The Broad Street Riot of 1837 was one of Boston’s many historical melees. This one took place when a company of Yankee firefighters ran into an Irish funeral. Despite our reputation as a coastal liberal enclave, Boston has a history of hostility towards newcomers. When Irish immigrants began arriving in our harbor en masse, Yankee nativists welcomed them with violence and prejudice. Before long, a funeral procession in the wrong place at the wrong time led to a brawl with well over 10,000 participants and onlookers.
Broad Street Riot
- Mayor Samuel Eliot’s account of the riot
- An account from Mayor Eliot’s grandson, also named Samuel Eliot
- A contemporaneous account of the riot from the Salem Gazette
- About the Montgomery Guards, an Irish-American militia in Boston
- A late-19th century history of the Boston Fire Department gives a very biased version of events.
- The riot in context of immigration to Boston
Featured Historic Site
Across from the Old Corner Bookstore on the Freedom Trail, stands Boston’s Irish Famine memorial. It was dedicated in 1998, and since then it has faced criticisms on grounds of taste and accuracy. The Boston Globe called it “the most mocked and reviled public sculpture in Boston… Pure kitsch.” And the Irish times said that it was full of “pious cliches and dead conventions.” Nevertheless, it was installed in good faith. Here is, in part, the story that the memorial’s plaques tell:
The great famine which ravaged Ireland between 1845-50 was the major catastrophe of the 19th century. It brought horrific sufering and loss to Ireland’s 8.5 million people. Over one million died of starvation and disease. Another two million emigrated, seeking sanctuary in Boston and other North American cities. Those remaining in Ireland suffered poverty, eviction, and the decimation of their culture.
Starting in 1845, a virulent fungus devestated the potato crop, depriv ing poor Irish families of their main source of food and subsistence. Ironically, as thousands of Irish starved to death, the British government then ruling Ireland callously allowed tons of grain to be exported from Ireland to pay absentee landlords their rents.
Starvation and disease spread across the Irish landscape, claiming one million lives. Half a million people were ruthlessly evicted from their homes. Many died on the side of the road, their mouths stained by grass in a desperate attempt to survive. “The features of the people were gaunt, their eyes wild and hollow, and their gait feeble and tottering. Pass through the fields, and you were met by little groups bearing home on their shoulders a coffin,” wrote Irish novelist William Carleton
In a frantic attempt to outwit death, nearly two million people fled Ireland. “Many thousands of peasants who could still scrape up the means fled to the sea, as if pursued by wild beasts, and betook themselves to America.” wrote Irish patriot John Mitchel. The emigrants boarded vessels so unseaworthy they were called Coffin Ships. So many passengers died at sea that poet John Boyle O’Reilly called the Atlantic Ocean upon which they journeyed “a bowl of tears.”
In 1847 alone, 37,000 Irish refugees landed in Boston, on the edge of death and despair, impoverished and sick. The newcomers moved in along Boston’s waterfront, packed together in damp cellars and overcrowded hovels. “Children in the Irish district.” wrote Bostonian Lemuel Shattuck, “seemed literally born to die.”
Despite hostility from some Bostonians and signs of NO IRISH NEED APPLY, the Famine Irish eventually transformed themselves from impoverished refugees to hard-working, successful Americans. Today 44 million Americans claim Irish ancestry, leading the nation in Medal of Honor winners, and excelling in literature, sports, business, medicine, medicine and entertainment.
And one day in 2012, Jake was walking down Washington Street and saw the Irish president placing a wreath at the monument. Random!
Upcoming Event
Way back in December of 2016, we released a podcast describing a 1689 rebellion in which Massachusetts militias marched on Boston and placed the hated royal governor under arrest. Our upcoming event this week is a talk at Old South Meeting House that will fill in what happened before the armed uprising. It’s called 100 Years Before Revolution, and here’s how they describe it:
In 1662 the newly restored king of England, Charles II, demanded that the Massachusetts Bay colony alter their laws to align with imperial priorities. Two years later, four royal commissioners arrived to enforce these demands. What followed was a season of extraordinary political activism, as colonial men and women mobilized to protect their liberties and local institutions. These Puritan activists believed that liberties were gifts from God, and relinquishing these freedoms amounted to shunning His gifts. Drawing from petitions, sermons, and letters of the day, historian Adrian Chastain Weimer will share the largely untold story of 17th-century New Englanders who fasted, prayed, and spoke out against the threat of arbitrary rule.
The talk will be held at 6:30pm on June 20th. Tickets are free, but we recommend reserving yours in advance in case it sells out.