Skip to main content

Election night mob

View
@ The Library Company of Philadelphia

Description

Scene depicts an incident that occurred in Philadelphia (the city proper and Moyamensing) on Election night, October 11, 1849. The incident began when a group of white boys and men dragged a flaming furniture car through the area around St. Mary Street, a neighborhood inhabited primarily by blacks. As the car travelled along, a shot was fired, and a cry arose that a white man had been shot. Having heard this, the mob headed toward the California house at Sixth and St. Mary, which was kept by a black man who was rumored to have a white wife. A riot ensued, and the California house was destroyed in a fire that claimed many other buildings and numerous lives.; Frontispiece for Life and Adventures of Charles Anderson Chester: the notorious leader of the Philadelphia "killers." (Philadelphia: Printed for the publishers, 1850, c1849).; Accompanied by the following caption: "A cry at once arose that a white man was shot, and the attention of the mob was directed to the California House, at the corner of Sixth and St. Mary street."

Record Contributed By

The Library Company of Philadelphia

Record Harvested From

PA Digital