|
| 
Riots and Civil Unrest
Contents
1863 Draft Riots > Orange and Green Riots
of 1870 and 1871
1863 Orange and Green Riots
of 1870 and 1871
During the late 1860s and the 1870s anti-Irish
sentiment ran very high, particularly in racialized depictions of
the Irish in the mainstream press, characterizations of the "Stage
Irishman" on the vaudeville stage, and social exclusion from
the Anglo-American community. Such nativism was fueled by continued
streams of poor Irish arrivals, their violence during the 1863 Draft
Riots, the growing influence of the Catholic Church, and the rise
of Irish politicians in Tammany Hall. In addition, tensions within
the Irish community had been building for years, as Protestants
argued against the Catholic threat to American values and their
inability to be good citizens.1
These feelings of racial and religious superiority resulted in episodes
of violence between the Catholic Irish and Protestant Irish, the
worst being the Orange and Green Riots of 1870 and 1871. In 1870,
eight people were killed when outraged Catholics protested during
the annual July 12 Boyne Day march, held by Protestant Irish Orangemen
to celebrate the victory of Prince William of Orange over Catholic
King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. The following
year, plans for the march coincided with the first revelations of
the Tweed Ring scandal, in which Boss Tweed and his Tammany followers
had taken millions of dollars from the city in political graft.
Rumors of violence on both sides prompted the state to provide the
marchers with military and police protection, despite attempts by
Mayor A. Oakley Hall to ban the parade. Threats of violence proved
correct when crowds of Catholic Irish lining the parade route along
Eighth Avenue began throwing rocks at the marchers. In response,
the military accompaniment began to shoot indiscriminately into
the crowd, killing sixty-two, mainly Catholics. While the 1871 riot
was the last major outbreak of violence against Irish Catholics,
Orangemen continued to march for several more years and join organizations
like the American Protective Association that espoused nativist
ideals.2
Boss Tweed's downfall later that year and his replacement by "Honest"
John Kelly ensured Irish loyalty to the Democratic Party and fostered
continued spurts of nativist criticism of the Irish. Political commentary
during these years is rife with anti-Irish sentiment that pegs simian-featured
Irishmen as violent fighters on the same par as the lowly African-American.
The image of a pugnacious Paddy was improved slightly on the vaudeville
stage to make him a happy-go-lucky figure, often drunk and ready
for a fight but certainly less savage in nature. Yet while slightly
more positive, the "stage Irishman," as well as his female
counterpart Bridget, still ridiculed Irish Catholic abilities to
assimilate, their pretensions at attaining social status, and their
love of alcohol and fighting. Gradually, as the second- and third-generations
entered the middle classes, and other immigrant groups arrived in
the late nineteenth century, such representations eventually dissipated,
along with overt nativist sentiment and discrimination toward the
Irish.3
See also: Irish; The
Meehan-Moore Family; Nativism and Discrimination; Ninety-Seven
Orchard Street/The Irish at 97 Orchard Street.
1 Michael A. Gordon,
The Orange Riots: Irish Political Violence in New York City, 1870
and 1871 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993).
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
|
|
|
