Good Essay About PRécis: New York Tavern Violence And Creation Of Working Class Male Identity

This article examines the evolution of a new male working class in the 1840s that used New York City taverns as their focal point. 1840’s and 1850’s New York City, saw a mass immigration of people from Ireland in particular, who came on the promise of Jacksonian Democracy common man equality. The tremendous amount of immigrants forced the majority of these men to work in factories rather than use their developed skills. These men who lived in the midst of New York City ghettos used the taverns to bond together yet separate themselves from jobs that were more sources of income than sources of pride.
Tavern owners who utilized police power of their own, provided the atmosphere, as this new working class, the ‘b’hoys’, set up their own social structure. Within these local taverns filled with cursing, drunken male egos, there were also ‘philosophers’ to listen to and tough men respected for their physical stature. The common experiences they shared produced the ‘b’hoy’, a lower working class male not afraid to stand up for himself. The epitome of strength in numbers these men would grow stronger by physically picking on the weak. They used segregation to build power. They made sure some of the ‘natives’ and all the blacks deferred to the white ‘b’hoys’. They gang raped innocent women, often gaining their confidence first and then bragged about it in front of police watchmen with little fear of punishment. Political machines used taverns as focal points of power, recruiting men to spark riots, they encouraged these men to use their self-imposed entitlement to bully the weak. Fighting was the expected norm and male egos the key in their struggle to establish themselves.