What are you reading 2023

Crusade For Conformity: The Ku Klux Klan In Texas, 1920-1930
CC Alexander

What are some of the darkest moments in the history of New York City?
I would nominate the New York City Draft Riots of 1863 as one of the worst moments in the history of my city. It is truly a dark and shameful episode, and one about which many New Yorkers are not taught in school. For all our tendency to think of ourselves as a liberal heaven, the third week of July, 1863 reminds us of just how cruel and base we are capable of being.

It is worth mentioning that New York City already had some strong business ties to the Confederacy. Indeed, in 1861, Mayor Fernando Wood had asked the city’s Board of Aldermen to secede along with the Confederate Sates, assuring them that the City would have the full backing of the South and could help ensure confederate victory. This doesn’t represent the majority opinion of the New York populace at the time, which was reflected by the Board’s rejection of Wood’s recommendation, but it demonstrates the degree to which New Yorkers today choose to misremember our own history.

The Civil war was in full swing by 1863, and the need for enough troops to drive the Confederacy to submission led President Lincoln to issue a new round of drafts. In order not to disrupt the Northern economic substructure that drove the Union War Machine, he gave business men a way to circumvent the draft: a fee of $300 could be paid to exempt oneself from service.

At the same time, New York had a fairly massive influx of poor immigrants, especially from Ireland. Tammany Hall had gone full tilt getting as many of them registered as citizens as possible in order to secure a dedicated voter base that would ensure any of their affiliated politicians got elected. Now these young men found themselves drafted to fight for a country at which they had only just arrived, and the exemption ensured that only those too poor to afford the fee were drafted.

On top of this there was significant fear amongst the city’s working class that, should the slaves indeed be freed, the resulting glut of black workers would consume all of the job opportunities on which the immigrant population was surviving, and the prevalent racism against the Irish forced them to be even more reliant of a reduced labor field. The combination of class-based unrest and fear of losing jobs to blacks led to some of the most horrific violence ever seen in the city.

Mobs set fire to many buildings including the Ninth District Provost Marshall’s Office where the draft was being held, The Bull’s Head Hotel, The New York Times Building (where employees fired back into the crowd with gatling guns), and an orphanage for black children. More than a hundred New Yorkers were killed, the vast majority black. The violence pushed much of the black population to move to Brooklyn out of fear of violence. In the end, the New York State Militia had to be recalled from Gettysburg to quell the violence in the streets.

It is important as we look back on the difficult history of our nation that those of us on the winning side do not fall into the fallacy of historical revisionism, even though it can be tempting to pretend that all of the blame fell on our enemies. New York had its own dark episodes in those days, and it is important for all of us to remember history that it might never be repeated.

Pretty extensively. But remember thzt Reinhard was done in by the Czechs in ‘42.

Too funny by half. How self important do you think you are to think this is directed at you? I'm doing research for a paper. Next time, let that skin thicken up a bit before reacting in a diatribe. I promise you, I don't think of you at all when I make posts on this website. The only reason I even know you responded is because you quoted me and it notified me. Now....back to more research that apparently hits a nerve or two for some people.

I always liked Czechs. 👍

I must have missed something but I don’t understand any of this rancor.

The February edition of QST Magazine...amateur radio.

The Devils Triangle
Smallwood, Howell, and Taylor

The Hemmings and the Jeffersons are a great example of reconciliation.

I remember having the impression that the design was highly ordered, as you say.  Well planned, but with necessary changes and improvements through time.  I have heard that the grounds have been extensively restored over the modern years.  As a budding gardener(heh), I was taken with what I saw at the time.  Frederick Law Olmstead I ain't, but I still love garden design.  I moonlighted at a nursery for a few years and I loved helping people design landscaping. Maybe my interest was first piqued at Monticello!?

Gatsby is a quick and satisfying read.

I too, am confused by the exchange.