ABSTRACT
On Thursday, July 10, 1862, a group of Irish laborers on the Cincinnati docks argued with two black dockworkers. Tensions had been rising throughout the summer as boat captains hired black roustabouts at lower wages than white men. Rumors circulated that soon all white river workers would be replaced by African Americans. As the argument grew heated, one of the black workers hit an Irishman with a block of wood in his hand. The white men immediately chased the black men aboard a steamship, and white stevedores began attacking African Americans along the docks. Angry white workers believed that “employers along the wharves have taken the negro by the arm, and given him the place of the white man. The result has been a terrible riot” (“Right of White Labor over Black,” n.p.). White dockworkers vowed that no black men should work on the levee.
