Why were the New York City draft riots important?

Answer 1

The New York Draft Riots showed all northern states weren't anti-slavery. The German and Irish immigrant communities in New York were targeted by the Democratic, or pro-slavery party. They told the immigrants that they were being drafted so that black people could stay behind and take their jobs. As a result, one of the ugliest events in New York City history happened. Black men, women and children were assaulted and even killed by mobs of immigrants.

Answer 2

The anti draft riots in New York City in July, 1863 was an important event in US history for the following reasons:

A. It was an indication that the pool of volunteers for the Union army were not meeting the army's needs, thus as in the South, the US Congress passed conscription laws in March, 1863 that Lincoln requested;

B. It was the largest civilian insurrection in US history;

C. The riots involved a good number of Irish Catholics that were working class people who did not have the $300 to pay the Federal Government in lieu of service, nor could they find another person, as per the draft law, to take their places in the Union Army;

D. Because of the ethnicity and Catholic religion of the Irish workers, the draft was tinder to the racial & religious tensions that had simmered in the Northern cities for years;

E. New York City was a Democrat Party stronghold. The citizens supported the Union's war, but only up to a point and this point was being drafted into a war the Irish had no interest in. (note, the proper name of the Democrat Party is exactly how it's spelled. It's not the Democratic Party.)

F. Many New Yorkers opposed the Republican suspensions of parts of the US Constitution, the Republican abolition policy ( slavery was not an issue in NYC, the main issue was how to deal with lower class workers ). And the Irish were well aware of the anti Catholic fringe of Radical Republicans;

G. The 2nd Emancipation Proclamation & the new draft law were not far apart in time. For some people in New York City, the call to fight in their country's war was one thing, but the prospect of liberated slaves coming to NYC and taking lower pay for jobs the Irish had was not tolerated. (we see how how war drives one minority group against another ). On the New City docks, a year earlier, shippers had employed Black strike breakers, causing violence there;

H. Democrat City leaders used the draft & the poor performance of the Union army, to whip up public sentiment against the Republican Federal Government Administration;

I. On the morning of July 13th, the day the draft lottery was to take place, hundreds anti draft marchers surrounded the Federal offices conducting the draft & burned it to the ground. this was followed by increasing crowds assaulting the homes of Republican politicians & war supply factories. It was now a total riot and the country's largest Republican newspaper, the New York Tribune, was set aflame;

J. The most vicious violence was taken out on the City's Black population. One mob burned down the "Colored Orphans Asylum" & looted what they could. Miraculously no children lost their lives;

K. The mob by now had grown into a small army of thousands of men and older boys. They attacked, murdered, or lynched any Afro-American they could find. Violence against Blacks I cannot type here because the incidents are too obscene for me to describe;

L. To fully even more understand the significance of this event, 20,000 troops fresh from Gettysburg were called in & fired cannons into the mob to end the violence;and

M. The riot had raged 3 days, most of the deaths came at the use of Federal troops.