Page 84 - All About History - Issue 19-14

THE REAL-LIFE

OF

In the mid-19th t was supposed to be a day of celebration; a its 31 stars and 13 stripes flew over the City Hall
time for people to enjoy the United States’ and the church bells rang – once at sunrise and
century, the Five hard-fought independence, which had been again at noon – trouble lurked around the corner. It
won some 81 years earlier against the British wasn’t the first time that mass violence had seen
Points area of New IEmpire. However, as the evening hours of the streets of New York splattered red with blood;
Saturday, 4 July 1857 unfolded, it soon became clear since the 1820s, gangs had come to rule parts of
York was the brutal to the New York authorities that they would have a Lower Manhattan and violence was depressingly
bloody fight on their hands. common. Many of these gangs were made up of
battleground for gangs During the day, the warm glow of a sunny sky poor, ruthless, unskilled Irish immigrants fleeing
had bathed the excited but peaceful spirits of the the Great Famine back home, competing for ever-
seeking to gain control city’s inhabitants, most of whom had taken the decreasing living space and respect in a country
day off. Stores had closed their doors, banks had where many saw them as an inferior race and
stopped trading and the courts had ceased to wished they would return home.
Written by David Crookes process its villains. And yet, as the US flag with These hopeful immigrants worked in the

84