America’s Weirdest Riots: The History and Legacy of the Most Unique American Riots

Riots are an aspect of American history that do not show up much in history textbooks, except for famous disturbances like the Boston Tea Party or the infamous New York City draft riots of 1863. The reality is that the country has experienced thousands of riots, from early colonial times through to the present, and the issues leading up to some of the riots may seem quite peculiar to modern Americans. Americans have rioted over who was the best actor, and to free pirates from jail. Americans have rioted against bad working conditions, for the 8-hour day, against immigrants, for and against civil rights. Americans have had riots over eggnog, which Bible to use in schools, and when their favorite sports teams have won, and lost.

For example, in 1788, the deadly Doctors' Riot occurred in New York City over the robbing of graves to provide medical students with bodies to dissect. An even stranger riot was the Eggnog Riot of 1826, when cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point rioted over Christmas eggnog. Where this took place is just as odd as the riot itself.
In 1844, a debate in Philadelphia over whether to allow Catholic students in public schools to read the Catholic Douay Bible rather than the King James Version sparked two savage riots, known as the Bible Riots. In the City of Brotherly Love, the Bible Riots caused a number of casualties, and two churches and a seminary were burned to the ground.

In 1849, another deadly riot, the Astor Place Riot, occurred in New York City over whether a British actor or an American one was better. There were more real deaths outside the theater than fictional deaths onstage during the play Macbeth. Just a few years later, a slave owner tracked down his fugitive slaves to a residence in Christiana, near Philadelphia, and the riot that followed featured the owner and a black man yelling Bible verses at each other as the confrontation escalated.
The 1857 Dead Rabbits Riot featured gang violence in New York City, but it could only be understood by knowing about a previous police riot, and that for a time there were two separate police forces in New York City. The police were as apt to club each other as they were to club rioting gang members.

The 1863 Richmond Bread Riot was unusual in that the riot consisted of angry women, many of whom worked not only in Confederate war industries, sewing uniforms, but also making ammunition and working at the Tredegar Iron Works. Needless to say, that doesn’t fit so well with the Southern belle stereotype.

The comically named Battle of Fort Fizzle was a combination of riot and rebellion. It took place in rural Ohio and was an act of resistance against the severe 1863 Conscription Act. Men could pay $300 to purchase an exemption or hire a substitute, and poor men who couldn’t do so understandably didn’t like the law. A thousand gathered in a sort of fort and faced off against veteran troops with fixed bayonets, leading to a surreal confrontation.

The 1870 and 1871 Orange Riots were over the July 12 Orange parades that memorialized the 1690 Battle of the Boyne, in which the Protestant William of Orange (invited to be the king of England after James II was forced off the throne) defeated the invasion of Ireland by the Catholic King James II. Despite the battle being almost 200 years earlier and on the other side of the Atlantic, Protestants and Irish Catholics were still fighting over it in New York City in an extremely bloody way.

These are some of the stories told in this work, which explains the origins of the riots and their lasting impact. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about these strange riots like never before.