# 1862 Brooklyn riot

A riot occurred in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, United States, on August 4, 1862. It involved a group of White Americans, largely consisting of Irish Americans, targeting a group of about 20 African American workers at a tobacco factory on Sedgwick Street. Police were able to quell the rioting with only some minor injuries and property damage.
In the Northern United States in the early 19th century, Irish Americans, many of them recent immigrants to the United States, found employment in working-class positions, often alongside African Americans. For example, in Brooklyn, two tobacco factories located near each other employed a mix of about 200 white Americans, primarily Irish, and 100 African Americans, many of whom had previously been enslaved. During this time, there were several incidents of violence committed by Irish Americans against black people, such as in the 1834 Philadelphia race riot. These tensions had arisen primarily due to the economic competition between the two groups and, especially during the American Civil War, had been enflamed by Copperhead rhetoric that targeted African Americans and rallied against abolitionism.
The main cause of the riot stemmed from a fight that had occurred at a liquor store near the two factories several days earlier that involved a White American and an African American man. Following the fight, anti-African American rumors circulated in the primarily Irish American neighborhood of Cobble Hill, and the animus of some in the neighborhood was directed towards the black workers at the factories. On the morning of August 4, after hearing rumors of some sort of confrontation that was being planned, the foreman at one of the factories, operated by the Lorillard Tobacco Company, sent home all of his black workers. This did not occur at the other factory, operated by T. Watson & Company, which had a crew of about 20 black employees working at the time. After congregating outside of the Lorillard plant, the mob rallied outside of the Watson factory, breaking the windows and attacking the workers inside. The black workers were able to barricade themselves on the second floor while the white mob engaged in a violent confrontation with the police and attempted to burn the building down. In the end, the police were able to disperse the mob and put out the fire, and in the aftermath, they arrested several rioters. Legal actions commenced against these arrested, though by the following month, the judge overseeing the case had dismissed it.
In their contemporary coverage of the event, several local newspapers, such as The New York Times and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, called the riot one of the worst in the city's history up to that point and were largely sympathetic towards the victims. Historian John Kuo Wei Tchen called it a "race riot", and journalists Alison Stewart and Luke Green called it the "first recorded act of white terrorism in that part of Brooklyn". Historian John Strausbaugh cites the riot as the first of several incidents of violence perpetrated by Irish Americans against African Americans that occurred over the next few months, including a series of violent labor strikes that pitted Irish American dockworkers against African American strikebreakers. Multiple historians have also compared the incident to the 1863 New York City draft riots, with several noting that both riots included targeted violence against African Americans by Irish Americans in the area.

## Background

In the 1860s, two tobacco factories, operated by the Lorillard Tobacco Company and T. Watson & Company, were situated near each other on Sedgwick Street, in the Cobble Hill neighborhood in Brooklyn. By 1862, these two plants had been in operation for about eight to nine years. At the time, this South Brooklyn neighborhood was made up largely of working class Irish Americans. However, both factories employed both African Americans and White Americans, with the two groups of workers operating under separate shop foremen and not usually directly interacting with each other. In total, the two factories employed roughly 100 black workers and 200 white workers, with the black workers earning a weekly wage of about $14 (equivalent to $427 in 2023) and the white workers earning $10 ($305 in 2023). Most of the white employees were Irish, while most of the black workers were freedmen who had previously been enslaved. Almost all of the African American workers, consisting primarily of women and children, commuted to the factory from outside of the neighborhood, from places such as New York City or other Brooklyn neighborhoods, like Weeksville.
Issues in Ireland during the 19th century, including the Great Famine and the restrictive penal laws, prompted mass immigration to the United States, and in the early part of the century, it was not uncommon for Irish immigrants to work alongside free Negroes. According to historians Glenn C. Altschuler and Stuart M. Blumin, Irish workers were conflicted about working alongside African Americans, as many feared the competition for employment that increased black involvement in the labor force would bring. During the first half of the 19th century, Irish Americans engaged in several major acts of violence against African Americans, including the 1834 Philadelphia race riot and the 1838 destruction of Pennsylvania Hall, an abolitionist venue in Philadelphia. This hostility continued during the American Civil War, with Altschuler and Blumin noting that Irish Americans in the Northern United States were resistant to emancipation. In Brooklyn, these fears were inflamed by Copperhead newspapers and politicians who alleged that the emancipation of black slaves in the Southern United States and subsequent migration northwards would hurt the Irish workers economically.

## Riot

On Saturday, August 2, 1862, a fight broke out between a black man and a white man outside of a liquor store in South Brooklyn, at the same intersection that Lorillard's factory was located on. The scuffle was shortly broken up by a police officer. While sources differ on where the two men worked, the animus of many Irish Americans in the neighborhood was quickly directed at the two tobacco factories and their African American employees. According to The New York Times, later that night, a group of Irish American men yelled and threw stones at a group of black women and children who were working at the factories, though without causing any serious injuries. Around the same time, rumors began to circulate among the white population that some African Americans in the area had made insulting comments towards white women. According to academic Carla Peterson, contemporary newspapers in the area, including the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the Brooklyn Daily Times, The New York Times, and the New-York Tribune cite other factors as contributing to this increased hostility, including rumors that some African Americans were planning to move into the neighborhood or had offered to work for wages less than what the Irish workers were being paid.
At about 8 a.m. on Monday, August 4, William Egner, a foreman at Lorillard's plant, said that he saw some young man hanging around the street corner and had heard rumors that some sort of confrontation was planned for the day related to Friday's fight. Egner then notified Lorillard, Watson, and a local tobacco merchant named Charles Kelsey. Around 10 a.m., the three went off to secure police protection, and subsequently, police officers were stationed inside the factories. One of the foremen at Lorillard's factory had sent home all of the black employees for the day, additionally barricading the door and locking the windows. Many of the black male workers at Watson's were not at work that day, as they were attending an emancipation rally in Brooklyn at the time. While the foreman at Lorillard's had recommended that Watson's also send home their remaining black workers, this did not occur. As a result, on that day, there were about 5 black men and 20 black women and children working. That morning, a group of white men congregated at Lorillard's and demanded entry, though they were denied. However, in a meeting with the mob, the owner of the factory agreed to the mob's demands that African Americans be barred from working at his factory. Following this, at around 1 p.m., the mob moved to Watson's, some wielding pitchforks and yelling expletives as they did. The mob, which was made up largely of Irish Americans, numbered at least 50 in strength and may have included upwards of a thousand. As it was around lunchtime, many of the white workers had gone home to eat, while the African American workers, who lived further away from the factory, remained on the factory premises.
The mob laid siege on the factory, throwing bricks and stones at the building while attacking the people inside with their pitchforks, breaking every window on the building in the process. The black workers fled upstairs to the second floor, where they barricaded themselves against the mob. While the mob was held back from the second floor for about an hour, one black worker, Charles Baker, was seized by the mob and severely beaten. Police who had been stationed inside the factory engaged with the mob and prevented them from reaching the second floor. These officers were soon met with reinforcements from nearby precincts. Failing to reach the second floor, the mob attempted to burn down the building. The mob lit on fire a pan of tar and soon had some of the factory woodwork in flames, though police were able to quickly extinguish the fire. Ultimately, the mob was repelled by the police after the violent confrontation. In the end, several officers suffered minor injuries, while one black worker suffered more severe injuries. According to a contemporary account, one police officer suffered a pitchfork wound in his shoulder, while another had been attacked by one of the black workers who feared the police were going to arrest him. Eight white rioters were arrested, while Baker was also arrested for hitting a police officer during the fray.

## Aftermath

Following the riot, the police informed the factory workers that they should be safe to resume their work under police protection, though many opted to instead go home out of fear for their safety. The police escorted many of them home. Watson would later permanently close his factory at Sedgwick Street, with plans to relocate to a larger facility. According to Peterson, newspapers covering the event were largely sympathetic towards the victims and criticized the mob, with The New York Times accusing the rioters of working in the services of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America.

### Legal proceedings

Following the riot, legal proceedings commenced against the arrested rioters, which included Richard Baylis, Thomas Clark, Joseph Flood, Patrick Keenan, John Long, Michael Meagher, William Morris, and Elias P. Weider. Keenan, who owned a liquor store in Brooklyn and had been a candidate for alderman in a previous election, was identified as the leader of the rioters, and it was he who had ordered the factory to be burned. The New York Times also noted that more arrests could be forthcoming. In addition to the rioters, the superintendent of police for Brooklyn charged that some of his own officers had acted with negligence during the riot, though following testimony from the factory owners that defended the officers' actions, these charges were dismissed. Additionally, charges against Baker were dropped. A preliminary hearing for the rioters was eventually held on August 11. Initially, the lawyer representing Keenan requested that he be tried separately, though the judge overseeing the case denied this request. Over the next several weeks, the case was delayed and rescheduled numerous times, and according to Peterson, newspaper coverage of the trial largely tapered off by August 19. In late September, after a hearing occurred in which neither the plaintiffs nor their legal counsel were present, the judge dismissed the case. By this point, several of the accused had enlisted in the Union Army.

## Legacy

Concerning the severity of the event, an 1862 article in The New York Times labeled it as "one of the most atrocious riots of modern time", while the Brooklyn Daily Eagle called it "one of the most disgraceful riots, which has ever happened in this city". In a 2024 article for Gothamist, journalists Alison Stewart and Luke Green called the riot the "first recorded act of white terrorism in that part of Brooklyn", while Chinese American historian John Kuo Wei Tchen called it a "race riot". In his analysis of the riot, Tchen views it as one of several related to the economic competition between Irish Americans and other minorities in the United States. According to historian John Strausbaugh, the riot was the first in a series of race-based incidents of violence in the New York metropolitan area. In the weeks following the riot, there were reports of roving gangs of White Americans attacking African Americans in the area, and from late 1862 to mid-1863, there were multiple labor strikes along the docks that saw violent confrontations between Irish American strikers and African American strikebreakers. Several commentators have noted similarities between the 1862 riot and the later New York City draft riots of 1863, with several highlighting that both riots involved the targeting of African Americans by working-class Irish Americans.