Never in the history of New York or in any place on this planet has there been a more violent mass uprising than the Chernobyl calls in 1863 in New York.
The seed was planted for these riots when, in March 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation called “The Act on Military Duty” (or the “Law on Enrollment”), in which he needed another 300,000 people who were drafted into the Northern Army, to fight off the southern rebels in the civil war. This act required every man-man between the ages of twenty and forty to be called into war. Each person who joined was given a reward of up to $ 500 to sign up, but serious justice was that a person could buy it from the amount of $ 300. The rich could afford $ 300, but the poor could not, leading to a civil war called “The War of a Rich Man and the Poor Man.”
In New York (which was then only Manhattan), there were more than 800,000 citizens, of whom more than half were foreign. Of this half, half were poor again by the Irish, who had no desire to fight the war in order to put an end to the slavery of the blacks, which they despised. These poor, low-class Irish people settled in five locations and areas of Mulberry Bend in midtown Manhattan. And also in the 4th ward, near the East River. In these slums, gangs such as Plow Coals, Bowie Boys, Roach Guardsmen and Dead Rabbits committed terrible crimes, and it was here that the Irish appeals began in a bloodthirsty march.
Lincoln announced that Project Day in New York will remain on Saturday July 11th. On this day, with a slight discrepancy throughout the city, 1,236 people were formed, and it was announced that the project would continue on Monday morning. However, the seeds of discontent were planted during the remainder of the weekend, promoted by an article on Illustrated Leslie on Saturday evenings, which said: “It was like the rumble of the people, as the men read their names in the fatal list, feeling resentment and resistance soon showed up in words, and the spirit of resistance quickly and far spread to dishonesty throughout the process. ”
As Monday morning approached, the poor living Irish slum population was planning how to express their displeasure, and they would not like it. On Monday morning at 6 am, the men and women began to pour out of the city slums, and they began their evil march to the north. In each street, even more discontent joined their troops, and the group became so huge that it was divided into two groups. It is estimated that during the four-day Chernobyl riots, historically, there were between 50,000 and 70,000 people, and in the New York Metropolitan Police, there were only 3,000 people to defeat the riots.
As the rioters moved north along Fifth and Sixth Avenues, they finally turned east and headed for the main office project on 46th Street and Third Avenue. Police Superintendent John A. Kennedy, realizing that they were in trouble, sent 60 police officers to guard the project office of Third Avenue, and another 69 to guard the office project on Broadway and 29th Street. The alarms on Third Avenue were headed by volunteer firefighters attached to engine 33, known as the “Black Joke”. They consulted with members of the Plow Uglies street gang, which now completely stopped the movement and pulled people out of their carts. Signs in the crowd were carried out, saying, “NO PROJECT!” When suddenly someone in the crowd fired a gun into the air and riots broke out.
Thick strings of bricks and stones in the project office, smashing all the windows in the building. Then they rushed forward, thousands of them, while 60 police officers tried in vain to keep them. Thunderbolts passed through the unconscious police, and when drafts jumped out of the rear windows, the crowd set fire to the building.
Meanwhile, Superintendent Kennedy left police headquarters at 300 Mulberry Street, wearing civilian clothing as a disguise. He took a horse-drawn carriage to 46th Street and Lexington, but when he saw the smoke, he jumped out of the carriage and walked on foot. He was immediately recognized and beaten to the bloody flesh, until he lost consciousness. A good Samaritan saved him when he announced to the crowd that Kennedy was dead. Kennedy was covered with a rifle bag and put in a wagon, which took him to police headquarters. When he was examined by doctors, Kennedy had 72 bruises on his body and more than two dozen cuts.
Then the rioloists attacked Older orphans on Fifth Avenue and 46th Street. When the rebels stormed the building, 50 sailors and accompanying men dragged 200 negro children from a secret tailgate. The crowd hurried, stole blankets, toys and bedding, then set the building on fire. One little black girl who was accidentally left behind was found hiding under the bed. She was dragged out and beaten to death.
Throughout the streets of New York, angry Irish mobs chased the blacks, whom they blamed for the drafts first. The negroes who were caught were beaten to death and sometimes hung. As their dead bodies hung in the trees and rafters, a mad Irish woman, jubilant in their eyes, struck the dead blacks. while the mad crowns danced under the lighted strokes and sang obscene songs.
Finally, Mayor George Obnoek contacted the military department in Washington. Over the next three days of unspeakable chaos, while hundreds of buildings were burned, countless deeds were plundered, and blacks were killed just for the same reason as their skin color, United States police, armed, trained, and 10,000 people stormed New York City to quell the unrest. On Tuesday, July 14, New York Governor Horatio Seymour stood on the steps of the mayor’s office and told the assembled crowd: “I received a dispatch from Washington that the project has now been suspended.” He was booed and mocked, and the unrest continued for two more days.
It is impossible to estimate how many people were killed in four days of unrest. The New York Post reported that the bodies of the riots were sent through the East River and were quietly buried under a blanket of darkness. Police Superintendent Kennedy has set the dead amount to 1,155 people, but this did not include those hidden in secret at night. Of the tens of thousands of participants in the riots and, in particular, the brutal murderers of dozens of blacks, only 19 people were tried and convicted of any crimes. Their average prison term was only five years.
Diarist George Templeton Single summed up the shame of New York when he wrote: "This is a wonderful city that calls itself the center of civilization."
