{"id":9912,"date":"2016-02-10T09:22:13","date_gmt":"2016-02-10T14:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=9912"},"modified":"2016-02-11T11:22:14","modified_gmt":"2016-02-11T16:22:14","slug":"the-gangs-of-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2016\/02\/the-gangs-of-philadelphia\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gangs of Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Caption<\/a>
In Southwark – Front Street at Christian. Photograph by John Moran, 1869. (Free Library of Philadelphia\/PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Armed to the teeth” with “pocket pistols, knives, or those horrible inventions known as ‘slung-shot,'” Philadelphia’s gangs dominated the streets of Southwark and Moyamensing in the 1840s, raining bricks and reigning terror.<\/p>\n

How had it gotten so out of control? The lack of police beyond the city’s southern border – then South Street. And the give-and-take of street warfare. The cycle of violence begins when a gang member “escapes barely with his life, and mangled, wounded, and bleeding, makes his appearance among his confederates and companions, details a vivid account of the manner in which he was assailed\u2026 \u00a0A spirit of vengeance is kindled… threats of retaliation are uttered, and an early opportunity is sought, to pay back in the same coin, with bricks, bludgeons and knives, the attack upon their brother. When the fight is once commenced under these circumstances, the feelings become inflamed, the mind is maddened, the blood heated, and the scene is often of the most fearful character. This, we believe, is the whole story with regard to most of the collisions which have recently taken place.”<\/p>\n

“What is the remedy?” asked the Inquirer<\/em> in desperation during the the hot summer of 1849.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, all hell had broken loose. \u201cWe are told there are no less than five gangs of organized ruffians, either in the county, or on the outskirts of the city.” Seasoned columnist George Foster identified eleven \u201csquads or clubs” in Southwark and Moyamensing populated by “loafers” who give themselves “outlandish titles.” The fiercer the better. Marauding the streets were Killers, Bouncers, Rats, Stingers, Nighthawks, Buffers, Skinners, Gumballs, Smashers, Whelps, Flayers “and other appropriate and verminous designations.” They marked their territories by fighting, rioting, and writing “in chalk or charcoal on every dead-wall, fence and stable-door.” They held their “nightly conclaves on the corners of by-streets or in unoccupied building-lots, sneaking about behind the rubbish-heaps, and perhaps now and then venturing out to assault an unprotected female or knock down a lonely passenger.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Two of the Killers. ca. 1848. Lithograph by J. Childs. (The Library Company of Philadelphia.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And worse. On Election Day, 1849, the Killers and the Stingers corralled a few hundred of their allies and attacked the California House at Sixth and St. Mary Street (now Naudain), a tavern operated by an interracial couple. The battle “raged for a night and a day\u201d before causalities were counted . “Dreadful Riot,” read one of several headlines,” Houses Burned, and Several Persons Killed and Wounded.\u201d<\/p>\n

For years, the newspapers had been crying out for \u201cthe law efficiently and vigorously administered\u201d no matter what the cost. \u201cIs it not possible for the authorities of the immediate districts concerned, to secure one or two of the ringleaders?\u201d they demanded. \u201cAre the citizens of that district content to live in such a state of anarchy?\u201d<\/p>\n

Apparently, the citizens had little choice in the matter. According to David R. Johnson in The Peoples of Philadelphia<\/em>, The Public Ledger<\/em>\u00a0reported on the doings of no less than 51 gangs. In an effort to be even more comprehensive\u2014from sources listed below as well as the Inquirer<\/em>\u2014we located an additional 14.<\/p>\n

Here are the gangs, the Philadelphia 65, listed in alphabetical order:<\/p>\n

American Guards; Bleeders; Blood Tubs; Blossoms; Bouncers; Buffers; Bugs; Bulldogs; Centre Street Boys; Chesapeakes; Crockets; Darts; Deathfetchers; Dogs; Dog-Towners; Flayers; Fly-By-Nights; Garroters; Gumballs; Hyenas; Jack of Clubs; Jumpers; Juniatta Club; Kensington Blackhawks; Kerryonians; Keystone No. 2; Killers; Lancers; Molly Maguires; Neckers; Nighthawks; Orangemen; Pickwick Club; Pluckers; Pots No. 2; Privateer Club No. 1; Rangers; Rats; Reading Hose Club; Rebels; Red Roses; Reed Birds; Schuylkill Rangers; Shifflers; Skinners; Smashers; Snakers; Snappers; Spiggots; Spitfires; Sporters; Springers; Stingers; Stockholders; The Forty Thieves; The Vesper Social; Tormentors; Turks; Vampyres; Waynetowners; Weecys; Whelps; Wild Cats; Wreckers.<\/p>\n

If these boys and men had heroes, these were the toughest of Philadelphia\u2019s volunteer firemen who, according to Bruce Laurie, they “gazed upon and followed in awe and reverence.\u201d But unlike the gangs, which more often than not served as firefighting farm teams, the city\u2019s volunteer fire companies chose names without bite, or even growl. Fact was, the fire companies found resonance in their choices of civic-sounding names: Assistance, Diligent, Friendship, Good Intent, Good Will, Hand-In-Hand, Harmony, Hope, Humane, Perseverance, Reliance and Vigilant.<\/p>\n

Ah, branding.<\/p>\n

Sources include: The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>: “Bouncers and Killers,” August 11, 1846; \u201cFireman\u2019s Triennial Parade,\u201d March 27, 1849; [News\/Opinion, page 2, column 1] August 7, 1849; \u201cDreadful Riot,\u201d October, 10, 1849; George Rogers Taylor and George G. Foster, “Philadelphia in Slices,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography<\/em>, Vol. 93, No. 1 (Jan., 1969), pp. 23-72; David R. Johnson \u201cCrime Patterns in Philadelphia, 1840-70,\u201d pp. 89-110 and Bruce Laurie, \u201cFire Companies and Gangs in Southwark: The 1840s,\u201d in Allen F. Davis, Mark H. Haller The Peoples of Philadelphia: A History of Ethnic Groups and Lower-Class Life, 1790-1940<\/em>. (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998); Peter McCaffery, When Bosses Ruled Philadelphia: The Emergence of the Republican Machine, 1867\u20131933<\/em>. (Penn State University Press: 1993).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Armed to the teeth” with “pocket pistols, knives, or those horrible inventions known as ‘slung-shot,’” Philadelphia’s gangs dominated the streets of Southwark and Moyamensing in the 1840s, raining bricks and reigning terror. How had it gotten so out of control? The lack of police beyond the city’s southern border – then South Street. And the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}