| Description |
xiii, 434 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 25 cm. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (p. [413]-422) and index. |
| Contents |
The rebel horde invades Pennsylvania -- Battle lines are drawn: race, class & religion -- Horace Greeley and the birth of the Republican Party -- Fernando Wood, the Southern mayor of New York -- Slavery must die that the nation might live -- Emancipation -- New York City Draft Riots -- A crusade against Negroes -- Government in the hands of the white race alone -- War's end, slavery is dead, and the "Demon of Caste" lives on -- Negro suffrage -- Greeley and the Liberal Republicans -- The end of Reconstruction -- Walking tour of Civil War New York. |
| Summary |
The dramatic narrative of the largest riots in American history; Nine days after the battle of Gettysburg, the largest riots in American history broke out on the streets of New York City, nearly destroying in four days the financial, industrial, and commercial hub of the nation. As Barnet Schecter dramatically shows, the riots in New York and other northern cities erupted over the same polarizing issues that divided the nation during the Civil War, and they influenced attitudes across the country. Their aftermath foreshadowed the compromises that would bedevil integration for the next 100 years. Triggered by Abraham Lincoln's imposition of the first federal military draft in American history, which exempted those who could pay $300, New York's white underclass, whipped up by its conservative Democratic political leaders, raged against the powerful currents of social change embodied by Lincoln's Republican administration. What began as an outbreak against draft offices soon turned into a mob assault on upper class houses and property, and on New York's African-American community. Infused with the colorful voices of participants, politicians, newspapermen, soldiers, diarists, and many others, The Devil's Own Work opens another important window on the Civil War era and on the history of protest and reform in America. |
| Subject |
Draft Riot, New York, N.Y., 1863.
|
| ISBN |
0802714390 (hardcover) |
|
9780802714398 (hardcover) |
| Standard No. |
NLGGC 279840233 |
|
YDXCP 2181889 |
|
