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Crime-Week6.pptxCrime and Violence in Antebellum Northern Cities
HIST/PA/SOC 349
09/25/2017
Questions for Today
Why did cities expand so much between 1830 and 1850?
How did 19th century Americans imagine the relationship between urban places and crime?
How violent were cities, actually?
Why did Cities Grow?
In the early 19th century, there was a “transportation revolution” in the United States
State and local governments and private companies built turnpikes and roads, canals, and railroads to facilitate inexpensive and more convenient transportation
Better transportation allowed for economic growth and a “market revolution”
More and more Americans started producing commodities that they then shipped for sale in distant and foreign markets
Urban Population Growth, 1800-1860
| City | 1800 | 1810 | 1820 | 1830 | 1840 | 1850 |
| New York | 60.5 | 101 | 131 | 215 | 374 | 650 |
| Philadelphia | 61.6 | 87.3 | 109 | 161 | 259 | 405 |
| Baltimore | 26.5 | 46.6 | 62.7 | 80.6 | 110 | 179 |
| Boston | 24.9 | 38.7 | 54 | 85.6 | 183 | 308 |
| Charleston | 18.8 | 24.7 | 24.8 | 30.3 | 42.6 | 50 |
| Washington, DC | 11.2 | 20.4 | 28.8 | 35.5 | 50.2 | 67 |
| New Orleans | 17.2 | 27.2 | 46.1 | 105 | 123 |
Urban Population in Selected U.S. Cities, in Thousands
Market revolution sparked growth of manufacturing sector and drew people to cities for work
Cities also became important centers of shipping for commodities bound for market
New Anxieties
In the 18th century, many Americans were used to living in small communities in which they new many of their neighbors
Even cities were small enough that people were often familiar with each other
As cities grew, they expanded to the point that they allowed for a certain amount of anonymity
Economic changes also made markets less personal and enabled more people to have access to traditional markers of social status
New Anxieties
With all these changes, how do you know who’s genuine and who is not? How do you know who to trust?
Two figures come to symbolize these anxieties:
1. Confidence Man
Sometimes a criminal and a fraudster; sometimes merely a bad influence
2. Painted Woman
Sometimes a prostitute, but sometimes just someone who is false—appears one thing, but is actually another
Cities as Dangerous
Many 19th century Americans fear that young men and women flocking to cities to find work will be taken advantage of by confidence men and other shady characters
Men will be drawn into bad economic schemes and led morally astray by confidence men
Women will be deprived of their morality and possibly tricked or seduced
Cities get reputations as havens of sexual vice or immorality
Cities as Havens of Sexual Vice
Advertisements from New York newspapers
Cities as Havens of Sexual Vice
Perceptions of High Crime
“The property of the citizen is pilfered, almost before his eyes. Dwellings and warehouses are entered with an ease and apparent coolness and carelessness of detection which shows none are safe...Thousands that are arrested go unpunished, and the defenseless and the beautiful are ravished and murdered in the day time, and no trace of the criminals is found.”
-New York City Council Report, 1842
Gangs in Washington, DC. From “Rowdyism,” Baltimore Sun, June 25, 1844
Were Cities Actually Violent
According to Roger Lane, the period of urbanization between 1835 and 1910 saw an increase in the overall number of crimes, but a decrease in the number of serious crimes
Cities had a civilizing influence
However, many cities did see outbreaks of violence in the 1830s and early 1840s
Rioting became far more common
Tensions in Cities
Whether or not cities were actually as dangerous as reformers said they were, cities could be tense places in antebellum America, particularly in the 1830s
Sources of Tension:
1. Changes in Manufacturing and Labor
Opportunities to enter skilled artisan class declined somewhat in the 19th century as process of manufacturing grew less dependent on skills and more centered around wage labor
Capitalism created economic stratification
At the same time, toleration of poverty went down
Tensions in Cities
2. Political tensions
As politics became increasingly democratized, the political process became more contentious and boisterous
3. Racial tensions
Many white Americans resented having to compete with free black Americans for wages and work
This became particularly acute with the rise of the Abolitionist movement in the 1830s
4. Ethnic tensions
Immigrants flooded into American cities in the 1840s and ’50s
Irish immigrants were poor, unskilled, and often Catholic
U.S. Population Expansion
Rioting in the 1830s
Rioting became much more common in the 1830s
Many cities experienced race riots in which white workers (sometimes immigrants) terrorized black populations and their allies
New York (July 7-11th, 1834): White rioters attack abolitionists and then attack strongholds of black community life
A month later, white Philadelphians attacked and looted the homes of over thirty black families, killing two people
Philadelphia Nativist Riots (1844)
Nativists caught in a storm sought shelter in an Irish neighborhood
Nativists and Irish fought
Nativist mobs burned down churches and houses of Irish Philadelphians
20 people died
Philadelphia Nativist Riots (1844)
Philadelphia Nativist Riots (1844)
Other Sources of Violence
Tensions between wealthier urban dwellers and poor urban dwellers sometimes erupted into violence
New York (1837) Bread riots broke out over the cost of flour
Political tensions (especially between Nativists and immigrant Democrats) could break out into violence
Political gangs formed in many U.S. cities in the 1840s and 1850s
Christiana Riot (1851)
Tolerance for violence was lower in many cities even as rioting became common
Christiana Riot (1851)
White slaveowner tried to recapture four fugitive slaves hiding in Christiana
Slaveowner was shot
Perpetrator ended up being charged with treason
The Watch System and the Rise of Professional Policing
HIST/PA/SOC 349
Significance of Professional Policing
The development of professional policing was part of a process of modernizing, strengthening, and expanding the power of the state
Max Weber on the modern state: “A state is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.”
“The modern state is a compulsory association which organizes domination.”
Early Law Enforcement
In early America and in most rural communities into the nineteenth century, the primary agent of law enforcement was the sheriff
Sheriff was responsible for serving warrants and making arrests when needed, but he also performed a wide variety of other tasks not related to crime
Sheriff could make arrests without a warrant, but had few incentives
Sheriffs were often paid per warrant served
Reactive rather than proactive
Early Law Enforcement
In some areas, particularly towns and cities, local communities hired constables
Constables functioned similarly to the sheriff, only they operated at the town or city level rather than the county level
Primary differences:
Constables were charged with walking the cities to report nuisances, health hazards, etc. as well as to keep watch for crimes in progress
Constables also supervised forces called night watches
Boston established night watch in 1631; other cities and towns followed in the decades after
Boston Night Watch, 1819
Night Watches
In the early years, generally not professional bodies of law enforcers
Some carried a mace or a rattle, but few had any other markers of authority
Night watchmen, like the constables who served them, performed a variety of functions besides watching for crime
Monitoring for fires, looking for unsecured doors, trimming wicks of street lamps, etc.
Night Watchmen
Night watchmen were seldom full-time law enforcers
In some cities, like New York, watchmen received small stipends for their work
In other cities, serving on the watch was like having jury duty—it was simply a responsibility that came with being a citizen or landholder
Service on the night watch was unpleasant, and typically people who served were those who a) needed extra money, or b) could not afford to buy their way out
Depictions of Watchmen
Left: Baltimore Night Watchman, 1825
Right:
English Night Watchman
Depictions of Watchmen
Stereotypes of Night Watchmen
Lazy, slovenly, elderly
Likely to be of the same class that committed most of the crimes in American cities (i.e. poor)
Ineffectual at preventing crime
Comedic figures
Night Watch
Many cities realized as early as the 18th century that better pay made the watch more effectual
However, pay remained low for several reasons:
Strong emphasis on voluntary service
Fears about standing armies and corruptive potential of salaries for public officials
Resentment of high taxes
Authority of Night Watchmen
Night watchmen had, by modern standards, extremely limited authority to police
Could usually only respond to crimes in progress
No investigative authority
Were often forbidden from entering private dwellings
Reported gambling dens, brothels, etc. but seldom broke them up
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Moves to Reform
By the 19th century, many Americans (and Britons) realized that not paying watchmen a salary also had strong corruptive potential
In England in the late 1820s, the first efforts to professionalize and modernize police began to gain traction
Robert Peel, the Home Secretary, proposed a Metropolitan Police Bill (1829) that centralized police forces under the Home Office
Peelers or Metropolitans
Bobbies were the first professional police force
Received salaries
Wore uniforms
Expected to detect crime instead of just observe crimes in progress
Replaced older, thief-taker system
Were centralized, not just in terms of being national, but also in terms of being part of one body rather than disjointed watches
Rise of Professional Policing
The professionalization of the police was a process
The U.S. never emulated the total centralization of the police
By the 1840s, however, many U.S. cities began to develop similar, uniformed and salaried police forces
