Gangs: 1780-1870

3.b

1780 – 1870 Early Northeast Street Gangs

In the early 1800s, three major immigrant groups, English, Irish, and German, entered the Northeastern U.S. through New York. These immigrant groups formed gangs in the Five Points neighborhood of New York's Lower East Side. The Smiths' Vly gang, the Bowery Boys, and the Broadway Boys were among them, all of whom were predominantly Irish immigrants. These early gangs were not only involved in criminal activity; their members were frequently employed as common laborers. Slaves in New York formed two paramilitary groups, Smith's Fly Boys and the Long Bridge Boys. They can be described as "gang-like."

The notable slave rebellions are the New York Conspiracy of 1741 and The New York Slave Revolt of 1712, which happened in colonial New York.

 However, after the early 1820s, gangs began to focus on criminal activity and operated in the Five Points area. The Forty Thieves is an example of it. The Five Points Gang and the Dead Rabbits were two other pre-Civil War criminal gangs. Specifically, the Five Points Gang became influential in gang recruitment and in establishing gang relationships with politicians. And by the year 1855, New York had 30,000 men loyal to gang leaders. The draft riots in New York City were said to have been sparked by young Irish street gangs. Herbert Asbury depicted some of these gangs in his history of Irish and American gangs in Manhattan, and his work was later used as the basis for Martin Scorsese's film Gangs of New York. However, these early gangs led their mobilization up to the Civil War, but the gang activity largely died out by the 1870s.