Browse Exhibits (9 total)

The Boston Draft Riot occured over about a 24 hour period on July 14th of 1863.  It began during the second day of the New York City draft riot.  It started when a draft officer was assaulted by a crowd.  A crowd demonstrated for several hours in front of the District Two police station.  It was concentrated mostly in the North End and Downtown neighborhoods.  About eight people were killed and several were wounded when rioters attempted to break into the Cooper Street Armory that was being guarded by the military.  In the evening, several attempts were made by various groups of rioters to break into downtown stores and steal firearms.  The military and police stopped most of these attempts.   Overnight, there were attempts at arson, looting and clashes between rioters and authorities.  By the morning of July 14th, the riot became subdued and the city returned to normal.

The massive draft riot in New York City "rippled out and spread" to other cities.  Some of the riots were in neighboring cities, such as numerous towns on Staten Island, as well as Jersey City and Newark, New Jersey.  Some erupted in cities some distance away from New York City.  Drafts riots erupted 160 miles to the north in Troy, New York, 220 miles to the east in Boston, Massachusetts, and 270 miles to the northeast in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  It is interesting to observe that some cities, like Philadelphia, with a history of rioting and where you might expect a draft riot to occur, no riots occured over the four years of the Civil War.  There was even "fake news" about riots that never happened, such as what was reported about Hartford, Connecticut.  There were draft riots in the midwestern states, including Illinois, Wisconsin and in Holmes County, Ohio.  

Race, class, political and religious affiliations were underlying causative issues in these riots triggered by the draft. 

Ropemaking has a long and integral history in the small northeastern port city of Salem, Massachusetts.  Ropes were a necessary commodity for the construction, functioning and upkeep of the fleets of hundreds of cargo vessels.  Ropes, and similar products such as jute bags for holding cotton bales, were commodities manufactured and exported abroad from Salem.  This exhibit provides a glimpse into the people, places and economy of historic ropemaking in Salem, Massachusetts.  

This is an early draft version of a dissertation chapter, part of a research project that explores multiple riots triggered by the military draft across the Union during the American Civil War. The dissertation seeks to understand the multiple pressures behind violent dissent that is all too often assumed to be isolated to New York City in the summer of 1863. This exhibit focuses on one of those riots that took place in Port Washington, Wisconsin in the fall of 1862.