This site is intended to provide a detailed image of working-class life
in one small part of urban America in the mid nineteenth century. The Fourth
Ward was a working-class district by the East River waterfront of lower
Manhattan, highlighted in red in the picture above. It was a rough, poor,
sometimes unhealthy neighborhood, but not the worst in the city. Throughout
the mid nineteenth century, the people of the ward were, like other working-class
New Yorkers, coping as best they could with problems brought on by rapid
urban growth and industrialization. Some succeeded, some didn't.
These problems and the tensions stirred up by the Civil War exploded in
the summer of 1863 in a frenzy of violence called the New York Draft Riot,
which was fought mostly in other parts of the city but which spilled over
into the Fourth Ward. The riot called attention to deeper social conflict
between rich and poor, black and white. It alerted prosperous New Yorkers
to how little they understood the poorer people of their city. It prompted
some affluent people to study and try to alleviate the difficulties faced
by the less fortunate. It made others fear that the future would bring
even more savage uprisings.
The site is currently under construction, but you are invited to preview
some pieces of it. To begin your exploration, click on any of the red,
underlined words in the table of contents. |
