Boston Riots: Three Centuries of Social ViolenceFrom the food uprisings in the early 1700s to the notorious anti-busing riots in the mid-1970s, incidents of communal social violence have played a significant role in Boston's history. Jack Tager explores the more than 100 riots that occurred in the city over a span of nearly three centuries. Drawing on exhaustive research in newspaper archives, Jack Tager revisits both well- and lesser-known episodes, including the grain, impressment, brothel, and Pope Day riots of the eighteenth century; the anti-Catholic, abolition, and draft riots of the nineteenth century; and the Kosher meat, police strike, ghetto, and busing riots of the twentieth century. Tager identifies the protagonists, highlights their motives and demands, and seeks to determine whether they realized their goals. He also examines how victims suffered at the hands of their fellow citizens, shows how law enforcement responded to the riots, and considers the complex social interactions and tensions that contributed to the uprisings. He finds that most incidents of violent civil disorder were initiated by the powerless lower classes who believed rioting was the only avenue for giving voice to their grievances over political, cultural, religious, or economic oppression. This vivid portrait of an ever-changing community over time provides a revealing glimpse into peoples' anger, aspirations, and frustrations. It sheds new light on why groups are provoked to take unlawful action in response to unjust conditions, and it opens a fresh vista on the social history of Boston. |
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
The EighteenthCentury Setting | 13 |
A Variety of Riots Food Customs Antielite and Pope Day Riots | 25 |
Copyright | |
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abolitionists Anthony Burns anti-Catholic antibusing Archdiocese arrested attack authorities became began black students Boston Evening Post Boston Evening Transcript Boston Fire Department Boston Globe Boston Herald Boston Herald American Boston Irish Boston Weekly Bostonians British Broad Street riot broke busing century Charlestown Colonial communal social violence Crowd Action Curtis desegregation direct action E. P. Thompson economic eighteenth-century elites ethnic fire firemen force Fugitive Slave ghetto governor groups historian History House Hutchinson immigrants impressment riot Irish Americans Irish Catholics July June Knowles Knowles Riot large numbers looting lower classes lower orders major Massachusetts Mayor merchants militia nativist neighborhoods newspaper North End November occurred October officers parade percent plebeians Police Strike political Pope Day press gang Protestant racial reported rioters Roxbury sailors September ships Shirley South Boston South Boston High Southie Street tion town meeting urban renewal volunteer vote William working-class wrote Yankee York