Racialized lynching in the U.S., has a longer history than many people might realize today. Anti-Black lynchings occurred during the antebellum era in free states such as New York where pro-slavery New Yorkers committed murder in the streets.
“Southern trees bear a strange fruit, blood on the leaves; black body swinging in the Southern breeze…” Billie Holiday’s powerful and poignant 1939 song was, according to a 2000 New York Times article, “…the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.” Holiday’s activism did not occur in a vacuum, as her actions were part of a nationwide anti-lynching campaign to save Black lives and value their humanity.
Modern understandings of lynchings, in numerous instances, tend to focus on the Jim Crow Era and the Modern Civil Rights era because of the national normalization of forms of violence upon Black people. For instance, the lynching of Henry Smith (in 1893) had 10,000 people “…watch as [Myrtle] Vance’s family tortured and solely burned Smith alive.” Meanwhile, some white people distributed postcards that described the events, while other people prized taking “mementos” that were often body parts of the victims.
Looking back in time to the Civil War Era, racialized lynchings sadly predate the twentieth century and were not solely anomalies to the South. Historian Michael J. Pfeifer notes that racialized lynchings occurred in both Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Newburgh, New York, when local whites feared their self-appointed racial “superiority” threatened, whether real or imagined.
When one thinks about large-scale anti-Black racial violence during the Civil War Era, an assumption that the violence was a Southern anomaly is understandable. However, white northerners, particularly in New York City, New York, constantly targeted, executed, and lynched numerous fellow human beings solely for existing as Black people in a supposed Free state. Moreover, looking back even further in time, then one would discover that lynchings in New York City date back to 1712 when eighteen enslaved people had their bloodshed on northern urban city streets to appease white “concerns.”
Even as times changed and slavery officially ended in New York state in 1817, that did not end racism. Black New Yorkers, sadly, discovered that lynchings would continue. The most well-known Civil War Era cases of lynchings occurred in New York City during an event that initially began as a violent demonstration of expressing anti-Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party sentiment that spiraled into a hedonistic display of white hatred against Black people.
Even as times changed and slavery officially ended in New York state in 1817, that did not end racism. Black New Yorkers, sadly, discovered that lynchings would continue. The most well-known Civil War Era cases of lynchings occurred in New York City during an event that initially began as a violent demonstration of expressing anti-Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party sentiment that spiraled into a hedonistic display of white hatred against Black people.
To understand the horrors of the New York City Draft Riot, as the event became known, one needs to contextualize that, by 1863, the Civil War weighed heavily on white people. The war’s toll on white bodies, minds, and economies frustrated many white families. Perhaps families believed that the conflict would end swiftly after the Confederate firing on Fort Sumter, the U.S. Army installation in South Carolina (in 1861).
White vitriol intensified after Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and the Enrollment Act, which collectively affirmed that (for the U.S.) the Civil War was now about simultaneously ending slavery and requiring all able-bodied men to serve in the U.S. Army. For many white people, Lincoln was (in their opinion) now a demagogue forcing them to fight (and most likely die) for a war that was no longer primarily about national reunification (as Lincoln himself stated in his First Inaugural Address).
White northern anger finally erupted in New York City on July 11, about three months after the enactment of the Enrollment Act. Rioters initial violence focused on attacking white Republican strongholds and the local police force. Perhaps some rioters chose those tangible and accessible targets to vent their partisan and socio-economic anger.
For instance, a barbaric group of rioting women tragically stabbed and bit Sergeant Wilson as he attempted to arrest and detain a woman.[1] Sadly, chaotic white violence would take an even more horrific turn as the rioters rededicated their attention and energies toward Black New Yorkers.
White rioters, perhaps realizing that focusing their fury on unprotected targets might yield different results, ultimately continued their melee on another group of locals. Rioters possibly recognized that the local police force would not prioritize protecting its Black citizens due to longstanding racial hostilities predating the event. By choosing to focus on Black New Yorkers, white rioters publicly and savagely declared their “authority” to display Black people’s blood to people who had no political influence on the issues that started the riot.
As the disturbances continued, rioters focused their malevolence on any and every Black person that came within their path. Sadly, one of the most tragic and well-known incidents occurred with the burning of the Colored Orphan Asylum, where local whites assaulted Black children attempting to flee the flames. By targeting this specific institution, rioters made it clear that racial violence and attempted murder were permissible as long as the children were Black. White rioters frothed to shed the blood of orphaned Black children.
Rioters assaulted this institution, which was known to have between 600 and 800 residents living in its facilities at a given time.[2] None of the children held political office, served in the U.S. Presidential Cabinet, or were members of the U.S. Army. However, these Black children’s homes burned to the ground in about twenty minutes, according to historian Leslie M. Harris.
As each day passed, it was clear that anti-Black violence became increasingly commonplace. As the riot spread, savagery visibly reigned with the lynching of Black people throughout New York City. It did not matter to the white aggressors that the Republican mayor, George Opdyke, tried to quell the disturbances. What mattered more was unleashing hell upon free Black people for existing in a free state, with their public execution being a “necessary” component of (whites) physically expressing themselves.
The incidents of anti-Black violence differed significantly, but the result was that white New Yorkers fundamentally believed that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness did not pertain to Black New Yorkers. As a result, there were numerous reports of the destruction of Black people’s property.[3] Additionally, the lives of Black New Yorkers were now at the mercy, or lack thereof, of white New Yorkers.
For instance, Charles Howard, a future soldier in the Twenty-Sixth United States Colored Infantry (USCI), was a victim (as a civilian) of an assault where invaders broke into his house and destroyed his personal property. One of his destroyed belongings was his birth record; without access to that essential document, navigating the bureaucracy of Civil War pensions became more complicated.[4] More specifically, white violence in 1863 demonstrated that a Black Civil War veteran was literally fighting for his life against fellow U.S. citizens who loathed the existence of free Black people residing (and possibly thriving) in a northern city.
Other Black New Yorkers fared far worse when they clashed with rioters. In one incident, rioters broke into the homes of numerous Black families, and one man (according to the Buffalo Daily Republic) “…named Vancleff was beaten to a dying state with a crowbar.”[5] One unnamed Black man used a revolver in self-defense, only for a mob to chase and detain him before stripping off his clothes (excluding a shirt) and hanging him.
“While he was hanging, one of the rioters lighted a match and set fire to the victim’s shirt…,” a Pennsylvanian newspaper stated.[6] In a different scene, a group “…collected in 32d street near where a negro was hanging. Failing to dispense, a howitzer was trained upon them loaded with canister. The first discharge wiped out six. Two more discharges increased the number to 22,…” the Buffalo Daily Republic reported.[7]
The horrors that Abraham Franklin and his family experienced were truly disturbing. Franklin was, at first, assaulted while rioters threatened his mother, who was pleading for their onslaught to cease. They responded by hanging Franklin as his mother watched. U.S. soldiers eventually came and cut Franklin (who was still alive) down, only for the mob to return to finish the public execution of an innocent Black man.
They resumed “…and again suspended the now probably lifeless body of Franklin, cutting out pieces of flesh and other mutilating it.”[8] According to accounts, Abraham Franklin was a quiet, devout man who worked as a coachman to support himself and his elderly mother.[9] Why did this young man with no political influence, military experience, or even social cache warrant becoming a two-time victim for merely being a free Black man in a free state with vocal ties to slavery and (during the Civil War) the Confederacy?
Billie Holiday was correct and brave to express her sadness at the harsh reality of Black bodies on public display from numerous examples of white “wild justice.” The singer and modern Civil Rights activist Nina Simone continued the efforts with her 1965 cover of “Strange Fruit.” Their collective advocacy to save and value Black lives made powerful and thought-provoking music highlighting how Black peoples’ blood was steadily strewn across southern foliage.
However, by looking at previous generations, one can learn the more extended history of lynchings in the U.S. By doing so, one can better understand that white displays of racialized violence were never solely isolated to one region in the U.S. As the New York City Draft Riot demonstrated, Black bodies hung from northern trees, with their blood on the streets. Moreover, their lives mattered, too.
Endnotes:
[1] His first name is unknown. “Women Attack Police in Anti-Draft Riot: Forbidden to Parade in Front of City Hall, They Bit and Used Hat Pin on Their Captors,” New York Times, June 17, 1917.
[2] “The Mob In New-York.: Resistance to the Draft-Rioting and Bloodshed,…,” New York Times, July 14, 1863.
[3] “Fearful Draft Riot in New York City. The Ripened Fruit of Copperhead Teachings.,” Telegraph-Courier (Kenosha, Wisconsin), July 16, 1863; “Great Draft Riot in N.Y. City.,” Wyoming Democrat, July 15, 1863; “By Telegraph.,” Buffalo Weekly Express, August 11, 1863; “A Negro Hung By the Mob,” Jeffersonian (West Chester, Pennsylvania) July 18, 1863.
[4] Deposition of Charles Howard, on August 16, 1916, in Charles Howard, Twenty-Sixth USCI pension file. National Archives Records Administration—Washington, D.C.
[5] “The New York Draft Riot,” Buffalo Daily Republic, July 16, 1863.
[6] “A Negro Hung By the Mob,” Jeffersonian.
[7] “The New York Draft Riot,” Buffalo Daily Republic.
[8] Report of the Committee of Merchants for the Relief of Colored People, Suffering from the Late Riots in the City of New York (New York: G.A. Whitehorne, Steam Printer, 1863), 14.
[9] Ibid.
