Case Studies : Gangs of New York

Below you will find a number of historical resources that relate to Gangs of New York, the New York City Draft Riots, and the Five Points neighborhood.

Search the CAT

You can locate the book on which the film is based, Herbert Asbury's The Gangs of New York : An Informal History of the Underworld using the CAT. Further searching turns up a number of books about both the New York City Draft Riots and the Five Points area that provides the setting for much of the film.

A Library of Congress Subject search for "Five Points" turns up two histories of the Five Points Neighborhood, one book and one archaeological study, as well as a history of the Five Points Mission, formerly the Old Brewery.

• The Five Points Site : Archaeologists and Historians Rediscover a Famous Nineteenth-Century New York Neighborhood
• Tyler Anbinder, Five Points : The 19th-Century Neighborhood that Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections, and Became the World's Most Notorious Slum.
• The Old Brewery and the New Mission House at the Five Points.

A Library of Congress Subject search for "Draft Riot" turns up a number of books on the New York City Draft Riots of 1863. Here are a few of them:

• Iver Bernstein, The New York City Draft Riots : Their Significance for American Society and Politics in the Age of the Civil War
• Adrian Cook, The Armies of the Streets : The New York City Draft Riots of 1863.
• Joel Tyler Headley, The Great Riots of New York, 1712-1873.

Media Coverage

A number of sources can be consulted for coverage of the Draft Act and Draft Riots in newspapers and magazines.

• New York Times Historical allows you to view the page image of New York Times articles on the Draft Act and the riots.
• Accessible Archives provides links to other 19th century news sources, one of which focuses on the Civil War.
• American Periodicals Series, 1740-1900
is another source for periodical articles of the period, for example this article from the August 15, 1857 Saturday Evening Post which gives a contemporary view of mid-19th century gangs.
• Harper's magazine published editorial cartoons on the Draft, the Draft Riots and New York politics.

The Draft Act

The Draft Riots themselves were precipitated by a Conscription Act passed by Congress in March of 1863.

• You can use LexisNexis Congressional to search for Congressional acts, hearings, publications and testimony.
• You can also search the news sources listed above for media coverage of and commentary on the Conscription Act.

Sample Images of Material

Page originally created by Brian Bialkowski under the direction of Debora Cheney, Foster Communications Librarian