The Great Riots of New York, 1712 to 1873 — Text and Context

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Authors: Headley, Joel Tyler, 1813-1897 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2004 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Riots -- New York (State) -- New York; Draft Riot, New York, N.Y., 1863; New York (N.Y.) -- History Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 85,073

Reading time 370 min

Text sections 9

The Great Riots of New York, 1712 to 1873 — Text and Context can be approached with a clearer sense of reading commitment from its source measurements: 85,073 words, 6 hr 10 min estimated reading time, and 9 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 21.4 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Riots -- New York (State) -- New York,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #6856

Joel Tyler Headley's 1873 chronicle of New York City riots from 1712 to 1873, with detailed accounts of the 1863 Draft Riots, based on archival sources, press reports, and official records.

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Character of a City illustrated by Riots.--New Material for History of Draft Riots.--History of the Rebellion incomplete without History of them.--The Fate of the Nation resting on the Issues of the Struggle in New York City.--The best Plan to adopt for Protection against Mobs.

THE NEGRO RIOTS OF 1712-1741.

Almost impossible for the present Generation to comprehend its true Character and Effect on the People.--Description of New York at that Time.--The Negro Slaves.--The Negro Riot of 1712.--Description of it.--The Winter of 1741.--Governor's House burned down.--Other Fires.--Suspicion of the People.--Arrest and Imprisonment of the Blacks.--Reward offered for the supposed Conspirators.--Alarm and Flight of the Inhabitants.--Examination and Confession of Mary Burton.--Peggy, the Newfoundland Beauty, and the Hughson Family.--The Conspiracy.--Executions.--Fast.--Hughson's Hearing.--Hung in Chains.--The Body, and that of a Negro, left to swing and rot in the Air.--Strange Change in the Appearances of the Bodies.--The People throng to look at them.--Negroes burned at the Stake.--Terrific Spectacle.--Bloody Summer.--Execution of a Catholic Priest.--Strange Scenes.--Upper Classes accused.--Executions stopped.--Reason of the Panic.

THE STAMP-ACT RIOT OF 1765.

Thorough Understanding of the Principles of Liberty by the People.--The Stamp Act.--How viewed by the Colonists.--Colden strengthens Fort George in Alarm.--Arrival of the Stamps.--How the News was received by the Sons of Liberty.--A Bold Placard.--Stamp Distributor frightened.--Patriotic Action of the Merchants.--Public Demonstration against the Stamp Act.--Colden takes Refuge in the Fort.--Dare not fire on the People.--The People at the Gate demand the Stamps.--Colden and Lord Bute hung in Effigy.--Colden's Coach-house broken open.--The Images placed in the Coach, and dragged with Shouts through the Streets.--Hung again in Sight of the Fort.--A Bonfire made of the Fence around Bowling Green, and the Governor's Carriages, while the Garrison look silently on.--Prejudice against Coaches.--Major James' House sacked.--Great Joy and Demonstration at the Repeal of the Stamp Act.--Celebration of the King's Birthday.--Loyalty of the People.--Mutiny Act.--A Riot becomes a Great Rebellion.

Body-snatching.--Bodies dug up by Medical Students.--Excitement of the People.--Effect of the Discovery of a human Limb from the Hospital.--Mob ransack the Building.--Destruction of Anatomical Specimens.--Arrival of Mayor, and Imprisonment of Students.--Second Day.--Examination of Columbia College and Physicians' Houses.--Appeal of the Mayor and distinguished Citizens to the Mob.--Mob attempt to break into Jail and seize the Students.--The Fight.--The Military called out.--Beaten by the Mob.--Larger Military Force called out.--Attacked by the Mob.--Deadly Firing.--Great Excitement.--Flight of Doctors and Students.

SPRING ELECTION RIOTS OF 1834.

Fatal Error in our Naturalization Laws.--Our Experiment of Self-government not a fair one.--Fruit of giving Foreigners the Right to Vote.--Bitter Feeling between Democrats and Whigs.--First Day of Election.--Ships "Constitution" and "Veto."--Whigs driven from the Polls.--Excitement.--Whigs determined to defend themselves.--Meeting called.--Resolutions.--Second Day's Election.--Attack on the Frigate "Constitution."--A Bloody Fight.--Mayor and Officers wounded.--Mob triumphant.--Excitement of the Whigs.--The Streets blocked by fifteen thousand enraged Whigs.--Military called out.--Occupy Arsenal and City Hall all Night.--Result of the Election.--Excitement of the Whigs.--Mass-meeting in Castle Garden.

ABOLITION RIOTS OF 1834 AND 1835.

The Slavery Question agitated.--The End, Civil War.--The Results.--William Lloyd Garrison.--Feeling of the People on the Subject.--First Attempt to call a Meeting of the Abolitionists in New York.--Meeting in Chatham Street Chapel.--A Fight.--Mob take Possession of Bowery Theatre.--Sacking of Lewis Tappan's House.--Fight between Mob and Police.--Mobbing of Dr. Cox's Church, in Laight Street.--His House broken into.--Street Barricaded.--Attack on Arthur Tappan's Store.--Second Attack on Church in Laight Street.--Church sacked in Spring Street.--Arrival of the Military.--Barricades carried.--Mr. Ludlow's House entered.--Mob at Five Points.--Destruction of Houses.--The City Military called out.--Mob overawed, and Peace restored.--Five Points Riot.--Stone-cutters' Riot.

Starvation will always create a Riot.--Foreign Population easily aroused against the Rich.--Severe Winter of 1836.--Scarcity of Flour.--Meeting of Citizens called without Result.--Meeting called in the Park.--Speeches.--Sacking of Hart & Co.'s Flour Store, in Washington Street.--Strange Spectacle.--National Guards called out.--Disperse the Mob.--Attack on Herrick's Flour Store.--Folly of the Riot.

ASTOR-PLACE RIOTS, 1849.

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Joel Tyler Headley opens his chronicle of New York City's civil disturbances with a striking claim: the fate of the nation during the Civil War rested on the struggle in New York. The book's dedication to the Metropolitan Police signals a consistent perspective—authority figures are the heroes, rioters the villains. Headley's preface reveals his method: he drew on the Historical Society archives for early riots, the daily press for later ones, and official reports for the 1863 Draft Riots. The result is a narrative that blends documentary detail with dramatic, often gruesome, set-pieces.

A Century and a Half of Disorder

The book's scope is ambitious, covering riots from 1712 to 1873. Headley groups them by type: the Negro Riots of 1712 and 1741, the Stamp Act Riot of 1765, the Doctors' Riot of 1788, and a series of 19th-century upheavals—election riots, abolition riots, the Flour Riot of 1837, the Astor Place Riot of 1849, and the Police and Dead Rabbits riots. The catalog subjects list only three categories, but the excerpts show a wider range: economic grievances (Flour Riot), ethnic tensions (Orange Riots of 1870 and 1871), and theatrical rivalry (Astor Place). Headley's preface acknowledges omitting minor riots, but the table of contents suggests he aimed for comprehensiveness within a single volume.

The Draft Riots as the Centerpiece

Although the book covers many events, the Draft Riots of 1863 dominate. Headley devotes multiple chapters to them, and the excerpts provide vivid, harrowing detail. One passage describes Sergeant McCredie's force of fourteen men charging a mob, only to be surrounded and nearly annihilated: only five emerged unwounded. The narrative follows individual officers—Bennett, Travis, Phillips—through beatings, stripping, and near-death. Headley's prose is visceral: "clubs, iron bars, guns and pistols, and rained upon with stones and brick-bats." He credits Commissioner Acton, Seth Hawley, General Brown, and Colonel Frothingham for suppressing the riots, reinforcing his pro-authority stance. The excerpts do not reveal the rioters' motivations beyond resisting the draft, but Headley's focus on police heroism is unmistakable.

Sources and Narrative Voice

Headley's preface itemizes his sources: the Historical Society archives for early riots, a pamphlet titled "Behind the Scenes" for the Astor Place Riot, and official reports for the Draft Riots. He thanks David Barnes for facts on the Police Department. This reliance on official and published accounts shapes the book's perspective. The narrative voice is authoritative and moralizing: riots are "disorderly masses" that must be suppressed. Yet the excerpts also show a journalist's eye for detail—the young woman hiding Sergeant McCredie between mattresses, Officer Bennett's wife finding him alive in the dead-house. Headley does not fabricate dialogue but reconstructs scenes with novelistic specificity, a technique that makes the history vivid but raises questions about accuracy.

Readers should approach Headley's work as a primary document of 19th-century attitudes toward civil disorder, not as an objective history. His sources are narrow—official reports and newspapers—and his sympathies lie squarely with the police and military. The book's value lies in its raw detail and its reflection of how a contemporary chronicler understood urban violence. For a fuller picture, compare Headley's account with modern histories that examine rioters' perspectives and the social contexts he omits.

Sometimes I still think about that old Headley history, how a city's anger can leave marks that take generations to fade. It reminded me of the quiet patience in William Pitt and the Great War — A Reader’s Guide, where leadership struggles against chaos. Both left me sitting still afterwards, just feeling the weight of what people endure.