Lara Graney Mr. Clark US History I 3 March 2016 A Comparison of Enemies On July 4, 1857, well before dawn, a group of men decided to celebrate Independance Day with violence. The gang known as the Dead Rabbits strolled to the Lower east side of Manhattan and instigated a fight with their sworn enemies, the Bowery Boys (Cristiano). The fight continued into the next day, becoming a deadly brawl all over the city. The Dead Rabbits riot was the single greatest gang-related disturbance in United States history, the culmination of one of the biggest rivalries of the nineteenth century (“Dead Rabbits Riot”). This feud was filled with robbery, prejudice, murder, and corruption. Although these two gangs clashed over racial, social and political difference, they also were similar in their disturbing yet impressive ferocity. The Bowery Boys and the Dead Rabbits were large, influential, and successful gangs, but had contrasting backgrounds, practices, and political views. These differences helped spark one of the most infamous rivalries in United …show more content…
A center of entertainment since the eighteenth century, it was nicer in than the Rabbits’ Five Points district (Asbury). The Bowery Boys dress code was clean and neat, unlike most gangs at the time. It was an ode to their firefighter background: a top hat, a red shirt, and black pants tucked into boots. The Bowery Boys were nativist, anti-Irish, anti-Catholic, and, therefore, anti-Dead Rabbit (“Bowery”). They did not have any specific ethnicity, considering themselves “real” Americans compared to the millions of new immigrants.The Bowery Boy ideals are best summed up with the final words of their leader, William Poole, who was killed at the instruction of Dead Rabbit leader John Morrisey: “Goodbye, boys. I die a true American (Quinn).” Much of the animosity between the Rabbits and the Bowery Boys came from their differences in background, and the Bowery Boy