American mobbing 1828 1861 : toward Civil War American Mobbing 1828 1861: Toward Civil War is a comprehensive history of mob violence related to sectional issues in antebellum America. David Grimsted argues that though the issue of slavery provoked riots in both the North and the South the riots produced two different reactions from authorities. In the South riots against suspected abolitionists and slave insurrectionists were widely tolerated as a means of quelling anti slavery sentiment. In the North both pro slavery riots attacking abolitionists and anti slavery riots in support of fugitive slaves provoked reluctant but often effe