1862 Brooklyn riot

1862 riot in Brooklyn, New York, US January 2025 January 2025 1862 Brooklyn riot Sedgwick Street riot mass racial violence in the United States 1862 8 4 Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, New York, United States Anti-African American sentiment among Irish American workers Riots suppressed by police 8 rioters, 1 worker A riot occurred in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York (not yet a part of New York City), United States, on August 4, 1862. It involved a group of White Americans, mostly of Irish descent, targeting a group of about 20 Black American workers at a tobacco factory on Sedgwick Street. The New York City Police Department was able to quell the riot with only some minor injuries and property damage. Two days prior to the riot, a fight occurred at a liquor store near two tobacco factories between a White and Black man. Following the fight, anti-Black rumors circulated in the primarily Irish American neighborhood of Cobble Hill, and the animus of some in the neighborhood was directed towards Black workers. Heightened tensions were not unusual, as the Irish often regarded Black workers as economic competitors. On the morning of August 4, a mob congregated outside of one of the factories, breaking windows and attacking the people inside. Police arrived and were able to disperse the mob, douse a fire that some rioters had set, and arrest several individuals. Historians have classified the riot as part of a broader trend of violence towards Black Americans in the New York area during the time that included such events as the New York City draft riots the following year. Background thumb|Detail of the Brooklyn waterfront in 1862. Sedgwick Street is at the center of the image. thumb|Detail of the same area in 2025. Sedgwick Street and several surrounding streets no longer exist, having been subsumed into the Columbia Street Waterfront District. In the 1860s, two tobacco factories, operated by the Lorillard Tobacco Company and T. Watson & Company, were situated near each other on Sedgwick Street,Peterson 2011 293Blumin Altschuler 2022 91 in the Cobble Hill neighborhood in Brooklyn.Goldstein 2020 By 1862, these two plants had been in operation for about eight to nine years.Peterson 2011 293 At the time, this South Brooklyn neighborhood was made up largely of working class Irish Americans.Blumin Altschuler 2022 91 However, both factories employed both African Americans and White Americans, with the two groups of workers operating under separate shop foremen and not usually directly interacting with each other.Peterson 2011 293–294Blumin Altschuler 2022 91 In total, the two factories employed roughly 100 black workers and 200 white workers,Blumin Altschuler 2022 91 with the black workers earning a weekly wage of about $14 (US 14 1862 0 eq) and the white workers receiving $10 ($US 10 1862 0 c in US).Goldstein 2020 Most of the white employees were Irish, while most of the black workers were freedmen.Goldstein 2020 Almost all of the African American workers commuted to the factory from outside of the neighborhood, from places such as New York City or other Brooklyn neighborhoods, like Weeksville.Blumin Altschuler 2022 91 They consisted primarily of women and children.Ignatiev 2010 British misgovernance in 19th century Ireland, including the Great Famine and the restrictive penal laws, had prompted mass immigration to the United States. In the early part of the century, it was not uncommon for Irish immigrants to work alongside free Negroes.Ignatiev 2010 According to historians Glenn C. Altschuler and Stuart M. Blumin, Irish workers were conflicted about working alongside African Americans, as many feared the competition for employment that increased black involvement in the labor force would bring.Blumin Altschuler 2022 90 During the first half of the 19th century, Irish Americans engaged in several major acts of violence against African Americans, including the 1834 Philadelphia race riot and the 1838 destruction of Pennsylvania Hall, an abolitionist venue in Philadelphia.Ignatiev 2010 This hostility continued during the American Civil War, with Altschuler and Blumin noting that Irish Americans in the Northern United States were resistant to emancipation.Blumin Altschuler 2022 90 In Brooklyn, these fears were inflamed by Copperhead newspapers and politicians who alleged that the emancipation of black slaves in the Southern United States and subsequent migration northwards would hurt the Irish workers economically.Strausbaugh 2016 275 Riot On the afternoon of Saturday, August 2, 1862, a fight broke out between a black man and a white man outside of a liquor store in South Brooklyn,Blumin Altschuler 2022 91 at the same intersection that Lorillard's factory was located on.The Pilot 1862 2 The scuffle was shortly broken up by a police officer.The Pilot 1862 2 While sources differ on where the two men worked,note An 1862 article of The Pilot, the official organ of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, specifies only that the black man involved in the fight worked for Lorillard's tobacco factory.The Pilot 1862 2 A 2020 article on HistoryNet states that the two involved in the fight worked for Watson's factory,Goldstein 2020 while a 2022 book by historians Stuart M. Blumin and Glenn C. Altschuler states that both men worked for a nearby resin factory.Blumin Altschuler 2022 91 the animus of many Irish Americans in the neighborhood was quickly directed at the two tobacco factories and their African American employees.Blumin Altschuler 2022 91 According to The New York Times, later that night, a group of Irish American men yelled and threw stones at a group of black women and children who were working at the factories, though without causing any serious injuries.August 5, 1862 Excitement in Brooklyn. https://www.nytimes.com/1862/08/05/archives/excitement-in-brooklyn-a-disgraceful-attack-upon-a-tobacco-factory.html subscription live https://web.archive.org/web/20250114122850/https://www.nytimes.com/1862/08/05/archives/excitement-in-brooklyn-a-disgraceful-attack-upon-a-tobacco-factory.html January 14, 2025 January 10, 2025 The New York Times 8 0362-4331 1645522 Around the same time, rumors began to circulate among the white population that some African Americans in the area had made insulting comments towards white women.Goldstein 2020The Pilot 1862 2 According to academic Carla Peterson, contemporary newspapers in the area, including the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the Brooklyn Daily Times, The New York Times, and the New-York Tribune cite other factors as contributing to this increased hostility, including rumors that some African Americans were planning to move into the neighborhood or had offered to work for wages less than what the Irish workers were being paid.Peterson 2011 293 At about 8 a.m. on Monday, August 4, William Egner, a foreman at Lorillard's plant, said that he saw some young man hanging around the street corner and had heard rumors that some sort of confrontation was planned for the day related to Friday's fight.August 13, 1862 The Late Brooklyn Riot. https://www.nytimes.com/1862/08/13/archives/the-late-brooklyn-riot.html subscription live https://web.archive.org/web/20210126041649/https://www.nytimes.com/1862/08/13/archives/the-late-brooklyn-riot.html January 26, 2021 January 10, 2025 The New York Times 3 0362-4331 1645522 Egner then notified Lorillard, Watson, and a local tobacco merchant named Charles Kelsey. Around 10 a.m., the three went off to secure police protection,Peterson 2011 294 and subsequently, police officers were stationed inside the factories.The Pilot 1862 2 One of the foremen at Lorillard's factory had sent home all of the black employees for the day,Blumin Altschuler 2022 91 additionally barricading the door and locking the windows.Peterson 2011 294 Many of the black male workers at Watson's were not at work that day, as they were attending an emancipation rally in Brooklyn.Blumin Altschuler 2022 91 While the foreman at Lorillard's had recommended that Watson's also send home their remaining black workers, this did not occur.Peterson 2011 294 As a result, on that day, there were about 5 black men and 20 black women and children working.note Multiple sources give this breakdown for the number of workers present at the time.Goldstein 2020Peterson 2011 294 However, in contemporary reporting from The New York Times, it was reported that there were 5 men and 15 women and children working at the time. That morning, a group of white men congregated at Lorillard's and demanded entry, though they were denied.Blumin Altschuler 2022 91 However, in a meeting with the mob, the owner of the factory agreed to the mob's demands that African Americans be barred from working at his factory.The Pilot 1862 2 Following this, at around 1 p.m., the mob moved to Watson's,The Pilot 1862 2 some wielding pitchforks and yelling expletives as they did.Goldstein 2020Peterson 2011 294 The mob, which was made up largely of Irish Americans,Ignatiev 2010 numbered at least 50 in strength and may have included upwards of 1,000.note Sources vary considerably in the number of rioters. On the lower end, a 2011 book by academic Carla Peterson states that the mob consisted of "[a]bout fifty to seventy-five Irishmen".Peterson 2011 294 A 2020 article on HistoryNet states that the mob consisted of "400 whites",Goldstein 2020 while a 2016 book by historian John Strausbaugh gives the number as "a few hundred".Strausbaugh 2016 275 Contemporary reporting in The New York Times further states that there were between four and five hundred individuals.August 5, 1862 The Diabolical Riot in Brooklyn Yesterday. https://www.nytimes.com/1862/08/05/archives/the-diabolical-riot-in-brooklyn-yesterday.html subscription live https://web.archive.org/web/20201108094732/https://www.nytimes.com/1862/08/05/archives/the-diabolical-riot-in-brooklyn-yesterday.html November 8, 2020 January 10, 2025 The New York Times 4 0362-4331 1645522 On the higher end, an 1862 article in The Pilot states that the mob consisted of "over a thousand" people.The Pilot 1862 2 As it was around lunchtime, many of the white workers had gone home to eat, while the African American workers, who lived further away from the factory, remained on the factory premises.Peterson 2011 294Blumin Altschuler 2022 91 The mob laid siege on the factory, throwing bricks and stones at the building while attacking the people inside with their pitchforks,Peterson 2011 294 breaking every window on the building in the process. The black workers fled upstairs to the second floor,September 25, 1862 Brooklyn News. https://www.nytimes.com/1862/09/25/archives/brooklyn-news.html subscription live https://web.archive.org/web/20250114142434/https://www.nytimes.com/1862/09/25/archives/brooklyn-news.html January 14, 2025 January 10, 2025 The New York Times 3 0362-4331 1645522Peterson 2011 294 where they barricaded themselves against the mob.Goldstein 2020 While the mob was held back from the second floor for about an hour, one black worker, Charles Baker, was seized by the mob and severely beaten.Goldstein 2020 Police who had been stationed inside the factory engaged with the mob and prevented them from reaching the second floor.The Pilot 1862 2 These officers were soon joined by reinforcements from nearby precincts.The Pilot 1862 2 Failing to reach the second floor, the mob attempted to burn down the building.Peterson 2011 294Strausbaugh 2016 275Goldstein 2020 The mob lit on fire a pan of tar and soon had some of the factory woodwork in flames, though police were able to quickly extinguish the fire.The Pilot 1862 2 Ultimately, the mob was repelled by the police after the violent confrontation.Strausbaugh 2016 275 In the end, several officers suffered minor injuries, while one black worker was severely wounded.Peterson 2011 294 According to a contemporary account, one police officer suffered a pitchfork wound in his shoulder, while another had been attacked by one of the black workers who feared the police were going to arrest him.The Pilot 1862 2 Eight white rioters were arrested, while Baker was also arrested for hitting a police officer during the fray. Aftermath Following the riot, the police informed the factory workers that they should be safe to resume their work under police protection, though many opted to instead go home out of fear for their safety. The police escorted many of them home.August 9, 1862 The Brooklyn Riot. https://www.nytimes.com/1862/08/09/archives/he-brooklyn-riot.html subscription live https://web.archive.org/web/20250114130034/https://www.nytimes.com/1862/08/09/archives/he-brooklyn-riot.html January 14, 2025 January 10, 2025 The New York Times 3 0362-4331 1645522The Pilot 1862 2 Watson would later permanently close his factory at Sedgwick Street,Peterson 2011 294 with plans to relocate to a larger facility. According to Peterson, newspapers covering the event were largely sympathetic towards the victims and criticized the mob,Peterson 2011 295 with The New York Times accusing the rioters of working in the services of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America. Legal proceedings Following the riot, legal proceedings commenced against the arrested rioters, which included Richard Baylis, Thomas Clark, Joseph Flood, Patrick Keenan, John Long, Michael Meagher, William Morris, and Elias P. Weider. Keenan, who owned a liquor store in Brooklyn and had been a candidate for alderman in a previous election, was identified as the leader of the rioters, and it was he who had ordered the factory to be burned. The New York Times also noted that more arrests could be forthcoming. In addition to the rioters, the superintendent of police for Brooklyn charged that some of his own officers had acted with negligence during the riot, though following testimony from the factory owners that defended the officers' actions, these charges were dismissed.Peterson 2011 294 Additionally, charges against Baker were dropped.Goldstein 2020 A preliminary hearing for the rioters was eventually held on August 11.August 12, 1862 Brooklyn News. https://www.nytimes.com/1862/08/12/archives/brooklyn-news-the-sedgwickstreet-riot-investigation-before-justice.html subscription live https://web.archive.org/web/20250110150453/https://www.nytimes.com/1862/08/12/archives/brooklyn-news-the-sedgwickstreet-riot-investigation-before-justice.html January 10, 2025 January 10, 2025 The New York Times 5 0362-4331 1645522 Initially, the lawyer representing Keenan requested that he be tried separately, though the judge overseeing the case denied this request.Peterson 2011 294–295 Over the next several weeks, the case was delayed and rescheduled numerous times, and according to Peterson, newspaper coverage of the trial largely tapered off by August 19.Peterson 2011 295 In late September, after a hearing occurred in which neither the plaintiffs nor their legal counsel were present, the judge dismissed the case. By this point, several of the accused had enlisted in the Union Army. Legacy Concerning the severity of the event, an 1862 article in The New York Times labeled it as "one of the most atrocious riots of modern time", while the Brooklyn Daily Eagle called it "one of the most disgraceful riots, which has ever happened in this city".Blumin Altschuler 2022 91 In a 2024 article for Gothamist, journalists Alison Stewart and Luke Green called the riot the "first recorded act of white terrorism in that part of Brooklyn",Stewart Green 2024 while historian John Kuo Wei Tchen called it a "race riot".Tchen 1997 140 In his analysis of the riot, Tchen views it as one of several related to the economic competition between Irish Americans and other minorities in the United States.Tchen 1997 139–140 According to historian John Strausbaugh, the riot was the first in a series of race-based incidents of violence in the New York metropolitan area.Strausbaugh 2016 275 In the weeks following the riot, there were reports of roving gangs of White Americans attacking African Americans in the area, and from late 1862 to mid-1863, there were multiple labor strikes along the docks that saw violent confrontations between Irish American strikers and African American strikebreakers.Strausbaugh 2016 275 Several commentators have noted similarities between the 1862 riot and the later New York City draft riots of 1863,Peterson 2011 293Stewart Green 2024Tchen 1997 140 with several highlighting that both riots involved the targeting of African Americans by working-class Irish Americans.Ignatiev 2010Blumin Altschuler 2022 91–93Goldstein 2020 See also African Americans in New York City List of incidents of civil unrest in New York City List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States Racism against African Americans Notes note References Sources 30em yes Blumin Stuart M. https://books.google.com/books?id=CUZHEAAAQBAJ The Rise and Fall of Protestant Brooklyn: An American Story Altschuler Glenn C. Glenn C. Altschuler Cornell University Press 2022 978-1-5017-6552-0 Ithaca, New York 1281791907 Goldstein Norm September 7, 2020 Abolitionist Brooklyn: A Sanctuary City Before Its Time https://www.historynet.com/abolitionist-brooklyn-a-sanctuary-city/ live https://web.archive.org/web/20240916225110/https://www.historynet.com/abolitionist-brooklyn-a-sanctuary-city/ September 16, 2024 January 10, 2025 HistoryNet World History Group Ignatiev Noel Noel Ignatiev March 17, 2010 The Divide Between Blacks and the Irish https://www.theroot.com/the-divide-between-blacks-and-the-irish-1790878916 live https://web.archive.org/web/20240317154953/https://www.theroot.com/the-divide-between-blacks-and-the-irish-1790878916 March 17, 2024 January 10, 2025 The Root The Slate Group Peterson Carla L. Carla Peterson (academic) https://archive.org/details/blackgothamfamil0000pete/ Black Gotham: A Family History of African Americans in Nineteenth-Century New York City Yale University Press 2011 978-0-300-16255-4 New Haven, Connecticut 707082775 August 16, 1862 The Irrepressible Conflict https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=pilot18620816-01.2.46&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN------- live https://web.archive.org/web/20250110151205/https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=pilot18620816-01.2.46&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN------- January 10, 2025 January 10, 2025 The Pilot Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston 2 The Pilot 1862 Stewart Alison Alison Stewart Green Luke October 5, 2024 A new book looks at the history of free Black Brooklyn, and how it shaped the borough https://gothamist.com/arts-entertainment/a-new-book-looks-at-the-history-of-free-black-brooklyn-and-how-it-shaped-the-borough live https://web.archive.org/web/20241008034545/https://gothamist.com/arts-entertainment/a-new-book-looks-at-the-history-of-free-black-brooklyn-and-how-it-shaped-the-borough October 8, 2024 January 10, 2025 Gothamist New York Public Radio Strausbaugh John John Strausbaugh https://archive.org/details/cityofseditionhi0000stra/ City of Sedition: The History of New York City During the Civil War Twelve 2016 978-1-4555-8417-8 New York City 1019488235 Tchen John Kuo Wei John Kuo Wei Tchen https://books.google.com/books?id=WfCmS90xyEIC The New York Irish Johns Hopkins University Press 1997 978-0-8018-5764-5 Bayor Ronald H. Johns Hopkins Paperbacks Baltimore 125–152 Quimbo Appo's Fear of Fenians: Chinese-Irish-Anglo Relations in New York City 32625550 1996 Meagher Timothy J. Further reading The Saber and Scroll Journal The "Irrepressible Conflict:" Policing in Civil War-Era New York City, 1860–1862 Anthony James Field 103–107 10 2 Winter 2021 https://www.apus.edu/docs/apus/-/journals/saber-and-scroll-historical-journal/sands-10-02.pdf 10.18278/SSHJ.10.2.8 July 11, 2025 Kanakamedala Prithi https://books.google.com/books?id=xy8bEQAAQBAJ Brooklynites: The Remarkable Story of the Free Black Communities that Shaped a Borough Washington Mews Books 2024 978-1-4798-3309-2 New York City 1427062658 August 9, 1862 The Brooklyn Riot and the Police Force https://www.nytimes.com/1862/08/09/archives/the-brooklyn-riot-and-the-police-force.html subscription live https://web.archive.org/web/20250114130527/https://www.nytimes.com/1862/08/09/archives/the-brooklyn-riot-and-the-police-force.html January 14, 2025 January 10, 2025 The New York Times 4 0362-4331 1645522 40 41 12 N 74 0 11 W type:event_region:US-NY title Category:1860s in New York City Category:1862 riots Category:1862 in New York (state) Category:19th century in Brooklyn Category:American anti-abolitionist riots and civil disorder Category:African-American history in New York City Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in New York City Category:August 1862 in the United States Category:Irish-American culture in New York City Category:Irish-American history Category:Racially motivated violence against African Americans in New York City Category:Riots and civil disorder in New York City Category:Terrorist incidents in New York City