significance of new york city draft riots
The New York City draft riots (July 13â16, 1863), known at the time as Draft Week, were violent disturbances in New York City that were the culmination of working-class discontent with new laws passed by Congress that year to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War.he white working-class riots had changed the demographics of the city, and whites exerted their control in the workplace; they became unequivocally divided from blacks. On August 19, the government resumed the draft in New York.