I was shocked as I was reading these articles. It is awful and amazing how far people will go, without thinking of what they were actually doing. The fact that the rioters stormed an orphanage is astounding. If they had taken five minutes to think, they could have easily realized that African American children under the age of twelve were in no way responsible for the draft. Even the logic they used to get to the conclusion that all African Americans were responsible for the war is absurd. But then, I am looking at this with the perspective of someone in 2010. Also, it is interesting how none of these articles are written from the perspective of the rioters, which is making me as a reader biased. I wonder what my reaction would be if most of these articles were written by rioters, if that would change my opinion of them.
The draft riots were like a war themselves. Rioters fought against police officers, firefighters, African Americans, even children! In the past, I have always learned that the civil war was fought between the North and the South, and have thought that most northerners supported the war. Reading these articles, it seems that most northerners did not support the war, because of the draft. It is almost as if rioters created a new war in order to avoid being sent to fight in the civil war.
Were these rioters actually violent people? Or did they just get swept up in the mob? How did killing and attacking these innocent people benefit them?
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