Astor Place Riot
How far do you think you would go to show your support for your favorite celebrity and to fight against the social classes? Well, some people would start a riot; The Astor Place Riot was a riot that occurred May 10, 1849. It happened in Manhattan, New York with the lower class taking a stand mostly against the upper class. It started primarily because of one man’s performance at the Astor Opera House, William Charles Macready. According to the Off the Grid Blog, the whole conflict began because of rivalry between Macready and another Shakespeare actor, Edwin Forest (Apman). The whole ordeal left many dead and injured, and how it all started is actually quite interesting.
The conflict goes back farther than the actual event
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because it all started out with a separation of classes. It was a divide between upper-class New Yorkers who preferred the English actor, Macready, and the lower class New Yorkers who were mainly Irish immigrants who were strongly against the British and supported the American actor, Forrest. The immigrants and lower class dealt with discrimination and hate that was nearly intolerable. So when they first learned that a British Actor would be taking the stage in a production of Macbeth instead of a more beloved American actor like Edwin Forrest, they were not happy. During the performance, William Macready was hit with rotten food and angry words. However, it didn’t stop there. There was already a feud between the American and British actor that the public and media followed for years, and many believe that was what started this anger in the first place and gave the push for the lower class to stand up against the higher class, for they were the ones who wanted the British actor in the first place. The whole ordeal at the first performance caused the British actor to claim he would be on the next ship back to England; however, that’s not what happened after the upperclassmen convinced him to stay. Macready staying however only made the conflict much worse.
The whole ordeal caused the upperclassmen to selfishly buy up all of the seats in the theater that would show another production of Macbeth 3 days after the incident. Even the Theatre management boarded up the windows and took other precautions to keep the Anti-Macready group from causing other disturbances. The New York authorities even ordered a Seventh Regiment to stand by in Washington Square Park. According to The New York History Blog, while that was being organized, the “Anti-Macready” crowd was meeting and was led by a lower classman named Isaiah Rynders who encouraged people to go to the Astor Opera House that evening and was quoted saying, “SHALL AMERICANS OR ENGLISH RULE THIS CITY?” …show more content…
(Hernandez). Later that evening, with the play opening at 7:30 pm, gathered around the theatre reportedly stood over 10,000 Irish and working class men lead by Isaiah Rynders who started commanding his followers to bombard the theatre with stones and to start fights with the police.
There were even people who attempted (and failed) to set the theatre on fire. According to The New York Tribune “As one window after another cracked, the pieces of bricks and paving stones rattled on the terraces and lobbies. The confusion increased till the Opera House resembled a fortress besieged by an invading army rather than a place meant for the peaceful amusement of civilized community.” Even the 7th Regiment was met with stones and eventually was commanded to open fire onto the
crowd. According to The New York History blog, at the end of the riot almost 30 rioters were killed, most being Irish immigrants and working-class men, while a small portion were only innocent bystanders (Hernandez). Then over 40 were injured, over 155 arrested and almost 70 policemen were injured as well as 141 militiamen. According to Off the Grid, thereafter, the opera house was known as the Massacre Opera House. That reputation set the Opera House up for failure, which in the end it did. However, in the end, there is a new opera house at the Academy of Music by Union Square since the former opera house closed. The vacancy later became the New York Mercantile Library. In conclusion, a stand was taken by the lower class of working men and Irish immigrants, even if it was taken in a brutal way. It cost New York many deaths and sadness, however, in the end, the "little man" was looked at in a different way, in a way they were seen as strong having to stand up against police and a militia. It's interesting to also think about because even today we see many riots that involve a minority and the police. It's definitely something that we will probably always see in history because it usually can get something done. What would you do to get something changed that you strongly believed in?
In May of 1992, performer and dramatist Anna Deavere Smith was appointed to compose a one-lady execution piece about the encounters, sentiments, and pressures that added to and were exacerbated by the 1992 Los Angeles riots. For her work, Smith met more than 200 inhabitants of Los Angeles amid the season of the uproar. Her script comprises totally of the genuine expressions of individuals from the Los Angeles group as they ponder their encounters encompassing the Los Angeles riots. As Smith depicted in the prologue to her play, Twilight, which she later distributed as a book, "I am first searching for the humanness inside the issues, or the crises." She strived to keep up a wide assortment of points of view, talking individuals from all kinds of different backgrounds:
Once called the Public Housing capital in the United States, Newark was receiving more money than any other city from the federal government to clear slums and build public housing complexes. People like Louis Danzig who was the head of the Newark Housing Authority (NHA) used the federal funds the city received to destroy low income housing of minorities in Newark, then build public housing on the outskirts of the city putting all the poor minorities in these areas. The police brutalized the cities African-American citizens numerous times with no repercussions. The city was being segregated and African-American Newark residents started to feel more and more marginalized. In 1967 things finally came to ahead as an African-American cab driver was arrested and beat badly by the Newark Police Department and when rumor spread that he had died in police custody. Though the cab driver was in fact brought to the hospital, a group gathered out in front of the police station and started throwing bricks and other objects at the police station. The riot went on for six days and has shaped the image of Newark to this day the riots have given the city a negative appearance that still lingers.
In 1917, Houston, Texas was placed under martial law. The Houston Riot of 1917, or the Camp Logan Riot, was a mutiny by 156 African American soldiers of the Third Battalion of the all-black Twenty-fourth United States Infantry Regiment. The riot only lasted for one night, but it resulted in the deaths of four soldiers and sixteen civilians. In the days to follow, a total of nineteen people would be executed and forty-one were given life sentences.
What were the causes of the prison riots in the 1990`s and how effective was the government response?
Public conflict may be triggered by several causes. For one, it may result from the agitation of several groups who believe that what is morally right is violated. Despite the reason behind, agitators seek to challenge the society so that their proposal for social change is accepted. Hence, it is important to understand the reasons why agitators use different strategies to advance their cause and how establishments can control them. For the purposes of this paper, the Boston Tea Party will be analyzed in light of the concept of agitation and establishment. Further, the strategies of the agitators and the establishment will also be provided.
... Macduff, was able to figure out that Macbeth was behind the murders. He went to England to get help from King Edward to overthrow Macbeth. When he gets back to Scotland he confronts Macbeth and then kills him. The truth of his acts caught up with him and he got what he deserved. This play is a prime example of why people need to think about the reality of their actions and think about how it will affect them in the future.
The Dramatic Impact on a Jacobean Audience of Act 1 Scene 5 of Shakespeare’s Macbeth
A Look Into the Chicago Race Riots The Civil War was fought over the “race problem,” to determine the place of African-Americans in America. The Union won the war and freed the slaves. However, when President Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation, a hopeful promise for freedom from oppression and slavery for African-Americans, he refrained from announcing the decades of hardship that would follow to obtaining the new “freedom”. Over the course of nearly a century, African-Americans would be deprived and face adversity to their rights.
The Boston Massacre is considered by many historians to be the first battle of the Revolutionary War. The fatal incident happened on March 5 of 1770. The massacre resulted in the death of five colonists. British troops in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were there to stop demonstrations against the Townshend Acts and keep order, but instead they provoked outrage. The British soldiers and citizens brawled in streets and fought in bars. “The citizens viewed the British soldiers as potential oppressors, competitors for jobs, and a treat to social mores'; (Mahin 1). A defiant anti-British fever was lingering among the townspeople.
On March 5, 1770 a fight broke out in the streets of Boston, Massachusetts between a patriot mob and British soldiers. Citizens attacked a squad of soldiers by throwing snowballs, stones and sticks. British Army soldiers in turn killed five civilians and injured six others. The presence of British troops had been stationed in Boston, the capital of Province of Massachusetts Bay since 17681. The British existence was increasingly unwelcome. The British troops were sent to Boston in order to protect and support the crown-appointed colonial officials attempting to enforce unpopular Parliamentary legislation.
Most people have heard of The Boston tea party. When American patriots dressed as Mohawk Indians boarded the British ships in the Boston harbor and dumped all of the tea into the ocean. But what most people fail to realize is the great importance behind this protest. To fully understand a topic of history one must first acknowledge the actions behind it. The French and Indian war, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Revenue Act, as well as the Tea Act are all important catalysts of the legendary Boston tea party. Which is why we will discuss these topics before examining the events of the Boston tea party.
According to the textbook who was to blame for the Boston Massacre, several Boston resident were shot and killed by British Soldiers on the night of March 5, 1770, in what became known as Boston Massacre.
The Boston Massacre was and is still a debatable Massacre. The event occurred on March 5, 1776. It involved the rope workers of the colonial Boston and two British regiments, the twenty-ninth and the fourteenth regiments. Eleven people were shot in the incident; five people were killed and the other six were merely wounded. The soldiers and the captain, Thomas Preston, were all put on trial. All were acquitted of charges of murder, however the two soldiers who fired first, Private Mathew Killroy, and Private William Montgomery, the two soldiers were guilty of manslaughter. The causes were numerous for this event. There had been a nation wide long-term dislike towards the British, and a growing hatred towards them by the people of Boston. Even before the two regiments were sent in to monitor Boston there was a growing feud before the two sides.
Throughout history, events are sparked by something, which causes emotions to rise and tensions to come to a breaking point. The Boston Massacre was no exception; America was feeling the pressure of the British and was ready to break away from the rule. However, this separation between these two parties would not come without bloodshed on both sides. The British did not feel the American had the right to separate them from under British rule, but the Americans were tired of their taxes and rules being placed upon them and wanted to succeed from their political tyrants. The Boston Massacre would be the vocal point in what would be recognized, as the Revolutionary War in American history and the first place lives would be lost for the cost of liberty. Even though the lives were lost that day, eight British soldiers were mendaciously accused of murder when it was clearly self-defense. People who are placed in a situation where their lives are threatened have the right to defend themselves. History does not have the right to accuse any one event those history may have considered the enemy guilty when they are fighting for their lives.
“Showed like a rebel’s whore. But all’s to weak,/ For brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name-/ Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel,/ Which smoked with bloody execution,/[...]/ Till he faced the slave;/ Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,/Till he unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops,/ And fixed his head upon our battlements.” (1.2.18-25). In this quotation it reveals that Macdonwald was a traitor and he was winning the battle until his luck ran out and Macbeth came and killed Macdonwald without him saying his last words, he was “smoked with a bloody execution”(1.2.20). A lot of blood was shed that day however Macbeth came out of that battle victorious because he killed the traitor. Another victory was in Act 5, scene 8 when Macduff killed Macbeth. Macduff with Macbeth’s blood on his hands was seen as a hero , for killing this mad man “...Behold where stands/ The usurpers cursed head”(5.9.25-26).Macbeth’s hopes of being victorious was diminished when he learned that Macduff wasn’t born of a woman.Macduff ended up being victorious.