"Lawless and Unprincipled": Women in Boston's Civil War Draft Riot

In this essay, Judith Giesberg explores the riots that took place in the heavily Irish-populated neighborhoods in northern Boston in response to the draft conscriptions issued by Abraham Lincoln's administration. Giesberg analyzes the class, race, and gender elements of the riots, and how those revealed tensions that simmered just beneath the surface of many neighborhoods in the northern United States during the American Civil War, illustrating that not all northerners supported Lincoln's emancipation policies.