T iPOVERTV "All That Is Loaths< Life in the Five Points Slum Lizabeth Peak details the rise and fall of the Five Points in lower Manhattan
OF ALL THE 19th-cen- become polluted by tury slums of New the effluent waste __ York City, the worst _____ by far was the Sixth neries, slaughter- Ward, commonly houses and breweries known as the Five that had sprung up Points. It was a near it. In 1802, in wretched place where response to a rapidly tens of thousands of rising population, it destitute immigrants, was recommended packed into crum- that the contaminated ned conflict — bling, vermin-infested Collect be drained tenements, existed in and filled. The project d New York, abject poverty, disease, was completed in ' titution went crime, political corrup- 1811, streets were laid T 1789, North tion and gang warfare. down through the Island The filthy streets were area and it was lew "more lined with saloons, opened for settlement. gambling houses, Photo courtesy of Alan BatL The neighborhood n Carolina The interior of a tenement apartment as preserved in the tionin dance halls and dens Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York City. that developed there :rsed its deci- of prostitution. was poor, but 39. Rhode • Even Charles Dickens, inti- The Origin of the Five Points respectable. Many of its residents not to send mately familiar with the horrors of The Five Points was named in the were tradesmen and craftsmen .titutional the London slums, wrote in his 1830s for the five points created who operated out of their homes. approve the American Notes of 1842 about the by the intersections of Cross (now It was a relatively peaceful place '' \d by Five Points: Park Row), Anthony (now Worth), to live until about 1820, when sev- i. We have seen no beggars in the Orange (now Baxter), Little Water eral factors led to its decline. The iftei the Con- streets by night or day; but of other (no longer exists) and Mulberry growth of factories forced out • supreme law kinds of strollers, plenty. Poverty, Streets. In colonial times, this area many of the family-centered busi- ig Union wretchedness, and vice, are rife of lower Manhattan was mostly nesses. The apprentice system dis- sident no enough where we are going now. swampland, with a large pond appeared, leaving children and rmed conflict This is the place: these narrow known as the Collect. At the time, young adults idle and free to the fact that ways... reeking everywhere with the Collect and its surroundings roam the streets unsupervised. lot univer- dirt and filth.... Debauchery has were a favorite spot for fisherman Working families were replaced rica (with the made the very houses prematurely and picnickers. Unfortunately, by by impoverished Irish and Ger- opposing it old. See how the rotten beams are the late 1700s, the water had man immigrants who couldn't :es in sup- tumbling down, and how the afford to live anywhere else. naged to patched and broken windows Unscrupulous landlords soon f nationalism. seem to scowl dimly, like eyes realized that they could profit :he expan- that have been hurt in drunken by building an addition on to the subse- frays.... Where dogs would howl their already ramshackle he persistent to lie, women, and men, and wooden buildings and by he ongoing boys slink off to sleep, forcing packing more families into agrarian the dislodged rats to move away smaller quarters. rial North led in quest of better lodgings. Here Also at this time, the land- /ar that too are lanes and alleys, paved fill on which the area had .e United with mud knee-deep, under- been built began-to decay, ground chambers, where they causing many of the buildings dance and game... ruined to sink and fall apart. Base- houses, open to the street... ments frequently flooded, out- hideous tenements which take, door privies overflowed and
their name from robbery and Photo courtesy of Lower East Side Tenement Museun the streets ran with human murder: all that is loathsome, The kitchen of a tenement apartment as preserved and animal excrement and drooping, and decayed is here. in the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. industrial waste. Unfit for liv- History Magazine • October/November 2006 41 POVERTY
ing quarters, many basements and makers, blacksmiths, weavers, A Five Points tenement was a passage1 lower floors housed saloons or tanners, etc. Virulent bigotry and miserable place to live. Poorly Murders brothels; these became breeding mistrust, however, meant that built, vermin-infested firetraps, almost c grounds for criminals of every there were no jobs for them when they were filthy, dark and airless, that tr— sort. Respiratory diseases, poor they got to America. By 1855, freezing in winter and sweltering mure nutrition and epidemics of cholera there were nearly 10,000 Irish in in summer. The Society for the notorioi and typhus led to one of the high- the Five Points, languishing in Improvement of the Condition of as Cow est death rates in the country, par- tenements with names like the the Poor stated upon the housing of a sm£ ticularly among children. Filth, Old Brewery, Jacob's Ladder, the that they were ".. .crazy old build- where f; . disease, vice and violent crime Gates of Hell and Brick-Bat Man- ings — crowded rear tenements in water. I] soon forced out the remaining -.— sion. -—- -.— —— filthy yards; dark,-damp base- -- Points, i respectable families, and by 1850, ments; leaky garrets, shops, out- cul-de-s the Five Points had become one of Tenement Life and the "Cellar houses, and stables converted to Water S the most dismal places in Amer- Dwellers" dwellings, though scarcely fit to of the d ica. When the decrepit and decaying shelter brutes — are the habita- alley lir houses of the Sixth Ward filled to tions of thousands of fellow citi- I of the C "No Irish Need Apply" capacity with immigrants, money- zens of this wealthy city." 1 conned "All Europe is coming across the hungry slumlords created a new The typical tenement con- sages - ocean... and what shall we do kind of building — the "tenant sisted of a front and a rear build- thieves with them?" wrote ing with a square court between ever w; future New York them — a "double decker". The "If you mayor and diarist front rooms of the front building wrote t Philip Hone in 1836. were the most desirable, as they 1 of an 11 "They increase our received the most light and air. Corn, " 1 chief w taxes, eat our bread Less desirable were the back 1 and encumber our you cai streets, and not one in stench, twenty is competent to we see keep himself." By 1841, T; and di] almost 100,000 Irish •i: rum-dt Catholics had poured beings. The above floor plan is from >' into New York, spark- Jacob Riis'How the Other Half ing vicious anti- Lives, published in 1890. The 1 "Dens Catholic and anti-Irish caption reads in part: "Here are Inlr bigotry and resentment twelve living-rooms and ] Trib, among native-born twenty-one bedrooms, and on the workers. Both black only six of the latter have any | death" and white men feared provision or possibility for the I ments the loss of their jobs to admission of light and air, Built c excepting through the family grouni the Irish, who, if they sitting- and living-room; being could get hired, would utterly dark, close, and unven- often t work for lower wages. tilated. The living-rooms are stand "If I had the power," but 10 x 12 feet, the bedrooms i compl wrote one man anony- 6% x 7 feet." L stands for light, ; ventilc mously, "I would erect D for dark and H for hallways. i: cellar a gallows at every Right; the Barracks. j one w landing place... and be ope suspend every cursed Irishman as house" or tenement. Multi-family rooms of either building, and rear o: soon as he steps on our shores." dwellings had existed in New worst of all were the underground at all. Then, in the summer of 1845, York for some time, but they had cellars. often •
came a crisis of catastrophic pro- been originally built for some At the heart of the Five Points •i the w; portions — the Irish Potato other purpose. The first building was the Old Brewery. Originally j throu;
Famine. Over the next five years, constructed specifically as a tene- built in 1792 as Coulter's Brewery, 1 ing w thousands of starving Irish fami- ment went up in the early 1830s. on the old Collect, its name excrei lies fled across the Atlantic, with Large, flimsy, multi-storied changed when it became too rific. i as many as 700 men, women and wooden structures, they were decrepit for use as a business and is not children crammed into the cargo designed to house as many people became a dwelling. An alley on its count hold of a "coffin ship". Most had as the landlord could cram in. At north side led to a room known as aheac been tenant farmers in Ireland its peak, the Old Brewery held the Den of Thieves, in which some — oft and had no skills to offer in a city. more than 1,000 people; another, 75 men, women and children s. Many others had occupational known as The Barracks, at one lived; most of the women were kept] skills — cabinet makers, shoe time housed over 1,100 souls. prostitutes. The other side of the attrac 42 History Magazine • October/November 2006 nnent was a passageway earned the name Some cellars housed dens of pros- highly susceptible to disease and e. Poorly Murderers' Alley. Fighting was titution, where women, and often injury. When they were not on the . firetraps, almost constant, and it is believed children, openly plied their ser- street, many children sought food ' T airless, that the alley averaged almost a vices. Others served as rum shops and shelter in the cellar rum i tering murder a night for 15 years. The (euphemistically referred to as shops and brothels, where they ty ror the notorious tenement alley known "green-groceries"), dance halls, or soon learned the skills necessary londition of as Cow Bay was originally the site gambling houses for "the lowest for a life of thievery, prostitution the housing of a small bay in the Collect pond, class of sots". The Tribune and gang membership. zy old build- where farmers took their cattle for reported that at least 410 rum tenements in water. In the early days of the shops operated in the Points. The Gangs of New York np base- Points, it had been a respectable Other cellars w_ere devoted.to The earliest gangs of New York shops, out- cul-de-sac at the end of Little lodging boarders. For 3T/2 cents a City arose out of the squalid tene- mverted to Water Street, but with the decline week, a boarder would get clean ments and rum shops of the Five ircely fit to of the district, it became a filthy straw to sleep on and first crack at Points, where murderers, thieves, he habita- alley lined with tenements. Many whatever food the old women pickpockets and prostitutes con- fellow citi- of the Cow Bay buildings were and children had managed to buy gregated, far from the eyes of the ity." connected by underground pas- or beg that day. For 183/* cents, authorities. The first gang to ient con- sages — ideal hiding places for one got a bit of bare floor and sec- establish a defined organization rear build- thieves and murderers, and what- ond chance at the day's food. And and hierarchy of leadership was rt between ever was left of their victims. the Forty Thieves. Under their cker". The "If you would see Cow Bay," chief, Edward Coleman, the nt building wrote the anonymous author gang members held their ile, as they of an 1854 book called Hot meetings in the back room of it and air. Corn, "saturate your handker- Rosanna Peers' "green-gro- le back chief with camphor, so that cery", where they shared you can endure the horrible reports of their activities and stench, and enter.. .what do organized various "missions". we see? ... nothing but rags, Soon, other gangs, predomi- and dirt, and vermin, and nantly Irish, organized along rum-degraded human similar lines — the Chich- beings." esters, Shirt-Tails, Roach Guards, Plug Uglies and Dead "Dens of death" Rabbits. The Plug Uglies were In-1850, the New York Daily particularly feared, even by. Tribune ran a series of articles other gangs. The gang's name on the so-called "dens of was taken from the members' death" — the cellars and base- large plug hats, which they ments of the tenement houses. stuffed with wool or leather Built one to two stories below and used as helmets during ground level, the ceilings were A 19th-century illustration of the Five Points, battles. Mostly huge Irishmen, often too low for a human to they sauntered through the stand upright. They were almost. for nine cents a week, the "third streets carrying bludgeons or completely devoid of light and class" boarder was permitted to brickbats, with pistols in their ventilation. The main room of the fight over whatever was left on pockets and heavy hob-nailed cellar apartment usually had only the table, and had the privilege of boots with which to pound their one window that often could not sleeping in the doorway. . victims. The Dead Rabbits were be opened. The bedrooms in the Children suffered the most originally part of the Roach ng, and rear of the cellar had no windows under these deplorable condi- Guards, but internal dissension ' underground at all. Poor drainage in the streets tions. The more fortunate ones developed. During one particu- often caused flooding after a rain, might earn a few pennies as boot- larly heated meeting, someone ; Five Points the water sometimes breaking blacks or street cleaners, or by reportedly threw a dead rabbit Originally through the foundation and carry- selling newspapers or matches. into the middle of the room. Tak- ?r's Brewery/ ing with it mud, garbage and However, thousands of children, ing this as a sign, one of the fac- name excrement. The stench was hor- neglected by absent, indifferent or tions left the group and adopted me too rific. As the Tribune noted, "There inebriated parents, roamed the their new name. (In the vernacu- usiness and is not a farmer's hog pen in the streets day and night. In 1854, it lar of the day, a "rabbit" was a n alley on its country, that is not immeasurably was estimated that approximately rowdy man, and a "dead rabbit" im known as ahead of them in point of health 34,000 homeless children strug- was a particularly big, strong which some — often in point of cleanliness-." gled to survive on the streets of "rabbit".) They distinguished hildren Some tenement cellars were New York. Dressed in rags, their themselves by parading through nen were kept much cleaner, but only to hair matted with dirt, they were the streets sporting a dead rabbit side of the attract their particular clientele. easy targets for criminals and impaled on a long spike. History Magazine • October/November 2006 43 All the gangs employed chil- rival gang members. In the 1830s, dwellers far outweighed the spiri- Prc dren as scouts, decoys, messen- when the political powers of New tual. When the Ladies paid him a had as gers and pickpockets, and most of York came to realize the benefits visit and found him delivering effect c them had their juvenile counter- of alliance with the gangs, the vio- bolts of cloth instead of sermons, Riis."" part — the Little Forty Thieves lence between them reached a they fired him. Pease stayed in the in 18 (led by a girl known as Wild Mag- completely new level. With the Points, and in 1856 established the povert gie), the Little Dead Rabbits and covert backing of the politicians Five Points House of Industry. A aged tc the Little Plug Uglies. Gangs of all and the cooperation of the corrupt permanent building was later reporte girls were almost as common as police force, rioting and violence, built on the site of Cow Bay. Inl89C boys' gangs. especially on election days, In 1853, Episcopal clergyman breakii The Rabbits and the Guards became a profitable venture for Charles Lbririg'Brace founded the Half Li- hated each other deeply, but all the gang members. Children's Aid Society. For 17 graphi the Points' gangs were unified in cents a night, a homeless or York's their hostility towards the gangs The Reformers neglected child could get a hot conditi of other districts, notably the By 1850, concern for the poor, meal, a bath and a bed, along for the working-class, mostly native-born especially the children, was on the with a little Protestant instruction. borhoc gangs of the Bowery — the Bow- rise among New York's middle Within a year, Brace's orphanages Mulbe: ery Boys, the True Blue Ameri- and upper classes. Dozens of wel- were overflowing. He came to replace cans, the American Guards, the fare organizations sprung up, believe that the best thing for vised t Atlantic Guards and the O'Con- such as the New York Society for these children was to find them ements nell Guards, among others. the Reformation of Juvenile Delin- "good Christian homes" on the - settlen Whenever a rumble broke out quents and The Society for the farms and small towns of the rent cc (and they broke out constantly), a Relief of Poor Widows with Small Midwest. Thus the orphan traina _ activiti large crowd would gather, and no Children. In 1850, the Ladies' were born. Over the next 75 years, the ass one wanted to be left out of the Home Missionary Society of the as many as 400,000 children were into A: fun. Even the women, such as the Methodist Episcopal Church sent "placed out" with families who of Riis infamous Hell-Cat Maggie, enthu- the Reverend Lewis Morris Pease agreed to accept them as their requiri siastically pitched in. The gang and his wife to the Five Points for own. Concerned at seeing so on stai members were especially known . the express purpose of counteract- many Catholic children placed in soms c for their creative methods of tor- ing "Romish [Catholic] influence". Protestant homes, the Catholic ments ture and mutilation of blacks, But the Reverend soon saw that Charities of New York began their away, policemen and soldiers, as well as the physical needs of the slum own system of "mercy trains". ture w
Thf : • "THE DEAD RABBITKIOT; CeiK~ INDEPENDENCE DAY, 1857, promised to be like any , : beaten before being sent back''to his.station in his Bythe i other holiday in the Five Points ^- an excuse to drink underwear. News of the rioting spread quickly," and - FiveP ;to,:excess and create as much mayhem as possible. gang members and unaffiliated thugs from, all over : reputa v-'y ;.:> The timing' was particularly opportune; the the city flocked to the Bowery. The fighting escalated:;; Ameri deeply corrupt Municipal Police Force, which tradi- and spread to Baxter, Elizabeth and MiUberry Streets. sisted -itionally ignored ithe activities of the Five Points gangs, With the police distracted, the rioters looted shops, ' day), i ^had recently been disbanded by the state legislature. assaulted pedestrians, and set fire to homes :and busi-:;-': from I When asked to remain on duty for a few days (with- nesses. Later that night, three regiments of militia Europ out pay) as unofficial peacekeepers, they responded responded, and by morning a terfious peace had • gangs that, in the absence of any official recognition as police been restored, though isolated skirrnishes continued ; were i ^officers, the peace would not be kept by any of them. throughout the week. By July 8, the Bowery was rela- FiveP iThe newly formed and pitifully inexperienced Metro- tively peaceful, the gangs having lost so many mem-"'•• '~ • such s politan Police were on their bers to arrest, injury and ish Br< own. That evening, several death that a truce was called, j andtt Five Points gangs, led by the An estimated 800 to 1,000 riot- ianPa Dead Rabbits, invaded the ers had participated in the L:.,!' Kelly. Bowery, attacking several Met- melee. The official toll was ;^,i Amer: ropolitans and raiding the listed at eight dead and a hun- youn§ .headquarters of the Bowery dred wounded, but rumor . Capoi ;Boys. The other Bowery gangs held that it,was ahundred . n quickly rallied to their defense, who died and that the gangs ;< the Ft and soon heavy fighting raged had secretly buried -their dead]:• Today all along Bayard Street. in cellars and tunnels;;-In'•?.':i. ':--,'.
The Five Points In the 20th Bargain Books Century Anna Magnusson's Home Child ioii jAnls "-• By the turn of the century, the history of William Quarrier and the quickly, and Five Points had lost much of its 7,000,Scottish children he sent m, all over- reputation as the worst slum in to Canada: ng ^ America. Although the gangs per- Iberry Streets. sisted (and do, of course, to this THE VILLAGE Dted shops, day), new waves of immigration A History of Quarriers nes and-busi- from Eastern and Southern By Anna Magnusson of militia Europe changed the face of the >eace had -•': gangs. By 1890, the Irish gangs ;s continued : were no longer in control of the 7ery was rela- Five Points, replaced by groups naany mem-:." such as the Eastmans, led by Jew- ury and - : :,.-: ish Brooklynite Monk Eastman, Booklovers & History Buffs! s was called. : and the Five-Pointers, led by Ital- • Save up to 8O% on a wide selection 3 to 1,000 riot- ian Paolo Vaccarelli, aka Paul of books on your "must read" list. ted in the . v^; Kelly. (Kelly's lasting legacy to •World & U.S. History, Politics, Business, Finance, Science, Travel, al toll was •--'. . - American organized crime was a Literature, Biography, Fiction, ad arid ahun-5 young protege named Al Nature, Sports and much more. ANNA MAGNUSSON jut 'rumor. Capone.) • Quality hardcover books, starting at $2.95. Thdusands of titles and ihuruired v : The most recent settlers into hundreds of new arrivals each catalog. ISBN 1-55002-655-0 at the gangs ,;; the Five Points were Asians. • America's Largest Bargain Book $24.99 Paper ed their dead Today, the area of the Five Points Catalog—67 subject areas. Something AVAILABLE: October 2006 uiels. In ; slum is occupied by Columbus for everyone. Fascinating books you ife and prop- Park, city, state and federal court- never knew existed, at bargain prices. Available at all good •orstriotto houses and by the Chinatown dis- Free catalog: 1-800-677-3483 Edward R. Hamilton, Bookseller bookstores or online at y "until the . trict. 2153 Oak, Falls Village, CT 06031-5000 www.dundurn.com www.erhbooks.com/gnx History Magazine • October /November 2006 45