Gangs of New York #2--Painting the "Dead Rabbits Gang," and did they even exist?

An 1857 newspaper illustration of the Dead Rabbit Riot 

In a previous post, (  https://history-for-fun-profit-and-insight.blogspot.com/2020/02/gangs-of-new-york-gaming-figure-and.html ), I wrote of figure availability for Gangs of New York gaming.  But, after one has figures representing the Dead Rabbits Gang, the next obvious question is how does one paint a member of the Dead Rabbits Gang? How, exactly, did these mid-nineteenth century slum brawlers dress? Did they have a distinctive look? And here's where problems come in.

Let's start with a look at the sources. According to The Great Riots of New York, page 92, the author writes of the Dead Rabbits, "their uniform was a blue stripe on their pantaloons,"  Alas, that seems to be it for this source. The entire description. All there is. However the author notes that one of their rival gangs, the Roche Guards, wore a red stripe in contrast.

If we turn to Ashbury's classic, The Gangs of New York, we get the following: on page 23, we learn that the Dead Rabbits had a red stripe on their pants, while the Roche Guards were the ones with the blue strip on their pants. The exact opposite, and, yes, I double checked that, in fact, I double and triple checked that a few times and they definitely contradict each other. Ashbury also describes the Dead Rabbits as "at the head of their sluggers carried a dead rabbit impaled on a pike." Ashbury, by the way, does not footnote or give sources. (And I think in this context, a "slugger" is a violent person who fights, not a club or baseball bat.)

And, if you don't believe me, and wish to double or triple check for yourself, both of these books are available online through sources such as archive.org and project gutenberg among others so you may check for yourself. (My personal guess is that Ashbury went to the Great Riots book and mis-copied in his notes, but that's just a guess.)

The Victorian Armchair General's depiction of the Dead Rabbits Gang. Alas, no painting guide although the wonderful people at TVAG seem to offer everything else. http://www.thevirtualarmchairgeneral.com/200-bhoys.html

Scorse's film, Gangs of New York, offers an alternative image.

If we go to Scorsese's movie, the Dead Rabbits are shown with the orange striped shirts (something that is nowhere in the book, and, at least sometimes, red striped pants.

The Dead Rabbits as show in the film. Aside from the red (or is it orange?) stripe on the pants and the dead rabbit on a pole, the rest seems to be invented. I have not been able to find a source for those stripes on the shirts, for instance.

Searching further, I also found a source selling a pair of Dead Rabbit pants that were apparently used as props in the film.

So, that's the film depiction of the Dead Rabbits Gang of the mid-nineteenth century. But should we take the film seriously as a source of details on how the gang dressed? Sadly, absolutely not.

If one goes to JSTOR, an academic database for scholarly articles, and does a search on "Dead Rabbits Gang" and related terms, one finds surprisingly little on the gang, perhaps for reasons that will become clear later. If you do searches to find what historians think of the film, you will soon learn that they universally note that the film was not intended as an accurate depiction of history, and include quotes from people involved in the decision making for the film where the filmmakers make it clear that accurate historical representation was not among the goals of the film.  (I've save several of these articles. If readers wish request, and perhaps even if they don't, I will try to share these sources later.) In the meantime, this interesting article, supports the contention that the film was not intended as accurate history.

See: https://www.thewelcomeblog.com/stories-of-new-york/gangs-of-new-york-facts-vs-fiction/4/2/2016 for one source. It's an interesting, well illustrated read, with nice pictures of the buildings and neighborhood, that gives a good introduction to both the period and the controversies about not just the extent of Gangs of New York type gangs and gang violence, but hints at the issue of whether or not the even existed at all.

In Tyler Anbinder's historical work, Five Points, he makes the case that the Dead Rabbits Gang did not exist at all and was instead a creation of public fears exaggerated by the media of the time. Anbinder argues his case well  and if you wish, you may go to his book and read his arguments on pages 284-289. He argues that the predominant gang of that time and place was the Roche Guards and the term "the Dead Rabbits" came from an incident where one faction of the group entered a meeting held by another faction and threw a dead rabbit on the table.

Which, by the way, muddles the whole "Roche Guard/ Dead Rabbit" / "Blue stripe / red strip" controversy completely, or perhaps just settles it for good, if we conclude that they were one and the same group. Perhaps.

Needless to say, if the group did not exist, it does pose a quandary for people like myself who wish to paint them in miniature in a historically accurate fashion. Alas!! It's not easy sometimes being a historical wargamer. Not only do people laugh at our strange modelling passions, but we have problems like this, problems that the general public just cannot begin to fathom or grasp. Alas! Tragic indeed.

To understand the issues involved, the issues underlying how a belief could be spread about a savage Irish gang that historians argue did not exist, one needs to understand just how strong and pervasive anti-Irish sentiment of the time was. The period cartoon below depicts the Dead Rabbits Riot of 1857 and illustrates this nicely. Personally, I think the Irish rioters shown look absolutely "Orcish," bearing a closer resemblance to fantasy gaming figures of goblinoids than actual humans.

Irish Rioters of the 1857 Dead Rabbits Riot in New York City as depicted in an editorial cartoon of the time. Personally, I think they look like Tolkein or Dungeons and Dragons Orcs. 

Crime Groups, Gangs, Reality, and Urban Legend in History and Popular Belief

It seems that there is a possibility that the Dead Rabbits were more of a legend than a reality. In future installments, I hope to discuss the implications for gaming. 

At the moment, however, it seems worth mentioning that this may not be unique. There are other cases where reality and fantasy have overlapped in the minds of many people. 

In mid-nineteenth century India the British colonial officials became quite concerned about a group known as "the thuggee" or "strangler sect." According to popular belief of the time, members would travel around India, finding unsuspecting victims and then strangling them as a sacrifice to the god Kali. While I make no claim to be able to judge the controversy, some modern historians have argued that the sect never existed, at least not to the extent believed by the British officials, and the British attempts to outlaw and suppress the sect stemmed from fear and hysteria. (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuggee for an introduction to this controversy, and, yes, I just cited wikipedia and did so on March 1, 2020 if one wishes to know which version. Some day, particularly if I live forever, I hope to explore this controversy in depth.) 

Ninjas. Did Ninjas exist? The answer is definitional and depends on how one defines the term "ninja." Of course, in late medieval Japan, there were assassins and spies. But did the legendary "ninja clans," the families with hidden identities where children were raised and trained from birth to be super-human, black-clad, clandestine killing machines dressed in , exist? Probably not. And as for the black "ninja suit," it appears that the black suit tha is commonly associated with the ninja, actually came form the traditional outfit worn by Japanese stage hands several centuries later. These stage hands were required to sneak on stage and move the set around without being spotted by the audience. So in that sense, it appears that ninja did not exist. (At least for the moment, you'll have to trust me on this. It's something I may write about in the future. For the moment, this info comes from several threads on the old H-Asia discussion group as well as elsewhere. Someday I hope to spend time and really look into this issue in a thorough fasion. At least two good looking books on this very question have come out recently. I have read neither. I also have several "how to be a ninja" martial arts books in my collection and it would be nice to blog about them some day.)  It is worth mentioning that the belief in superhuman ninja assassins raised from birth, seems to have been cncouraged by the people who employed spies and assassins, the feudal lords of the time, who wished their enemies to be fearful of their capabilities. 

In our own society, not too long ago (1980s and 1990s), there was or has been a controversy about the prevalence and acts of Satanic cults. While many believe these were or are active in the USA, commiting horrific crimes, the FBI actually went so far as to issue a report stating they were not.( see: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/136592NCJRS.pdf ) I did some writing about this in the end of this long post and books on the issue are available at the end of the post: 

https://peterhuston.blogspot.com/2019/06/experts-more-questions-about-tammy-yard.html

It is not unknown for people to believe in violent criminal groups that do not exist.

Just FYI, years ago, I wrote a book on Chinese criminal groups in North America. While the book is so outdated that  I rarely recommend it, and there are things I would do different in writing such a book today, I have included a link to it below should anyone be interested. I did learn things about the subject of crime groups while writing it.

Books and Media for the period. 

There is a variety of media one can get if you wish to explore this period of American history in more depth. Please remember, if you order through these links you are supporting this website.

First, once again, we have this wonderful set of rules. 

  

Second, we have Herbert Asbury's classic yet sensationalized work, "Gangs of New York." Asbury was writing in the 1920s about life in the mid-nineteenth century and historians who look it over pretty much universally feel he was more interested in entertaining the reader than sticking to the facts and presenting a historically accurate document. It's an entertaining read that has been through several editions, but should not be taken as gospel. This is probably why when you look for more details and other sources on some of the things he describes you simply don't find them, as it is likely that they never existed.

Tyler Anbinder's "Five Points: The 19th Century New York City Neighborhood that Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections, and Became the World's Most Notorious Slum," is a more serious history of the time and place written by a contemporary author. The two books at times contradict each other. 

The Great Riots of New York is a late nineteenth century work that describes historical events as the author understood them to have happened. It is probably one of the sources Asbury used to write his book and parts of it are well worth reading to understand this period.

Yes, there was a big Hollywood movie based on these things and the events in Asbury's book. Perhaps unexpectedly, I was not a particularly big fan of the film, neither are the people at TVAG either by the way, they make that clear in the introduction to their wonderful rules, and it is also not particularly accurate in its depiction of history. Dates are mixed and some of the details not quite right. Nevertheless, if you are going to game this period, it's gotta be a "must-see" film so,  if you wish, consider buying it through this link.

I was a bigger fan of a much lesser known BBC-America show called "Copper," which portrayed the adventures of a New York City police detective during the American Civil War. The show ran for two short seasons only and the actual number of episodes is a bit limited but it was a very interesting series and gives an interesting depiction of the underside of the City of New York at the time, even if it does not mention any of Asbury's gangs. Be forewarned that is a very dark and at times difficult to watch series but very well done. For instance, several episodes of the first season deal with the main character's attempts to get a 12 year old prostitute off of the streets and into a better life. She is portrayed disturbingly realistically. The situation is complicated when it turns out she is fleeing an abusive, yet completely legal, marriage to a man three or four times her age, and the legal options under the laws of the time are quite limited when he announces he wants her back. (The age of marriage at that time was much, much lower than now.) Worth watching if the period interests you and you can stomach dark materials.

Please be aware-

while there are only two seasons of the show available, they are being sold in several different packages so there are six items listed below.

   

And one more time, the awesome rules . . . 

Finally, my books . . . 

Yeah, I've written books. Please check them out and see if they interest you.

  

My book on criminal groups written in 1995