Murder Patterns in New York City as Reported in the New York Times 1851 -1871

This paper will discuss how murder in New York City changed between the years 1851 and 1871 due largely to immigration and broader social changes.   It will use newspaper articles from the New York Times to not only examine these changes and describe the difference in the twenty years, but also address how murders did not necessarily increase or decrease. There are many factors that go in to the changes in murder patterns. There was a large influx of immigrants still arriving to New York during this period.   The Civil War had an overall effect on how murder changed, involving rioting, the police force, and weapons.   This period showed a growing separation of the middle class from the working class, which affected murders in the city.
In the four-week period, September 20 – October 11, 1851 murder as reported in the New York Times largely involved immigrants. This can be attributed to the large number of immigrants arriving to New York during this period. The newspaper often documented these arrivals, “The following table shows the number of emigrants that have arrived at the port during the week ending on the 27th…Total – 8,011” (“Emigrants,” New York Times, Sept 30, 1851, p.1).   There are several accounts of murders or attempted murder involving Germans and Irishmen, which can be explained simply by the amount of immigrants.   Often the paper documented these arrivals, “During the last week there have arrived to this port 11, 004 emigrants; of these 7,850 were from Irish ports.” (New York Times, Sept 23, 1851, p. 1).
While murders involved immigrants often, it was not always the immigrant who was the murderer in 1851. More often times the immigrant was the victim, “Last evening a German by the name of Charles Augustus, keeping a porter house… was stabbed in several places about his face and breast, with a knife that was in the hands of a sailor called ‘Tom’,” (“Another Stabbing Affair,” New York Times, Oct 8, 1851, p. 2). The murder and violent crime of 1851... [continues]

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