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New York City Riots Research Paper

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The New York City Riots riots mainly consisted of poor angry Irish men who did not like the idea of getting drafted for war. These men felt they were at the bottom of society and worked for everything they had. The New York City Riots were Mainly fueled by the Congress enforcing The Conscription Act of 1863. The riots were also extremely influenced by White lower class racism, governmental corruption and the conscription act of 1863. The Conscription Act of 1863 was one of the ways for Congress to replenish their fallen soldiers in the Civil war. The draft claimed all men in the ages of 20 to 40 to be eligible for the draft, but rich men could avoid the draft process by paying a fee of $300, which was equal to half a year's salary for a regular working class man. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln ordered the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves in the South. This allowed many slaves to move North …show more content…

Their influence was one of the ways they invested in keeping slavery in the South. Accordingly, this proved that some Whites in New York did not like Blacks. Many white politicians used racial hatred to get votes, and once the elections ended there was even more tension than before between these two groups. Socially there were a lot of angry poor white men in one area , this caused violence and many hate crimes toward blacks and the “300 dollar men”( A wealthy man who paid 300 dollars to get out of the draft). New york was the only state in the union to initiate the draft this also fueled the anger of the poor irish men. Majority of Working irish men worked labor jobs , but after the emancipation proclamation the blacks now had the opportunity to take these jobs from them. This also fueled the irish to riot against the drafts because they didnt want to fight for blacks and eventually have to compete for jobs with

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