Gangs In The 1800's

When the word “gang” is mentioned the first thought that comes to mind is a person wearing baggy clothes, a bandana across the forehead and tattoos all over the body. That is a stereotype. Obviously back when gangs were first initiated in the 1800’s they did not dress like that. Not all gangs are associated with colors, signs or names. A gang is defined as a group of criminals or a number of people forming a group (www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary). In fact the word “gang” actually originated from the word “gonge”, which meant a journey and then referred to a group of sailors during the fifteenth century. The term came to be used to label outlaws during Shakespeare’s era (source cited 1). Gangs also were not always racially profiled.
The first gang that originated here in the U.S. was immigrants. During the early 1800’s immigrants from Ireland settled in New York.
These immigrants soon became the unruly terrorizers of the Five Points intersection in New York City. This is the root of the Forty Thieves street gang; the first recorded organized street gang of the U.S. They were originally formed to rebel against the slum, poor living statuses but very quickly turned to crime to justify the anger they had due to the disgusting living conditions. The forty thieves would meet in the back room of Rosanna Peers grocery store. From there they would be given strict quotas of illegal actives enforced by Edward Coleman. Robbers, murders, pickpockets were all following orders by Mr. Coleman. If the members of the gang did not meet Mr. Coleman’s quota they would be assassinated reminding others about the importance of meeting the demands. On January 12, 1839 Edward Coleman was the first man to be hung at Tombs Prison after being convicted of killing his wife (source cited
2). Shortly after his death many of the men strayed away making their ways into other street gangs. By 1850 a gang made up of homeless children with ages ranging from eight to twelve had formed by the name of The Forty Little Thieves. A young lady led these mischievous minors by the name of Maggie Carson. Miss Carson was only twelve years old at that time but was soon adopted by the age of fifteen. Like any gang, once a leader is gone the members soon drift into other gangs or making gangs of their own. A few other gangs that had been created in the Five Points region by the 1850’s were The Bowery boys, the Dead Rabbits and The Plug Uglies, Shirt Tails, and Roach Guards (source cited 2). With small groups of criminals forming most of the gangs decided to conjoin and make massive criminal organizations. Two of the first largest organizations formed were the Bowery Boys and Dead Rabbits. They each had taken in more than 1,000 members in each gang. With some exaggeration, there is a movie called Gangs of New York made in 2002 about these gangs. Soon even politicians and law enforcements were involved in way or another with a gang. Police were terrified of gangs fear for the life of themselves and their families. This is the time period where gangs started to grow enormously out of control (source cited 3). By the late 1800’s to early 1900’s over 8 million immigrants from Poland, Italy, China and Australia moved to New York making it their new residence. The living conditions worsened as more and more immigrants came in. In turn causing gangs to spread out to other regions of New York. Many even pushed out of New York and settled into the sister states. By this time gangs were starting to develop not only in the northeast but also in the mid west. These newly established gangs were ethnically based. Italians started to form the American Mafia, which were big in New York and Chicago. The Chinese formed their gang called Tongs and the Jewish Eastman Gang was also created (source cited 4). By the mid 1900’s fighting gangs were emerging at alarming rates.
These new massively growing gangs were created by the arrival of Latino and African Americans. These people were pushed into poverty grade areas also known as the “ projects”. Black males organized gangs to face the White gangs that were terrorizing their neighborhoods. This was the beginning of the racial profile gang wars. In the movie West Side Story, the gang members were perceived to be very young and primarily not Caucasian. That is not true. All races made up gangs equally. Even though by 1950 the black and Latino population were the minority and this is why they were forced to live in high-rise public housing. Drugs and violence were becoming competition along with control over territories. Racial unrest contributed highly to the rapid growth of gangs in the U.S. (source cited
4). An enormous amount of gangs had taken over the suburbs of mostly all of the big cities in the U.S. In fact becoming part of a gang was the safest way to survive. Street gangs of all ethnicities have grown to such huge proportions that they actually posed threats to themselves. Turf was the main priority. The more turf and power, the more money. Gangs were progressing to higher means. Back when the first gang was organized, it was a survival of life. Now these criminal gangs not only do it for the means of life but for the way of life. By the 1970’s Caucasian, Black and Latino gangs were slowly conforming loose alliances. However, this did not mean that the blood bath wars were to end. This just meant that no matter an individual’s race they could be accepted into a gang of a different cultural. There are obviously some gangs that are extremely strict on their racial beliefs. Skinheads, for example, generally victimize Jewish, non-white, homeless or homosexuals. The bloods and crips , unlike the skinheads, members are diverse. The Latin Kings generally stay within the Latino race. These are still some of the major gangs in the U.S. Colors, graffiti and hand signs are now prominent to show what gang one belongs to. For instance blue is the color for the crips as to red is for the bloods and skinhead generally have shaved heads with a swastika tattoo (source 5). It is such an amazing story how one gang that began by running an illegal speakeasy, selling fused alcohols and stealing food to meet quotas can explode into numerous gangs that are now in such rivalry. There have always been gangs around but the forty thieves were the first to be recognized as an organized gang due to them having a leader. From there, gangs stared to conform and become more violent and blood thirsty because of the need for territory, money and power. Gangs are now affiliated with drug smuggling, prostitution and trafficking. Becoming a member of a gang is more terrifying now days. Innocent blood is shed from uninvolved bystanders.