia law authorizing the president to draft state militia troops into service in the national army. Although some states managed to delay implementing it by successfully recruiting volunteers, by autumn the government had begun widespread use of the “state draft” or “militia draft,” authorizing the president to draft militiamen from the states, especially after President Abraham Lincoln’s Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation after the Battle of Antietam.

By promising to free the slaves still held in rebel territory on January 1, 1863, the president’s executive order explicitly made the war a conflict over slavery and saving the Union. This motive proved unpopular in many areas of the North, and racist sentiment now combined with fears of job competition with blacks, higher taxes, expanded government power, and what some considered to be the tyranny of a stronger executive branch. Recruitment for the vast expansion of the armed forces became more difficult, and federal authorities turned more frequently to ever-increasing inducements for volunteers and the threat of conscription. Opponents reacted with protests and sometimes violence. In response, the army sent troops into areas of resistance, such as the coal regions of Pennsylvania, German Catholic communities in Wisconsin, and parts of southern Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio, where large populations of migrants from the South had settled decades before the war. The provost marshals began arresting those who resisted, and the army imprisoned protesters and newspaper editors whose columns urged antiwar activism and resistance. This, in turn, led to more protests and opposition.

This political cartoon, entitled “Don’t you see the point?”, appeared in Harper’s Weekly on August 29, 1863.

That fall, the Democrats used civil liberties, racism, and opposition to the draft and emancipation to gain ground with voters in the 1862 election. The Republicans, meanwhile, argued that anyone who opposed the war and the government was a traitor and called some Democrats “Copperheads” – after a poisonous snake. The term meant a Democrat who went so far in opposing the war as to commit treason. Although the Republicans held on to their congressional majority and most state legislatures, Democrats won control in several states, including the key state of New York. Combined with other issues, the draft became a potent political policy that, even as it allowed the government to continue waging the war, served to unify the opposition to it.

The next spring, in March 1863, Congress passed the Enrollment Act, a conscription law authorizing a national draft. Every able-bodied male citizen and immigrant between the ages of 20 and 45 years was to be enrolled in the draft. When districts proved unable to fill their quota of recruits with volunteers, the provost marshals were to implement the draft to make up the difference. In July 1863, the army carried out the first of four drafts; the next three followed in 1864.

This broadside announced the draft for Ohio’s 14th Congressional district would begin on September 17, 1863, at the courthouse in Wooster, Ohio. (credit: “Civil War draft broadside,” Ohio History Connection)

Those whose names were drawn in the draft lottery might be eligible for an exemption – especially if they were the sole means of support for a widow, aging parents, or motherless children. If such an exemption could not be obtained, the draftee could hire a substitute to take his place or pay a $300 commutation fee (which typically only the wealthy could afford) that allowed him to return home. Substitutes tended to be young men of 18 or 19 years who were old enough to serve but too young to be drafted. Immigrants who had not yet applied for citizenship also provided a large pool of possible substitutes. The option to hire a substitute or pay a fee not to serve angered many Americans, who complained about the conflict’s being a “rich man’s war and [a] poor man’s fight.” With many tens of thousands of soldiers dying of disease, infections, and wounds, it was not surprising that large numbers of men tried to avoid the draft. More than 20 percent of those drafted refused to report for duty, fleeing to the West or going into hiding to avoid the provost marshals.

Immigration raised additional concerns about the draft. Throughout the decades before the war, the number of immigrants had increased exponentially. The beginning of the war slowed the rate to a mere trickle, but the demand for workers during the conflict brought dramatic increases in wages, and the number of immigrants began to grow again in response to such economic opportunities. Some immigrant men saw military service as a financial boon as well, viewing the bounties offered to enlistees and the hiring of substitutes as a chance to improve their lot.

Approximately 25 percent of the Union soldiers were immigrants. Whereas some wanted to enlist, others were tricked into service by manipulative criminals who took advantage of their inability to speak or read English. Some immigrants stepped off a ship and found themselves in the army before they realized what was happening. Nativism remained strong in the Northern states, and Irish immigrants especially experienced prejudice, bigotry, and violence. Because most of them were Roman Catholic, they also faced religious prejudice.

In the army, immigrant troops served well, often in units made up of soldiers of the same ethnic background. Most famously, the Irish Brigade from New York consisted mostly of Irish American and Irish immigrant soldiers. The unit served throughout the war and fought with distinction at the Battles of Antietam and Gettysburg.

Many in the North saw the draft as violation of individual freedom and civil liberties. When the first national draft was carried out in July 1863, the result was widespread protest and violence. To rally the poor, workers, white farmers, and immigrants against the draft, the Democratic Party often used racist rhetoric, blasting the Lincoln Administration for forcing white men to fight and die for the cause of freeing black slaves. Race, ethnicity, economics, and the expansion of government power all combined in the crisis of the draft.

A convention of Iowa Democrats declared its members opposed to the Lincoln Administration for its “wicked Abolition crusade” and pledged to “ resist to the death all attempts to draft any of our citizens into the army.” New York’s governor, Horatio Seymour, predicted a draft would lead to mob violence. The editor of a New York City Catholic newspaper used racist language in telling a mass meeting to refuse to answer Lincoln’s call for more troops. In such a context, then, it was not surprising that protests were held in a number of cities across the country. In some places, blood was shed. The worst came when opposition to conscription led to the New York City Draft Riots.

The situation in New York made the city a tinderbox of tension that summer. Divided along ethnic and racial lines, New Yorkers were also stratified by social class and religion. Long the gateway to the nation, the city was home to many German and Irish immigrants, who lived in ethnic areas and neighborhoods and worked for low wages. Thousands of African Americans also called New York home and found themselves targets of racism and discrimination. The Democratic Party had built a political machine in New York City, organizing the city’s wards to win elections in exchange for valuable help with everything from municipal services to jobs and housing. Party leaders directed the Democratic ward bosses to move immigrants quickly along the path to citizenship in order to get their votes. When the draft began, immigrants who had applied for citizenship were enrolled and made eligible for conscription. Meanwhile, the Emancipation Proclamation implied that the war was a crusade against slavery and this stoked resentment against blacks among workers, the poor, and immigrants, in part because they feared job competition from millions of freed slaves and in part because of widespread racism.

On July 11, 1863, army officers began the draft lottery in New York City. Most Union troops in and around the city had been sent to help stop the Confederate invasion that had resulted in the Battle of Gettysburg in early July, but the draft officers went forward with their duty despite the absence of many troops to keep order. The first day went smoothly, but on July 13, a mob began to form as hundreds of men began gathering in opposition to conscription. What had started as a protest quickly became a riot marked by violence and the destruction of property. Buildings were set on fire, and firefighters who arrived to fight the blaze were attacked. Soldiers and policemen were targeted, but so too were African Americans. The mob beat and tortured those it managed to capture. They lynched black men and set their bodies afire.

For three days the riot raged on, until state militia and U.S. Army troops arrived and restored order. The violence left more than 100 dead, at least 2,000 injured, and more than 50 buildings destroyed. It was one of the worst riots in American history and demonstrated how the draft mixed with other issues like government overreach, civil liberties, race, and economics to create a combustible context in which seethed the divisions within the Union.

Review Questions

1. Congress passed a conscription law because

• it was believed that a draft was a more democratic way of raising an army
• too many men wanted to volunteer and the government needed a way to control the size of the army
• Congress wanted more citizens in the army because too many immigrants were fighting the war
• the rush to enlist to save the Union had ebbed and more men were needed

2. All the following were reasons for resisting the draft except

• whites in the North were not willing to fight for the freedom of slaves
• there was growing fear of a tyrannical executive branch
• immigrants were joining the Union army in growing numbers
• the people were growing weary of fighting due to the length of the war

3. One reaction to the introduction of conscription was that

• more men volunteered for the Union army
• the Democrats were very successful in the election of 1862
• President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus
• Confederate confidence grew, leading to several strategic military victories

4. The term “Copperhead” was used to describe

• men who avoided the draft
• men who paid another to take their place in the draft
• Northern opponents of the Civil War who were labeled traitors
• men who took the place of drafted men

5. The response to conscription in the North revealed that

• nativism still had a significant influence in the Union
• the United States was becoming a “melting pot”
• persons of all backgrounds were willing to fight in the Civil War
• the idea of national unity was significant in maintaining a strong democracy

6. The worst violence in protest of conscription occurred in

• New York City
• southern Illinois
• Washington, DC

7. Compared with the poor, wealthy men were able to avoid the draft by

• bribing military officials
• paying a $300 commutation fee
• passing a literacy test for exemption
• enrolling in universities for exemption

Free Response Questions

• Describe the reaction of northerners to the introduction of conscription.
• Analyze the reaction to conscription in relation to the U.S. ideals of democracy and freedom.

AP Practice Questions

1. Which group would most likely see the poster as a cause for grievance against President Lincoln?

• Southern Democrats
• Copperheads
• Republicans

2. The actions called for in the poster were most likely a reaction to

• the growing shortfall of volunteers from across the Union as the Civil War continued
• a dramatic increase in immigrants from Ireland and Germany during the 1840s and 1850s
• the fear that the Confederacy would capture Washington, DC, during the Civil War
• a demand from the African American community that they be allowed to serve in the military

3. The events called for in the poster led to what result?

• A resurgence of political machines
• Draft riots
• The Emancipation Proclamation
• Troop desertions in the Confederacy

Primary Sources

“Iowa Copperheadism.” Muscatine Weekly Journal . April 17, 1862. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84027253/1863-04-17/ed-1/seq-2/

Report of the Committee of Merchants for the Relief of Colored People, Suffering from the Late Riots in the City of New York . African American Pamphlet Collection, Library of Congress. New York: G. A. Whitehorne, 1863.

“The Bill for Enrolling and Calling Out the National Forces.” New York Times . February 19, 1863.

Suggested Resources

Bernstein, Iver. The New York City Draft Riots: Their Significance for American Society and Politics in the Age of the Civil War . New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Cook, Adrian. The Armies of the Streets: The New York City Draft Riots of 1863 . Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1974.

Gray, Wood. The Hidden Civil War: The Story of the Copperheads . New York: Viking Press, 1942.

Schecter, Barnet. The Devil’s Own Work: The Civil War Draft Riots and the Fight to Reconstruct America . New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005.

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July 13, 1863: New York City Draft Riots and Massacre

Rioters and federal troops clash.

On this anniversary of the New York City Draft Riots and Massacre, July 13 – 16, 1863, we share a teaching activity that helps students explore what Howard Zinn described as the most destructive period of civil violence in U.S. history. Lasting nearly a week, the riots were the largest civil insurrection in U.S. history besides the Civil War itself.

Zinn writes in Chapter 10 of A People’s History of the United States ,

. . . the Conscription Act of 1863 provided that the rich could avoid military service: they could pay $300 or buy a substitute. In the summer of 1863, a “Song of the Conscripts” was circulated by the thousands in New York and other cities. One stanza:

Historical fiction for young adults by Walter Dean Myers.

We’re coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more We leave our homes and firesides with bleeding hearts and sore Since poverty has been our crime, we bow to thy decree; We are the poor and have no wealth to purchase liberty.

When recruiting for the army began in July 1863, a mob in New York wrecked the main recruiting station. Then, for three days, crowds of white workers marched through the city, destroying buildings, factories, streetcar lines, homes.

The draft riots were complex — anti-Black, anti-rich, anti-Republican. From an assault on draft headquarters, the rioters went on to attacks on wealthy homes, then to the murder of African Americans. They marched through the streets, forcing factories to close, recruiting more members of the mob. They set the city’s colored orphan asylum on fire . They shot, burned, and hanged African Americans they found in the streets. Many people were thrown into the rivers to drown.

On the fourth day, Union troops returning from the Battle of Gettysburg came into the city and stopped the rioting. Perhaps four hundred people were killed. No exact figures have ever been given, but the number of lives lost was greater than in any other incident of domestic violence in U.S. history.

Harper’s Weekly illustration of the burning of the orphanage during the Draft Riots. Source: Digital Public Library of America

Click the book cover for a detailed description of the Draft Riots by Leslie M. Harris.

The Zinn Education Project offers a teaching activity called “ The Draft Riot Mystery ” by Rethinking Schools editor Bill Bigelow that focuses on the conflict between recently arrived Irish immigrants and African Americans.

As Bigelow explains in the introduction to the lesson:

One of the critical “habits of the mind” that students should develop throughout a U.S. history course is to respond to social phenomena with “why” questions. They should begin from a premise that events have explanations, that people don’t, for example, kill each other simply because they speak different languages, attend different churches, or have different skin colors.

This activity takes the outrages of the 1863 riots as its starting point, and asks students to piece together clues that help account for this sudden explosion of rage. It’s important to note that making explanations is different than making excuses. Here, we’re asking students to try to understand the horrors committed, not to rationalize them.

Read a detailed description, an online excerpt from In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863 by Leslie M. Harris. (Order from Bookshop.org .)

Also see the book, The New York City Draft Riots: Their Significance for American Society and Politics in the Age of the Civil War by Iver Bernstein.

Read the tweet thread below by Ben Railton.

160 years ago today, New York exploded into a multi-day orgy of white supremacist violence. This event has come to be known as the Draft Riots, a name that’s at best partially accurate, but at worst contributes to two fundamental failures of collective memory. #twitterstorians + — Ben Railton (@AmericanStudier) July 13, 2023

Books for Students

Dayshaun’s Gift by Zetta Elliott for elementary school

The Dactyl Hill Squad by Daniel Jose Older for middle school

The Door at the Crossroads and A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliott for high school

Riot by Walter Dean Myers for high school

Find a list of more  Massacres in U.S. History .

Related Resources

The Draft Riot Mystery

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. 9 pages. Students are invited to solve a mystery, using historical clues, about the real story of the Draft Riots.

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Teaching a People’s History of Abolition and the Civil War

Teaching Guide. Edited by Adam Sanchez. 2019. Rethinking Schools. 181 pages. Students will discover the real abolition story, one about some of the most significant grassroots social movements in U.S. history.

Dayshaun’s Gift

Book — Historical fiction. By Zetta Elliott. 2015. 88 pages. Time travelling historical fiction for upper elementary school students on the New York City Draft Riots.

Book — Fiction. By Walter Dean Myers. 2011. 176 pages, Historical novel about the 1863 draft riots in New York for young adults.

A Wish After Midnight

Book — Fiction. By Zetta Elliott. 2010. 270 pages. When tough Genna gets transported back in time, she must face the perilous realities of Civil War-era Brooklyn, using all her wits to survive and hold on to her humanity in two different worlds.

July 16, 1854: Elizabeth Jennings Graham

Schoolteacher Elizabeth Jennings Graham successfully challenged racist streetcar policies in New York City.

Sources for the New York City Draft Riots (July 1863)

A pathfinder for Primary and Secondary Sources and Archival Collections

Home » National Archives

National Archives

For primary records research, especially when researching federal government records, the National Archives is one of the most important of sources. The archives are well-organized and the agency maintains a staff of subject matter experts who can assist with most reference requests. However, the finding aids are detailed and clear and an experienced research should hace little problem locating collections of relevant materials.

The primary source materials listed here are drawn from the annotated bibliography contained in Iver Bernstein’s standard history of the Draft Riots The New York City Draft Riots: Their Significance for American Society and Politics in the Era of the Civil War.

The Organization of the Archive Navigating the complexities of the National Archives requires some preparation and the best way to prepare is to understand how the archivists organize their collections. Fundamentally, the hierarchy describes where a particular item may be found, starting with the broadest category and narrowing down the taxonomy to the item level.

The Record Group (“R.G.”) is the largest grouping in the archive. Each one is sub-divided into Textual Records , Maps and Charts , Photographs , and Electronic Records .

The Record Group is comprised of the Series ; within the Series are the actual Items . Best bet is to use the Record Group Explorer and start digging!

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TeachArchives.org

• Mustering Men during the Civil War: Fighting for Freedom, Imposing the Draft

Students examine primary sources related to the Civil War draft and discuss contemporary public opinion about the war as well as the role that race and class played in the drafting of men.

Introduction

This exercise enables students to understand the most important aspects of drafting and recruiting men to fight in the Union Army during the Civil War.

The documents that students analyze were created during a tumultuous time period in which several revolutionary things happened: the Emancipation Proclamation was issued; African Americans were allowed to join the army; the Enrollment Act was passed, establishing the federal draft; and the New York City draft riots occurred. Through the documents, students witness the fatigue of war, growing federalism, and the way that race and class shaped the lives and opinions of Americans in the north.

These primary sources are both accessible and surprisingly complex, making them ideal teaching materials for a course that includes students of different experience levels.

Students should be able to:

• Identify and compare various forms of 19th-century communication
• Analyze related primary source documents
• Properly reference and cite documents in a post-archive writing assignment or oral presentation

In small groups, students analyze and discuss the documents at 1 of 4 stations. They also prepare a brief summary of their findings to be delivered at the end of the visit.

Station 1: Calling Men to Arms The documents at this station address how rhetoric of race and class was employed to inspire patriotism and spur recruitment. Students compare two broadsides: one aimed at working class white men, another at African Americans. See handout here . Station 2: Avoiding the Call to Arms – Substitutes This station introduces students to the policy of substitution, one of the ways that some Americans (mostly wealthy ones) could avoid combat. Students examine a government order requiring soldiers to muster or furnish a substitute. See handout here . Station 3: Avoiding the Call to Arms – Desertion 
This station introduces an illegal way to avoid the draft: desertion. This broadside includes data from which students can begin to create a profile of deserters in this area. *The professor should provide a calculator at this station. See handout here . Station 4: The Draft Riots Students should use the date of this broadside to infer that this proposed meeting of “merchants, bankers, and merchants’ clerks” occurred during the New York City draft riots. See handout here .

Gather students back together and give each group 3 minutes to report back on their findings. After each presentation, the professor should take 1 – 2 minutes to highlight takeaways for the whole class and to segue to the next group. Reinforce the exact dates of each document to show causality between the stations. This will help the class build a clear chronological narrative about recruitment, reactions to the draft, and the resulting riot in New York City.

After all of the groups have presented, spend 10 minutes on a class discussion.

• Ask students to identify historical actors in their documents and to compare their options: enlistment, substitution, desertion, or protest.
• Discuss how someone’s race and socio-economic class would affect their options.
• Ask students how the language of race and class was used to influence 19th-century readers of these documents.

End Products

Archival materials used.

“Greasy Mechanics Attention!” circa 1861-1865, M1975.815; Brooklyn Historical Society. click for image

“Attention! Merchants, Bankers…,” 1863, 1975.386.1; Brooklyn Historical Society. click for image

“Company Order No. 4,” June 19, 1863; Civil War collection, 1977.200, box 2, folder 6, “Published Orders 13th Regt 1863-4”; Brooklyn Historical Society. click for image

Further Reading

Bernstein, Iver. New York City Draft Riots: Their Significance for American Society and Politics in the Age of the Civil War . New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

AMS1001 Introduction to American Studies

Introduces American Studies and interdisciplinary methods to first- and second-year students. Required for completion of certificate program in American Studies.

Adaptability

This exercise could be adapted to English composition or history courses at the high school and college level.

Featured Documents

• Click for images:
• Colored Citizens to Arms
• Attention! Merchants
• Greasy Mechanics
• Company Order
• Men Who Failed to Report
• Archival Materials Used (left) lists full citations

Course Materials

• Station 1 Handout
• Station 2 Handout
• Station 3 Handout
• Station 4 Handout

Print Exercise

American Social History Project  ·    Center for Media and Learning

• The New York City Draft Riots: A Role Play

In this activity students 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. Students gather evidence from primary sources to develop their 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).

Students 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.  

Students will perform a role play of characters debating their actions during the New York City Draft Riots.  

Instructions

Step 1: Divide students into two groups, one to represent the African-American household and one to represent the Irish household. Tell students that they 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. Explain 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.  

Step 2: Divide each group into smaller subgroups of 2-3 students each.  Assign each subgroup 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

Step 3: Give all students the two background documents (the background essay on the riots and 1855 Census page) and the character talking points worksheet.  Then, depending on whether they are portraying Irish or African-Americans, give them either of the two packets:

African-American household documents: "Men of Color, To Arms!"; African-American Victims Describe the New York City Draft Riots; The Emancipation Proclamation (excerpt)

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

Step 4: Students prepare for roles by (in their subgroups) reviewing the readings and selecting evidence and information they wish to include in the exchange.  Students should record their talking points on the worksheet, noting the source where each point comes from.  Remind students to think about the arguments and evidence the characters would use, and how he/she would counter the arguments of the opposing household members.  

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

Step 6: After the role plays have been performed, lead students in a 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.

In This Collection

Primary documents.

"Men of Color, To Arms!"

African-American Victims Describe the New York City Draft Riots

New York City Police Respond to the Draft Riots

Congress Issues the Conscription Act

• An African-American Soldier Fights "In Defense of My Race and Country"
• An African-American Soldier Asks for Equal Pay
• An African-American Soldier Writes on Behalf of His Fellow Troops
• "Wanted, a Substitute"
• A New York Rioter Explains His Opposition to the Draft
• A Georgia Soldier Condemns the Exemption of Slaveholders
• "Southern 'Volunteers'"

"Colored Citizens, To Arms!"

Secondary Documents

• Background Essay on Why They Fought

Background Essay on the New York City Draft Riots

• Background Essay on the "Twenty Negro" Law
• "Why Non-Slaveholders Fought for the Confederacy"

Teaching Activities

• "In Defense of My Race and Country": African-American Soldiers on Why They Are Fighting
• Who Fought for the Union?
• Who Fought for the Confederacy?

Materials for this Activity

New York State Census Page of Five Points, 1855

The Emancipation Proclamation (Excerpt)

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

New York City Draft Riots Role Play worksheet

Historical Era

Civil War and Reconstruction (1861-1877)

Civil War , Group Work , Irish Immigration , New York City Draft Riots , Role Play and Debate

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