Conclusion

The draft riot in Troy is better understood as a result of multiple underlying social tensions that erupted into acts of vandalism and violence when triggered by the Union draft during July of 1863.  Phase I of the riot began with a worker’s strike and marching protest by the working class, led by the iron workers union.  It resulted in the destruction of the anti-union Republican newspaper office of the Troy Daily Times.  Phase II was a jailbreak wherein a mob released eighty-eight white prisoners but left three black prisoners behind. Phase III was the looting and vandalism directed towards well-to-do Republicans.  Phase IV was vandalism, violence and terror directed towards blacks.  The rioters assaulted numerous African American people regardless of age or sex.  Phase V was violence, looting and terror directed towards immigrant Germans.