Broad Street Riot - June 11, 1837

On this day in 1837, a riot broke out in Boston when a fire company met an Irish funeral procession.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Stay in History Class. It's a production of I
Heart Radio. Hey y'all, I'm Eaves, and welcome to this
Stay in History Class, a podcast that flips through the
book of history and tears out a single page. Today
is June eleventh. The day was June eleventh, eighteen thirty seven.

(00:27):
A riot broke out in Boston when a fire company
met an Irish funeral procession. The conflict is known as
the Broad Street Riot. Eighteen thirties, Boston was home to
a large number of immigrants. It was also home to
a large number of people who harbored anti immigrant and
anti Catholic sentiments. Eighty seven specifically, also saw a financial

(00:48):
crisis that affected wages and unemployment. The competition for jobs
among working class people in the city heightened anti immigrant sentiment.
Many of the immigrant in Boston were Irish. Some Bostonians
and Protestants in the city directed their hostility at the
growing number of Irish immigrants. Conflict between Boston born laborers

(01:10):
and Irish laborers had become common. On June eleventh, eight
thirty seven, these tensions escalated into a riot between a
fire company and an Irish funeral procession. Firefighters in Boston
were mostly volunteers, and most of the volunteers were American
born Protestant men. These volunteer fire companies were extremely competitive

(01:31):
because the city paid the first one to arrive on
the scene of the fire. The companies were also known
for being rowdy, and many of the volunteers in the
fire companies were laborers who competed with the Irish for jobs.
At the same time, the Irish harbord some resentment for
the firefighters. When a Charlestown convent was burned down in
eighteen thirty four, many Irish people questioned why the firefighters

(01:55):
had refused to put it out. On the afternoon of
June eleventh, Engine Company twenty returned from a fire at
Roxbury to their station on East Street. Most of the
company went to a nearby pub. The neighborhood they were
in was an Irish one, and when they left the pub,
a funeral procession of around five Irish people was making
its way past. A firefighter named George Faye reportedly started

(02:20):
a brawl with people in the procession, but the firefighters
were outnumbered and they soon went back to their station.
The procession then moved on. It's unclear exactly what happened next,
but the foreman of the fire company, W. W. Miller,
ordered the firefighters to bring their engine out and sound
the fire alarm. Bill Miller later said that he gave

(02:41):
the order when some irishmen tried to take over the
fire station and he feared they were trying to harm
the company. According to the Boston Evening Transcript, a firefighter
went to another fire station and shouted, the Irish have
risen upon us and are going to kill us. As
more fire companies responded to the alarm, the situation descended

(03:01):
into chaos. One fire company collided with people in the procession,
causing injuries. Firefighters said it was an accident, while the
Irish said it was intentional. Regardless, a riot erupted. Irish
people came out of their homes to join the riot.
People attacked each other with sticks, stones, bricks, and other weapons.
The fighting peaked as the riot reached Broad Street. The

(03:24):
Irish were overpowered and they retreated to their homes, but
people on the firefighters side proceeded to invade and vandalize
the homes in the neighborhood. They broke windows and looted houses.
After a couple of hours. Mayor Samuel Elliott called in
the state militia and a cavalry company to quell the riot.
In the immediate aftermath, newspapers reported deaths, but there were

(03:48):
no confirmed deaths due to the riot. There were serious injuries, though,
and some people who may have died of those injuries. Later.
A lot of the district was destroyed. A great injury
indicted fourteen irishmen and four Protestant men Varieting. All four
of the latter were acquitted, while three of the Irishmen
were sentenced two months of hard labor. By thirty eight,

(04:12):
the Boston Fire Department in Boston Police Department had been established.
I'm Eve Jeff Coote and hopefully you know a little
more about history today than you did yesterday. And if
you have any comments our suggestions, you can send them
to s via email at this day at iHeart media
dot com. You can also hit us up on social
media where at T D I h C podcast. Thanks

(04:35):
again for listening to the show and we'll see you tomorrow.
For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite show.