Diary kept by Helen Lansing Grinnell (1827–1894) for her son Frank Lansing Grinnell (1853–1875)

On July 13, 1863, the largest racially charged riots in the history of the United States occurred in New York City. In March of that year Congress passed the Enrollment Act, the first national draft in U.S. history. Since Black men were ineligible for conscription—they were not considered citizens—and wealthy white men could hire a substitute, the men of the working classes saw that the war’s future depended on them. Then and now, the riots are frequently attributed to Irish immigrants’ outrage at the draft. But the larger context includes racialized fear stoked by the political organization Tammany Hall and leading and local newspapers, as well as New York City’s economic connections to the Confederacy. This was primarily through trade in cotton, which employed a large proportion of the lower-class Irish immigrant population.

From July 13th through the 16th, white mobs ransacked, damaged, or burned the homes of Blacks and abolitionists, Protestant churches that provided services to Blacks, and the Colored Orphan Asylum at 44th Street and Fifth Avenue. Black people were systematically attacked, with some dragged from their homes, beaten or murdered on the streets, hanged in public, or forced into the rivers to drown. While there is no official death toll, the numbers range from hundreds to more than 2,000. This diary that Helen Lansing Grinnell composed for her son Frank is open to her recollections of these events. “The people were determined to resist the draft ordered by President Lincoln,” she wrote, “and accomplished great mischief in a few days, robbing, murdering, and threatening many people.”

The riots were eventually quelled by the arrival of the New York State Militia and Federal troops from Gettysburg. Red annotations on the map show areas of military interest, such as supply depots, government buildings, and the Custom House.