Riot

As the Civil War rages, another battle breaks out behind the lines. During a long hot July in 1863, the worst race riots the United States has ever seen erupt in New York City. Earlier that year, desperate for more Union soldiers, President Abraham Lincoln instituted a draft—a draft that would allow the wealthy to escape serving in the army by paying a $300 waiver, more than a year's income for the recent immigrant Irish. And on July 11, as the first drawing took place in Lower Manhattan, the city of New York exploded in rage and fire. Stores were looted; buildings, including the Colored Orthan Asylum, were burned down; and black Americans were attacked, beaten, and murdered. The police could not hold out against the rioters, and finally, battle-hardened soldiers were ordered back from the fields of Gettysburg to put down the insurrection, which they did—brutally.

Fifteen-year-old Claire, the beloved daughter of a black father and Irish mother, finds herself torn between the two warring sides. Faced with the breakdown of the city—the home—she has loved, Claire must discover the strength and resilience to address the new world in which she finds herself, and to begin the hard journey of remaking herself and her identity.

Written in screenplay format, Myers addresses such issues as race, bigotry, and class head-on, This is another stirring and exciting novel that will shake up assumptions, and lift the spirit.

If  you are interested in this topic, try the following book from the TAHS Library:

Fiction:

Numbering All the Bones by Ann Rinaldi

Nonfiction:

• True Crime in the Civil War : Cases of Murder, Treason, Counterfeiting, Massacre, Plunder, & Abuse by Tobin T. Buhk