Chronic Disease Burst Forth:the 1863 New York Draft Riot

Urban riots are a kind of bad tradition in American society,large and small urban riots in American history are countless.Although the specific reasons for the occurrence of such riots are different,they are fundamentally the result of the long-term accumulation and deterioration of various contradictions in the American society,which is a kind of complication.The New York draft riot of 1863 during the Civil War is a good example.It was an atrocious incident in which white people from the lower class of the city violently attacked black people from the lower class of society.Although the direct cause of this incident is the implementation of the federal conscription law,the root cause is the labor conflict and racial prejudice accumulated in American society for a long time.The accumulated contradictions intensified in the harsh war period,and finally the implementation of the conscription law spurred the outbreak of this vicious and vicious racial persecution.It was the outburst of a long-accumulated disease.This rottenness is mitigated by the social havoc it wreaks,but hard to eradicate.The conscription riot in New York caused serious damage and ended quickly under the suppression of federal troops.However,the perpetrators were not punished and the victims were not consoled by the government,and the original contradictions continued to exist.From a historical perspective,it is the combination of the founding ideology and social ecology of the United States that has laid the social foundation for the occurrence of urban riots in the United States.This disease is deeply rooted in America’s founding creed.The Declaration of Independence proclaimed the inalienable natural rights of all human beings to life,liberty and the pursuit of happiness.The American Revolution established freedom and equality as the founding principles of the American people.However,in the specific social relations,each person’s interests and pursuit of interweave doping,interrelated,which is inevitably contradictory.As we all know,the United States is a country of immigrants,and New York City is also a gathering place for many immigrants,with diversified social interest groups.There is always a social stratification between the wealthy and the poor in America and all social strata.Moreover,there has always been a strong sense of racial discrimination in the minds of white Americans,and their prejudice against blacks is deeply rooted.In this conscription riot,the rioters took the injustice of the conscription law as an excuse to oppose the conscription activities of the federal government under the banner of defending their own rights and pursuing freedom of life,but on the other hand,they took advantage of the fire,burned and looted everywhere,and vented their dissatisfaction and anger on the black people who were lower than themselves.These rioters generally come from the bottom of society,their daily life is hard and poor and they have accumulated a lot of resentment in their hearts.The implementation of the federal conscription law in New York in 1863 created an opportunity for them to vent their anger.These white mobs took the opportunity to act,which led to the conscription riots in the city.However,after the federal army quelled the riots,the federal government,New York State and New York City Government all chose to ignore the serious injuries suffered by blacks and failed to punish the rioters for their criminal acts accordingly.This approach can’t solve the deep contradictions hidden behind the urban riots,and the stubborn urban riots in the United States are still difficult to eliminate.