Astor Place Riot

The Astor Place Riot occurred on May 10, 1849, at the now-demolished Astor Opera House^[1] in Manhattan and left between 22 and 31 rioters dead, and more than 120 people injured.^[2] It was the deadliest to that date of a number of civic disturbances in Manhattan, which generally pitted immigrants and nativists against each other, or together against the wealthy who controlled the city's police and the state militia.

The riot resulted in the largest number of civilian casualties due to military action in the United States since the American Revolutionary War, and led to increased police militarization (for example, riot control training and larger, heavier batons).^[3] Its ostensible genesis was a dispute between Edwin Forrest, one of the best-known American actors of that time, and William Charles Macready, a similarly notable English actor, which largely revolved around which of them was better than the other at acting the major roles of Shakespeare.40°43′48″N 73°59′28″W / 40.729999°N 73.991244°W / 40.729999; -73.991244

Background[edit]

In the first half of the 19th century, theatre as entertainment was a mass phenomenon, and theatres were the main gathering places in most towns and cities. As a result, star actors amassed an immensely loyal following, comparable to modern celebrities or sports stars. At the same time, audiences had always treated theaters as places to make their feelings known, not just towards the actors, but towards their fellow theatergoers of different classes or political persuasions, and theatre riots were not a rare occurrence in New York.^[4]

In the early- to mid-19th century, the American theatre was dominated by British actors and managers. The rise of Edwin Forrest as the first American star and the fierce partisanship of his supporters was an early sign of a home-grown American entertainment business. The riot had been brewing for 80 or more years, since the Stamp Act riots of 1765, when an entire theatre was torn apart while British actors were performing on stage. British actors touring around the United States had found themselves the focus of often violent anti-British anger, because of their prominence and the lack of other visiting targets.^[5]

The fact that both Forrest and Macready were specialists in Shakespeare can be ascribed to the Bard's reputation in the 19th century as the icon of English culture. Ralph Waldo Emerson, for instance, wrote in his journal that beings on other planets probably called the Earth "Shakespeare."^[6] Shakespeare's plays were not just the favorites of the educated: in gold rush California, miners whiled away the harsh winter months by sitting around campfires and acting out Shakespeare's plays from memory; his words were well known throughout every stratum of society.^[7]

A dispute between Macready, who had the reputation as the greatest British actor of his generation, and Forrest, the first real American theatrical star. Their friendship became a virulent theatrical rivalry, in part because of the poisonous . The question of who was the greater actor became a notorious bone of contention in the British and, particularly, the American media, which filled columns with discussions of their respective merits.

Anglo-American relations of the 1840s

A growing sense of cultural alienation from Britain among mainly working-class Americans, along with Irish immigrants; though nativist Americans were hostile to Irish immigrants, both found a common cause against the British.

A class struggle between those groups who largely supported Forrest, and the largely Anglophile upper classes, who supported Macready. The two actors became figureheads for Britain and the United States, and their rivalry came to encapsulate two opposing views about the future of American culture.

The roots of the riot were multifold, but had three main strands:

According to historian Nigel Cliff in The Shakespeare Riots, it was ironic that both were famous as Shakespearean actors: in an America that had yet to establish its own theatrical traditions, one way to prove its cultural prowess was to do Shakespeare as well as the British, and even to claim that Shakespeare, had he been alive at the time, would have been, at heart at least, an American.^[8]

's play Two Shakespearean Actors deals mainly with the events surrounding and leading up to the riot.^[24]

Richard Nelson

The riot was featured in a 2006 episode of on NPR.^[25]

Weekend Edition

The riot is mentioned in Booth, a 2022 novel by . This novel tells the story of the Booth family of American Shakespearean actors whose members included John Wilkes Booth.^[26]

Karen Joy Fowler

List of incidents of civil unrest in New York City

United Kingdom–United States relations

and Wallace, Mike (1999). Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-195-11634-8.

Burrows, Edwin G.

(2007). The Shakespeare Riots: Revenge, Drama, and Death in Nineteenth-Century America. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-345-48694-3.

Cliff, Nigel

Morrison, Michael A. (1999). John Barrymore, Shakespearean Actor. Cambridge Studies in American Theatre and Drama. Vol. 10. Cambridge: . ISBN 9780521629799.

Cambridge University Press

Notes

Bibliography

. Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.

"Astor Place Riot"

. New International Encyclopedia. 1905.

"Astor Place Riot, The"

(1849) by H.M. Ranney at the Internet Archive.

Account of the Terrific and Fatal Riot at the New-York Astor Place Opera House

Kellem, Betsy Golden (19 July 2017). . Smithsonian Magazine. The Smithsonian Institution.