in 1863. The bloodiest riot in U.S. history erupted in front of a conscription office in New York City when the city's poor rose up in protest against a law allowing wealthy people to buy their way out of the Civil War draft for $300. First the mob attacked the homes, stores, and institutions of the rich; then they turned on the city's Negro population, assaulting and lynching people and burning down houses and an orphanage. The riot raged for four days before the militia put it down, Thousands were injured and 125 died. Rather ironic really that they turned on the Negro population given one of the causes of the war was slavery in the South!
