The Astor Place Riot

823 Words2 Pages

Astor Place Riot

How far do you think you would go to show your support for your favorite celebrity and to fight against the social classes? Well, some people would start a riot; The Astor Place Riot was a riot that occurred May 10, 1849. It happened in Manhattan, New York with the lower class taking a stand mostly against the upper class. It started primarily because of one man’s performance at the Astor Opera House, William Charles Macready. According to the Off the Grid Blog, the whole conflict began because of rivalry between Macready and another Shakespeare actor, Edwin Forest (Apman). The whole ordeal left many dead and injured, and how it all started is actually quite interesting. The conflict goes back farther than the actual event …show more content…

The whole ordeal caused the upperclassmen to selfishly buy up all of the seats in the theater that would show another production of Macbeth 3 days after the incident. Even the Theatre management boarded up the windows and took other precautions to keep the Anti-Macready group from causing other disturbances. The New York authorities even ordered a Seventh Regiment to stand by in Washington Square Park. According to The New York History Blog, while that was being organized, the “Anti-Macready” crowd was meeting and was led by a lower classman named Isaiah Rynders who encouraged people to go to the Astor Opera House that evening and was quoted saying, “SHALL AMERICANS OR ENGLISH RULE THIS CITY?” …show more content…

There were even people who attempted (and failed) to set the theatre on fire. According to The New York Tribune “As one window after another cracked, the pieces of bricks and paving stones rattled on the terraces and lobbies. The confusion increased till the Opera House resembled a fortress besieged by an invading army rather than a place meant for the peaceful amusement of civilized community.” Even the 7th Regiment was met with stones and eventually was commanded to open fire onto the

More about The Astor Place Riot

Open Document