A race riot took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States in August 1834. The riot, in which a mob of several hundred white people attacked African Americans living in the area, began on the evening of August 12 and lasted for several days, dying down by August 14.

The riot took place during a time when many cities in the northern United States were experiencing incidents of mass civil disorder, usually in the form of riots that targeted specific religious, national, or racial groups, such as an 1831 race riot in Providence, Rhode Island, and the 1834 Ursuline Convent riots near Boston. In Philadelphia, this period coincided with a significant growth in population, particularly among African Americans and Irish immigrants. While there had been a strong community of working class black freedmen in Philadelphia since the early 1800s, tensions began to build through the 1830s, with restrictions on African Americans' participation in civic life and incidents of racial violence, such as in an 1829 incident where members of a black church were attacked. In early August 1834, there were several instances of violence against African Americans in the city, including an attack on the son of well-known black businessman James Forten by a white mob.

On August 12, 1834, a mob of several hundred white men, primarily Irish, attacked the Flying Horses tavern, a well-known local establishment on South Street that served both black and white people in the area, named for a popular carousel on site. The mob overpowered the black people there, destroyed the carousel and building, and traveled down South Street and into the nearby suburb of Moyamensing, where they proceeded to destroy black-owned buildings and attack black people. Philadelphia Mayor John Swift assembled a posse of several hundred citizens to restore order, and 18 people were arrested, but rioting commenced again the following night, resulting in the destruction of the African Presbyterian Church and the beating death of an African American man. The next night was the last major night of rioting and saw the destruction of another church, though some minor instances of violence continued for the next few nights. In general, rioters targeted the houses of more wealthy African Americans and social spaces, such as churches and a Masonic Hall. In total, between August 12 and 16, 60 people were arrested for rioting. In the end, 44 buildings had been destroyed, including 30 houses, and two people were dead.

A citizen's committee organized to investigate the causes of the riot reported that the primary cause was a sense of anxiety among white citizens who believed that black people were out-competing them for jobs. This conclusion has been discussed by historians, who also attribute the riot to fears over interracial mixing and resentments held against more affluent African Americans by poor whites. Over the next several years, Philadelphia experienced a wave of race riots, including one the following year and the 1838 destruction of Pennsylvania Hall. Discussing this time period, local author Charles Godfrey Leland wrote, "Whoever shall write a history of Philadelphia from the Thirties to the era of the Fifties will record a popular period of turbulence and outrages so extensive as to now appear almost incredible". By 1854, in part due to the riots, the county and city of Philadelphia were consolidated and a new police agency was created.

Background

Riots in the United States

During the 1830s, many large cities in the northern United States, such as Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia, experienced several major riots, with causes including election disputes, labor issues, and racial tensions. According to historian David Hackett Fischer, the rise in the number of incidents in civil unrest corresponded to a long period of economic decline that the nation was experiencing in the early 1800s, with riots breaking out in major urban areas that pitted different ethnic, religious, and social groups against each other, such as Protestants against Catholics and native-born Americans against immigrants.

Starting in the 1820s, race riots, where white Americans targeted African Americans, became common occurrences in many of these cities. These events were highly violent and destructive, with an 1831 incident in Providence, Rhode Island, resulting in the destruction of an African American neighborhood, while an 1834 riot in New York City saw a church, school, and several dozen houses destroyed. Symbols of upward economic mobility among the African American community, such as church buildings and temperance halls, were often targeted as a way of maintaining a racial hierarchy of white supremacy.

While race riots were common in many cities, Cincinnati and Philadelphia experienced the most. These cities experienced at least one per year between the two between 1834 and 1836 and again from 1838 to 1842.

Philadelphia in the early 1800s By the early 1800s, slavery in Philadelphia had been largely eliminated, with only 10 black people in the city recorded as slaves in the 1810 United States census. Additionally, the city had a large community of black freedmen and was a strong center for the abolitionist movement, with historian Manisha Sinha calling the city "the antislavery capital of the country". From the late 1700s to the early 1800s, buoyed by a strong economy, the city's African American community saw economic growth, improved living conditions and access to jobs and education, and strong civic engagement with the rest of the city. However, by the early 1800s, this trend began to reverse. In 1804, a group of young black men marched through the Philadelphia neighborhood of Southwark, threatening many of the white residents there and openly calling for rebellion. The following year, during Independence Day celebrations at Independence Hall, a mob of white people chased out black participants, putting an end to the annual integrated celebrations that had been ongoing since 1776. By the late 1820s, black people were also banned from the city's Christmas celebrations. In 1829, a riot broke out wherein members of a black church were attacked. That same year, the Pennsylvania General Assembly openly advocated for the American Colonization Society's goal of relocating freed black people in the United States to Africa, and following Nat Turner's slave rebellion in 1831, the legislature banned freedmen from entering the state and repealed fugitive slave legislation that protected escaped slaves from being sold back into slavery in the southern United States.

Despite these changes, the African American population in the area continued to grow alongside the overall population, From 1820 to 1830, the number of black people living around Philadelphia grew to about 15,000, making it the largest African American community in the northern United States. Working class municipalities around Philadelphia's Center City, such as Southwark, Moyamensing, Northern Liberties, and Spring Garden, grew as residences to both African Americans and white people, primarily composed of Irish immigrants. By the 1830s, there were 29 separate jurisdictions in Philadelphia County, which were patrolled by constables who had a difficult time keeping the peace amidst the growth. In many of these places, black and white people both frequented the same shops and social places, such as taverns, which led to some incidents of violence. In some cases, white residents rented their places of lodging from black landowners, which led to further resentment among poor whites. Highlighting the resentment against African Americans during this time, historian Barbara Lewis notes that in June 1834, just two months prior to the outbreak of the race riot, performer George Washington Dixon had debuted a minstrel show featuring blackface actors playing Zip Coon, a racist caricature of an African American man, at the Arch Street Theatre to much fanfare.

Events prior to the riot On the night of August 8, 1834, a group of African Americans attacked members of the Fairmount Engine Company, a volunteer fire company, and stole some of their equipment. At the time, private fire companies had a reputation for acts of violence due to political and gang-related activities that they were often involved in, and as a result, according to historian John Runcie, "Some sort of reaction was almost guaranteed".

The following night, a group of several dozen white youths attacked the son of James Forten, though he managed to escape with his life. Forten was a prominent African American businessman in Philadelphia and owned several properties, many of which were rented to lower class white people. According to onlookers, this group, which consisted of about 50 or 60 people wearing blue jackets and straw hats, discussed plans to meet the following Monday, August 11, with the gang's leader overheard saying, "We will then attack the niggers".

That evening, a group of white youths engaged in a physical altercation with some African Americans at a tavern on South Street, near Seventh Street. The tavern was a well-known institution in the area and housed a carousel called the Flying Horses, which was frequented by both black and white residents of the area. According to multiple accounts, the fighting started due to a dispute over seats on the ride and resulted in the mob of white youths being driven out of the establishment. Speaking about the event in a 2016 book, Sinha stated that the subsequent riot had "[begun] as a fight between black and white firefighters at a carnival".

Riot

The following night, Tuesday, August 12, a mob of several hundred white people, primarily composed of working class and Irish immigrants, gathered at the Flying Horses and began rioting. The mob, which grew to about 400 or 500 people, destroyed the carousel and the building and beat any African American on sight. Following this, the mob proceeded down South Street and into Moyamensing, an impoverished, mostly African American municipality, where they continued their rioting, destroying many black-owned buildings in the process. Constables were called in from Philadelphia to help put down the disturbance, and Philadelphia Mayor John Swift assembled a posse of about 300 citizens to help restore order. During this first night of rioting, 18 individuals were arrested.

Despite the attempts by authorities in Philadelphia to end the civil unrest, rioting resumed the next night, August 13. The rioters were organized, and prior to that night's activities, many of them met in an empty lot to discuss their plans. The primary targets for the night were the African Presbyterian Church on Seventh Street and the Diving Bell, a popular grog shop. After both of these buildings were destroyed, the mob turned its attention to primarily residential buildings, breaking windows, destroying furniture, and chasing black people into the streets, where they were beaten. White people who lived in houses in the area had been told before the rioting began to light candles in their windows, and these houses were passed over during the violence. In general, the rioters targeted the houses of affluent African Americans, social spaces such as churches and a Masonic Hall, and places where black and white people tended to intermingle. In total, over 20 houses were destroyed. According to a correspondent who was at the scene, the rioters threw a corpse out of a coffin and tossed a dead baby onto the ground. The mob was eventually dispersed by law enforcement officials and a posse of several hundred citizens. By the time the mob was dispersed, one African American man had been killed and many had been seriously injured.