[Alberta's Child]

The Five Points Riots was about Irish people dodging the draft because they perceived the Civil War to be about "helping n-ggers." See, they did not like black people, because black people were their direct competition for employment. Did you know that the Irish rioters burned down an orphanage during the riot.

There was a lot more to it than that. The Irish immigrants who rioted in the North were primarily motivated by familial issues, not race. Because of the often random nature of Irish immigration during the 1840s and 1840s, many Irish extended families ended up with members on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line. If Seamus happened to get on a boat out of Dublin that made its first port call in Baltimore, then he became a "Confederate" by association, and if his cousin Patrick landed in New York, then Patrick was a "Yankee." Patrick didn't like the idea of fighting a war that he really didn't have any part of.

The racial aspect of these riots was that these Irish immigrants simply saw no need to fight a war on behalf of black slaves: 1) who were not drafted into the Union army, and 2) whose living conditions were no worse than what many Irish immigrants faced working in the coal mines of Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

[presidio9]

Hey guess what? When you come to this country and become a citizen, you get a say once a year about what the government is doing. If Bill Clinton raises your taxes, you pay 'em. If you get drafted, you report to your recruiter. Again, conditions for the Irish sucked, but guess what? They could always pick up and leave. There lives were much better than that of the slaves.