Throughout history in the United States, violent acts have been performed to try to achieve justice and success. Acts such as war and rioting are amongst these. Most violent acts do not obtain the real purpose and are simply used because people are not willing to try to work things out in a peaceful manner. If political or social problems were always worked out in a peaceful manner than violence would not be heard of.
In the summer of 1863, riots broke out in the streets of New York City as mobs of rioters and looters engulfed the city in violence and destruction. These riots were a result of the instituted draft that was imposed for drafting soldiers for the civil war. Claiming the lives of many people and causing mass destruction to the city, the riots went on for almost a week. People could not think of or devise a better plan to try to stop the draft than to just ruin the city and hurt and kill many people.
Depiction of the Draft Riots in 1863 from an unide...
Bull's Head Hotel in New York City (1830)
English: John Alexander KennedyThese riots were not solely due to the draft but were also from a craving of barbarism and an outburst of frustration over urban problems.
If people did not want to go to war, which is understandable, than they should not have created a social war amongst themselves on the streets of New York City. Going to the court or starting non-violent protests would have been a lot more effective and would have kept peace among the people at a time when peace was the overall goal from the civil war.
The mob that was formed was not just rioting because of the draft even though they were called the draft riots. If this was the case then the mob would not loot stores and hang blacks in the street to deliver their message because that message only says that the people are for violence and are ready for a war.
The mob talked about its purpose being the oppressiveness of the conscription law, however three-fourths of the men who devised this mob were under the age of twenty-one and were not subject to the conscription. These men were merely taken over by the excitement of violence at free will. Somehow this mob that was rioting to protest the conscription law soon found justice in robbery and murder through their acts. Robbing stores, hanging black men in the street and shooting houses are all evidence of the rioters purpose.
English: photo of rioters attacking a building on ...
Anger at military conscription during the American...
English: An 1863 illustration of John Decker, fire...