Philadelphia Race Riots - August 1842 - Story of Philadelphia, 1919

Riots broke out in August, 1842, when colored people, who were marching in a procession of the Moyamensing Temperance Society, were attacked by white men and boys, who were in the street. Heavy fighting followed and assaults were made on buildings in Lombard Street, between Fifth and Eighth Streets, and various small courts and alleys near by, windows being broken, doors smashed, furniture thrown into the street and negroes beaten. A negro in Bradford's Alley fired a gun, which infuriated the mob, and as the man retreated into a house, he was fol lowed, the house forced and all the occupants dragged out and beaten. The assaults were renewed in the evening and Smith's Beneficial Hall, a large building used by the colored people for recrea tion, was fired and destroyed, and a colored people's church on St. Mary's Street was burned. The next day some Irish laborers working in coalyards on the Schuylkill, made an assault on a force of negroes engaged in similar work near by. A posse of sixty men, sent by the sheriff to quell the disturbance, was driven off by the rioters, who marched to Moyamensing and made assaults upon the negroes residing in Thirteenth Street and adjacent alleys. When the mayor's posse returned, Sheriff Morris applied to the County Commissioners for means to pay for mili tary aid to quell the disturbance. He was authorized to use five thousand dollars for that purpose and called out a large body of troops with artillery, muskets and munitions, and with police in force to patrol the neighborhood, while the troops, in number ample for the purpose, camped in Washington Square.