During the Civil War a draft went out, compelling white men to fight for the Union.
Being forced to fight for Black freedom enraged many. A mob of thousands even stormed New York’s streets, destroying the city’s draft office, which held enlistment records. But that was just the beginning of their violent fury.
Chanting that they didn’t want to fight a “nigger war,” the mob plundered Black homes, beating women and children. Screaming “burn the nigger nest,” they even burned down the Colored Orphan Asylum, with Black orphans still inside!
200 orphans escaped, but hundreds of other mob victims were lynched and thrown into rivers. Eventually, Union troops were deployed to New York and defeated the mob, but the damage was done.
The New York Draft Massacre of 1863 was one of the bloodiest in American history. So why don’t we know about it?
This massacre occurred 50 years before the better-known Tulsa Race Massacre. According to many historians, we haven’t heard of it because White supremacist mythology wants to paint the South as racist and the North as championing emancipation.
When we discuss racism it’s a disservice to divide North from South. We must uncover Black truths to dismantle white supremacist myths still being used to brainwash us today.