The Successful Protest and the Rioting Failure

Were the New York City Draft Riots successful or not? To answer this question, one must really look at the reasons for and actions of the mob. We all know that the riots were sparked by the call of the draft registry, however, they did not end with the draft office's destruction. As stated earlier the mob quickly lost control or direction and turned to looting and pillaging. In fact we know that African Americans were targeted and lynched specifically. We can look at these undertakings in two ways of course; that the mob was racist, and violent and took out heir social-tensions in a brutal manner. On the other hand, many northerners identified the blacks as the cause of the civil war and as such, they blamed the draft on them. This can then be viewed as a political battle whereas the blacks became a symbol of the draft and of the political issues that sparked the riot.

Continuing on though, we get the image that even though "exemption money" (Draft Riots 1863: Money) was paid by the city of new york for the removal of the necessity of the draft, "an appropriation twice as large would have been just as futile". The riots,as we now understand are not of political nature anymore, because, even with their primary aims achieved, the riots did not cease. It wasn't until"federal troops" were brought in to "quell the rioting" (Draft Riots reading day 3) that the commotion finally ended.

The protest in and of itself can still be seen as a success however in that Governor Seymour reduced NYC's "draft quota from twenty six thousand to twelve thousand men". In the reduction of more than half the quota, the political aims of the riots were achieved even more than originally imagined. Still the death toll and massive property damage show how far gone the riots left the city.

As such, can we consider, in the nature of hindsight, the riots to be a success, or a failure? And to what extent of each?

Lamtumirë,

Jon