MovieChat Forums > Gangs of New York (2002) Discussion > Politics of the Era

Politics of the Era

posted 8 years ago by brutuslignarius
3 replies | jump to latest

By playing up the conflict between the Butcher's Natives, and Vallon, it threw off the real politics going on in the Civil War era. New York City, but especially Tammany Hall, were essentially like a fifth column for the Confederate states.

The Republican platform of the day was tariffs and protectionist isolationism, with government subsidies going to textile mills in New England and railroads. The Democrat platform was free trade with Europe, and the gold standard. The shipping industry that dominated New York was not favorable to the Civil War, as it strained relationships with inter and intra national shipping.

Tilden, Seymour, Grover Cleveland, Parker were all New York Democrats that carried the South in the post Civil War years.

The conflict in New York, that lead to the draft riots, was the fact that Irish new citizens, were being drafted by people "above" them to free people they saw as "below" them. A class war in 2 directions.

The Butcher's character muddies the waters of the accurate politics of the 1860s. Boss Tweed and his racist, populist Irish base were fighting against progressive wealthy textile industrialists, who supported the abolition of slavery.

Not Irish fighting against knife-throwing reactionary "natives". The Know Nothings were dissolved in 1860.

[–] xxxphilbluntxxx 8 years ago

It's a movie, not a documentary. I wish movies would stay true to the facts myself, and I'm also a huge history fan, but they all do that stuff; this movie shouldn't be singled out as an offender, at least they had more factual (or at least closer to factual) gangs, characters, etc. than most movies that claim to be based of real events.

[–] brutuslignarius 8 years ago

Yeah, but I think this post makes in clear why the plot didn't work too well with the historical accuracy. Just like my anachronistic thread.

[–] amcalabrese-1 8 years ago

I agree with your comment that the movie is not a documentary. However, they very much whitewash the draft riots. The movie suggests that the nativist gangs were attacking blacks when it was the Irish gangs (in fact, an Irish gang set a black orphanage in fire). All told about 120 blacks were killed. The navy did not bombard the city, but the real problem was that the militia had been called away due to the Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania.

Another issue is the presence of the "Know Nothings" in the Sheriff election. The Know Nothings were not called that, but rather the American Party or some variant. An American was elected mayor in 1858. With the Civil War, the issue of secession became more important and so the party fell apart -- by 1860 it had pretty much disappeared. In 1863 during the draft riots, the mayor of NYC was a Republican, George Opdyke.