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The Bloody Ould Sixth Ward: Crime and Society in Five Points, New York

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The Bloody Ould Sixth Ward: Crime and Society in Five Points, New York The Bloody Ould Sixth Ward: Crime and Society in Five Points, New York Research Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for graduation “with Research Distinction in History” in the undergraduate colleges of The Ohio State University By: Sarah Paxton The Ohio State University June 2012 Project Advisor: Dr. Randolph Roth, Department of History A special thank you to my advisor, Dr. Randolph Roth, for his wisdom and direction during the development of this project A huge thank you, also, to my family and friends for their constant support despite having to listen to my incessant talk of 19th century crime. 2 1 Map 1: The Sixth Ward, 1851 1 Anbinder, Tyler. (April 2002). From Famine to Five Points. The American historical Review. Vol 107, No 2. Retrieved from: www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/107.2/ah0202000351.html 3 In lower Manhattan, New York, Worth and Baxter Street converge on a relatively calm intersection next to a Chinatown playground. In 1830, however, this intersection consisted of four streets. Little Water, Orange, Anthony, and Cross all created a five pointed intersection, giving its neighborhood the name “Five Points.” The streets created a triangle of space within the Five Points neighborhood, which locals dubbed ‘Paradise Park.’ The park name quickly became ironic. A part of the Sixth Ward of New York City, the Five Points neighborhood became the most notorious slum in American history. According the inquests of the New York City coroner, there were eighty-two total inquests filed in the Sixth Ward between 1833 and 1835. A second sample of coroner’s inquests, those filed between 1847 and 1849, showed two hundred and sixty eight inquests filed. The breakdown of these inquests is demonstrated in Figure 1 below. Causes of Death in Inquests 1833-35 1847-49 68 62 33 30 20 1718 20 12 13 7 8 3 4 5 2 3 5 2 2 5 4 3 4 2 Figure 1 2 Coroner’s inquests, New York City Municipal Archives, Reel numbers 7-8 and 36-39 4 The limitations of the coroner’s inquests should be addressed before progressing further. An inquest was not recorded for every death but rather those that the coroner was not completely certain of the cause of death. The coroner would then call a jury of no more than twenty-three and subpoena witnesses. With the coroner, the jury would judge the witness testimony and study the body to determine the official cause of death.3 While the coroner’s inquests are sufficient to provide general insight into life and death of the early nineteenth century Sixth Ward, it should be regarded as preliminary research. Referring back to Figure One, this was a giant leap in the amount of death4 in the Sixth Ward in a short period of time. The next step in the research was to discover whether this spike in deaths correlated with an increase in violent death as recorded by the coroner’s inquests. This was done by an in-depth study of the content of the coroner’s inquests, beginning with those of Dr. John Cahill, the New York coroner for the first sample of inquests, and Dr. William A. Walters, the coroner of the second sample. The statistics of violent deaths in the inquests are compared in Figure 2. 3 Duer, John, The Revised Statutes of the State of New York, as Altered by Subsequent Enactments, Together with Statutory Provisions of a general nature, Passed between the years 1828 and 1845…3rd Edition, Vol 2. Albany, 1846. 3 vols. The Making of Modern Law: Primary Sources. Web. 21 May 2012 pg 827-828 4 When the term “death” is used in this context, it is referring to death that the coroner’s filed an inquest for, not the death rate in reference to the general population. 5 Violent Death Comparison Violent Death 1833-35 Violent Death 1847-49 13 12 7 5 4 3 3 2 Homicides Suicide Infanticide Accidental 5 Figure 2 As shown in Figure 2, the violent deaths of homicide6 and infanticide did increase, but not by the same number that the escalation in total death suggested they would. The newspapers of the era also repeatedly reported that the Five Points and the Sixth Ward were the most violent locations in the city. A higher homicide and infanticide rate were initial expectations when research began. When it was discovered that the number of homicides did not significantly increase, research turned to what characteristics of the Sixth Ward, specifically the Five Points neighborhood, contributed to the violent reputation in the media and the homicides and infanticides that did occur. The hypothesis was the rush of immigration due to the potato famine that began in Europe, especially Ireland, in 1845. This immigration would mean that the immigrants were likely impoverished so they would settle in the Five Points. The effects of heavy immigration would induce negative effects on the Sixth Ward. This insurgence of Irish 5 Coroner’s inquests, New York City Municipal Archives, Reel numbers 7-8 and 36-39 6 A definition should be noted for “homicide” in the context of this paper. Because homicide will only be discussed in regards to the coroner’s inquests, the term “homicide” will refer to inquests that listed the cause of death as some variation of ‘wounds inflicted by another person.’ There will not be a difference noted for Homicide 1, 2, or manslaughter. 6 into the Sixth Ward is also suggested by the vast amount of Irish present in the coroner’s inquests, as demonstrated in Figure 3. Deceaseds' Origins Deceased Origins 1833-35 Deceased Origins 1847-29 88 48 21 21 24 8 14 6 6 1 2 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 Figure 37 One characteristic of society that corresponds to an increase in violence and the rush of Irish into the Sixth Ward is addressed for each crime, alcohol for homicide and poverty for infanticide. This does not suggest that there is only one contributing factor for either crime. A combination of societal factors typically correlates with a crime. However, for the sake of brevity, the characteristic that had the greatest impact on the crime when the inquests are taken into account is the only one discussed. The homicides and infanticides do contribute to the violent reputation of the Five Points, however they were not as prominent as newspapers suggest. Another influential criminal aspect of the neighborhood was then studied. While not addressed in my main primary source, the 7 Coroner’s inquests, New York City Municipal Archives, Reel numbers 7-8 and 36-39 7 coroner’s inquests, the development of the first American street gangs in the Five Points are a pivotal marker in the violent history of the Sixth Ward. Rosanna Peers, or Rosetta8 depending on who is telling the tale, owned a grocery store on Center Street. It had the same piles of vegetables, decaying in the New York air, which any grocery store displayed, but Rosanna kept the secret to her popularity in the backroom. She sold the sharp, fiery liquor that was popular in saloons at noticeably lower prices. The 1825 grocery speakeasy quickly became a common meeting place for the seedy underbelly of New York City. The pick pockets, thieves, and murderers that congregated in the back of Rosie’s developed a hierarchy with defined leadership. This leadership made them more legitimate than the previous so-called ‘gangs,’ which were groups of orphans and teenagers who enjoyed terrorizing their neighbors, making the criminals the first American street gang. These Irish gangsters called themselves The Forty Thieves.”9 They ruled the Five Points for over ten years. The Five Points was a distinctly ethnic district. Dr. Tyler Anbinder, of George Washington University, gives us the number that a “full 89% of Five Points residents” were foreign born, higher than any other New York neighborhood. 10 This large number of the immigrants typically arrived from the economically impoverished sections of European countries such as Germany and Ireland. The Five Points slum was the only neighborhood that the impoverished Irish could afford so many settled in the Sixth Ward. In Ireland, sixty percent of the population lived in what officials called “fourth class housing,” which referred to the 8 Tim Delaney, American Street Gangs (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc, 2006) pg 37 9 Herbert Asbury, The Gangs of New York (New York: Vintage Books, 2008) pg 19-20 10 Tyler Anbinder, Five Points (New York: Plume, 2002) , pg 43 8 dilapidated sod huts of the lowest economic class in Ireland.11 Irish residents of the fourth class depended almost wholly on the potato for nutrition, since it was found that a diet of potato would not lead to any severe vitamin or mineral deficiency. Because a large majority of the Irish depended on the potato, and only the potato, as a means of sustenance, the potato famine, occurring between 1845 and 1851,12 was devastating to the laborers of Ireland. During the famine years and the period of economic depression that followed, there was a large wave of emigration from Ireland and other famine impacted states, such as Germany. Searching for work, many of these immigrants settled in the bustling city of New York, including the Five Points. Drawing from the ethnically Irish characteristics of the Five Points, street gangs similar to The Forty Thieves continued to grow after 1825 in the thriving grocery speakeasies and dance halls of New York. The Plug Uglies wore oversized plug hats stuffed with cloth, which they pulled down over their ears during battle to serve as a helmet.
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