We keep getting told how whites died fighting to end slavery therefore we as blacks, who apparently did nothing need to be grateful for the great sacrifices made by whites. First off this is a silly claim. We are to be grateful that whites decided to fix a problem they created and did not have to be. However, reality is that such a claim is untrue.
New York City draft riots
The
New York City draft riots (July 13–16, 1863), known at the time as
Draft Week,
[3] were
violent disturbances in
Lower Manhattan, widely regarded as the culmination of working-class discontent with new laws passed by
Congress that year to
draft men to fight in the ongoing
American Civil War. The riots remain the largest civil and racially charged insurrection in American history, aside from the Civil War itself.
[4]
U.S. President
Abraham Lincoln diverted several regiments of militia and volunteer troops after the
Battle of Gettysburg to control the city. The rioters were overwhelmingly working-class men, mostly Irish or of Irish descent, who feared free black people competing for work and resented that wealthier men, who could afford to pay a $300 (equivalent to $9,157 in 2017
[5]) commutation fee to hire a substitute, were spared from the draft.
[6][7]
Initially intended to express anger at the draft, the protests turned into a
race riot, with white rioters, predominantly
Irish immigrants,
[4] attacking black people throughout the city. The official death toll was listed at either 119 or 120 individuals. Conditions in the city were such that Major General
John E. Wool, commander of the
Department of the East, said on July 16 that "Martial law ought to be proclaimed, but I have not a sufficient force to enforce it."
[8]
The military did not reach the city until the second day of rioting, by which time the mobs had ransacked or destroyed numerous public buildings, two Protestant churches, the homes of various abolitionists or sympathizers, many black homes, and the
Colored Orphan Asylum at 44th Street and Fifth Avenue, which was burned to the ground.
[9]
The area's demographics changed as a result of the riot. Many black residents left Manhattan permanently with many moving to
Brooklyn. By 1865, the black population fell below 11,000 for the first time since 1820.
New York City draft riots - Wikipedia