Lower Manhattan’s Five Points district was a wretched place in pre–Civil War New York.
As if poverty and disease weren’t bad enough, powerful gangs—backed by local politicians and ignored by a disorganized police department—ruled the neighborhood.
Such a heavy gang presence meant that violence was a normal part of life. But the Great Gang Fight—also known as the Dead Rabbits Riot—that broke out on July 4, 1857 was something else.
That evening, groups of Five Points gangs, such as the Dead Rabbits and Plug Uglies, invaded a nearby Bowery Boys clubhouse. A vicious brawl with other street gangs continued the next day.
About 1,000 gang members armed with paving stones, axes, and other weapons fought along Bayard Street between Baxter and the Bowery (as seen in the illustration above). Other thieves joined in, looting houses and keeping the police at bay.
Federal troops finally stopped the violence on the afternoon of July 5th. Officially, eight men were killed, but it’s thought that dying fighters were carried off by fellow gang members, then buried in secret.
Tags: Bayard Street NYC, Bowery Boys, Dead Rabbits Riot, famous gang fights, Five Points, Gangs of New York, Great Gang Fight 1857, New York City in he 1850s, New York City street, Plug Uglies, street gangs NYC
Ephemeral New York 
January 10, 2011 at 12:49 pm |
Great post! Your readers may be interested to know that the clubhouse where all the fighting started is still standing. It’s a small, dormered building at either 40 or 42 Bowery. There’s a Chinese restaurant there now.
January 10, 2011 at 2:58 pm |
Thanks David–I’d like to check that out!
January 10, 2011 at 6:33 pm |
[…] the two-day Dead Rabbits Riot, which transpired on July 4, 1857 just off the Bowery [Ephemeral […]
March 26, 2011 at 4:05 pm |
The Plug Uglies were a Baltimore nativist gang, not connected to new York at all, actually.
March 26, 2011 at 9:15 pm |
Interesting, it seems like the misconception traces back to Herbert Asbury’s Gangs of New York. Thanks for writing in.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug_Uglies
November 2, 2011 at 9:09 pm |
Another reason for this riot was that the police force was in complete disarray after the June 16th Police Riots. At best, the cops were apathetic.
April 17, 2013 at 2:19 pm |
[…] https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/the-bloody-two-day-great-gang-fight-of-1857/ […]
November 17, 2014 at 7:20 am |
[…] prostitution and rum shops arrived, followed by gang-related crime. Anyone who could move out of what was once called the Collect neighborhood did, and those who […]
January 27, 2017 at 6:43 am |
[…] It’s during Five Points’ heyday when these two buildings earned their notoriety. In 1857, 40-42 Bowery functioned as a gang headquarters and was the site of one of the city’s bloodiest gang fights. […]
May 1, 2017 at 2:57 am |
“Collect Pond” – where, exactly, was it located within the Five Points district. “Lispenard Meadow”; recently looking down Lispenard Street, I try hard to imaging today’s city street as a lovely, long-ago meadow. Ephemeral, thank you for the “memories”.