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Civil War Draft Riots Essay Contest 9 2
TO: High School Principals and College Advisors

FROM: The Fund for Public Schools – Arlene Dominguez

SUBJECT: “Civil War Draft Riots of 1863” Essay Contest

DATE: September 27, 2013

Application Deadline: December 16, 2013

The Fund for Public Schools and the Union League Club of New York are pleased to invite applications for the “Civil War Draft Riots of 1863” essay contest. In order to commemorate its 150th anniversary, the Union League Club of New York established this essay contest to deepen students’ knowledge of New York City’s history and to allow students to explore how an atmosphere of political uncertainty, anger, inequalities, and ethnic conflict led to violence during the Civil War. The contest will award $2,000 to an outstanding public high school senior who writes the most compelling essay about this era in New York City history.

Background
In 1863, while the American Civil War raged far south of New York City, the metropolis witnessed widespread violence upon its African-American residents. Some poor and working class whites, unable to pay for exemption from the Union army draft resented this inequality and feared the economic competition and potential social changes resulting from the abolition of slavery by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1862. Further, some bitterly resented being drafted to fight for the freedom of slaves, when free blacks in New York, because they were not citizens at the time, were not subject to the draft. The anger toward blacks and the social tensions of the time culminated in the Civil War Draft Riots of 1863, the greatest civil crisis in the history of New York City. The Union League Club of New York was formed 150 years ago to support
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