Dorsey, Bruce

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7-1-2014 
Review Of "The Philadelphia Nativist Riots: Irish Kensington 
Erupts" By K. W. Milano 
Bruce Dorsey 
Swarthmore College, bdorsey1@swarthmore.edu 
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Recommended Citation 
Bruce Dorsey. (2014). "Review Of "The Philadelphia Nativist Riots: Irish Kensington Erupts" By K. W. 
Milano". Pennsylvania Magazine Of History And Biography. Volume 138, Issue 3. 345-346. 
https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-history/107 
This work is brought to you for free by Swarthmore College Libraries' Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in 
History Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact 
myworks@swarthmore.edu. 
 
 
Review
Reviewed Work(s): The Philadelphia Nativist Riots: Irish Kensington Erupts by Kenneth W.
Milano
Review by: Bruce Dorsey
Source: The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 138, No. 3 (July 2014),
pp. 345-346
Published by: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5215/pennmaghistbio.138.3.0345
Accessed: 17-05-2017 14:47 UTC
 
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
 
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
This content downloaded from 130.58.88.100 on Wed, 17 May 2017 14:47:08 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
BOOK REVIEWS2014 345
off a vociferous debate about the meanings of slavery and freedom in South 
Central Pennsylvania. The collapse of the Liberty, Free Soil, and Know-Nothing 
Parties set the stage for Democratic and Republican contestation on the issue. 
Meanwhile, shifts in the political atmosphere led to a petition campaign to repeal 
Pennsylvania’s personal liberty laws. 
During the Civil War, South Central Pennsylvania became ground zero for the 
confl ict over the meanings of slavery and freedom. Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania, 
which culminated in the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, had calamitous impacts 
on the black community. The Confederate army rounded up African Americans 
and sent them South. In the postbellum period, the decimated antebellum black 
population was replaced largely with Southern migrants, who experienced racism, 
discrimination, and, in 1869, an attempted lynching. 
David Smith’s On the Edge of Freedom is an important addition to the literature 
on antislavery in the North. By linking the antebellum and postbellum trajectories 
of slavery and freedom, readers can understand and appreciate the complexity of 
antislavery sentiment in a border region infl uenced by starkly opposed ideologies. 
South Central Pennsylvania proved neither a beacon of hope nor a bastion of 
freedom. Instead, it refl ected and refracted the nation’s uneasy and unfi nished 
sensibilities on issues of race in the antebellum and postbellum years, residues of 
which are still felt in the present day. 
Alcorn State University             STEPHEN G. HALL
The Philadelphia Nativist Riots: Irish Kensington Erupts. By KENNETH W. MILANO. 
(Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2013. 160 pp. Illustrations, appendix, 
bibliography, index. Paper, $19.99.)
Kenneth W. Milano has written a local history of the Third Ward, West 
Kensington neighborhood (St. Michael Parish) that became the site for three 
days of violent clashes between nativist rioters and Irish Catholic residents in 
May 1844. Milano, a lifetime resident and local historian of Kensington, dedicates 
the book to “those Irish Catholics, known and unknown, who gave their lives for 
their religion” during the riots, so that “their memory will never be forgotten” (5). 
The book is written for readers with an interest in a street-by-street, residence-
by-residence study of this neighborhood. There’s much to be gained from an 
in-depth look at this small area (about four square blocks) where nearly all the 
fi ghting, shooting, and arson occurred during the May riots. Yet at times, this is 
local history with an antiquarian fl avor. Readers are unlikely to acquire a greater 
understanding of the interrelationship of this enclave of Irish immigrant weavers 
to long-term developments in Philadelphia’s history, but they will discover the 
dimensions of the Master Street School and learn that it had “detached unheated 
This content downloaded from 130.58.88.100 on Wed, 17 May 2017 14:47:08 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
BOOK REVIEWS346 July
toilets,” that a Colonel Rambo was hired as clerk of the Nanny Goat Market 
(which was open most days until 3:00 p.m.), and that the sister of nativist martyr 
George Shiffl er afterward lived in Kensington with her uncle (36).
Most of the book is devoted to a meticulous retelling of the roughly seventy-
two hours of violent skirmishes that took place within the blocks surrounding 
the market, the school, and St. Michael’s church and convent. Milano builds 
his narrative on newspaper accounts and the trial evidence. The book includes 
no footnotes, so future scholars cannot trace any of the details of his very specifi c 
reconstruction of this period of urban warfare. One of Milano’s original contribu-
tions is his claim that the violence between nativists and Irish Catholics was mostly 
the work of a relatively small group of about seventy-fi ve well-armed fi ghters on 
each side. The thousands of nativists who gathered in Center City for rallies and 
who marched en masse to Kensington generally kept out of the fray, cordoning 
off the neighborhood and beating up occasional Irish residents who fl ed into their 
grasp. 
By focusing his attention exclusively on the May riots in Kensington, Milano 
only tells one half of the history of Philadelphia’s nativist violence in 1844, by-
passing the riots that rocked the Southwark district in July. Although his de-
sign was to write a neighborhood history, his intensely local focus on Kensington 
draws no comparisons between the violence in that district and the rioting that 
 took place only a few months later. The riots were both a citywide confl ict and a 
neighborhood-specifi c fi ght. Three of the eight nativists killed—and many of the 
wounded—in the Kensington riots lived in Southwark. This volume reminds us 
that a long-forgotten section of Kensington was once the site for a clash between 
religious bigotry and immigrant self-preservation, but it is unlikely to supplant 
any of the existing scholarly literature on nativism and Philadelphia’s riots. 
Swarthmore College                  BRUCE DORSEY
Making Freedom: The Underground Railroad and the Politics of Slavery. By R. J. M. 
BLACKETT. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013. 136 pp. 
Notes, index. $27.95.)
Richard Blackett has spent a decade gathering and analyzing newspaper 
accounts, fugitive slave advertisements, personal narratives, and other sources 
associated with the Underground Railroad, accumulating a massive database of 
information along the way. Shorter essays and presentations have appeared during 
that time, but this volume represents his efforts at providing a larger synthesis of 
his research. Making Freedom is a result of a series of talks Blackett gave for the 
Steven and Janice Brose Lectures in the Civil War Era at Penn State University. 
His goal is to illustrate how the actions of escaping slaves and their helpers not 
This content downloaded from 130.58.88.100 on Wed, 17 May 2017 14:47:08 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms


Review Of  The Philadelphia Nativist Riots: Irish Kensington Erupts  By K. W. Milano

Swarthmore College Works History Faculty Works History 7-1-2014 Review Of "The Philadelphia Nativist Riots: Irish Kensington Erupts" By K. W. Milano Bruce Dorsey Swarthmore College, bdorsey1@swarthmore.edu This work is brought to you for free and open access by . It has been accepted for inclusion in History Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact myworks@swarthmore.edu. Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-history  Part of the History Commons Let us know how access to these works benefits you  Recommended Citation Bruce Dorsey. (2014). "Review Of "The Philadelphia Nativist Riots: Irish Kensington Erupts" By K. W. Milano". Pennsylvania Magazine Of History And Biography. Volume 138, Issue 3. 345-346. https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-history/107   ReviewReviewed Work(s): The Philadelphia Nativist Riots: Irish Kensington Erupts by Kenneth W.MilanoReview by: Bruce DorseySource: The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 138, No. 3 (July 2014),pp. 345-346Published by: The Historical Society of PennsylvaniaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5215/pennmaghistbio.138.3.0345Accessed: 17-05-2017 14:47 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusteddigital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information aboutJSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available athttp://about.jstor.org/termsThe Historical Society of Pennsylvania is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extendaccess to The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and BiographyThis content downloaded from 130.58.88.100 on Wed, 17 May 2017 14:47:08 UTCAll use subject to http://about.jstor.org/termsBOOK REVIEWS2014 345off a vociferous debate about the meanings of slavery and freedom in South Central Pennsylvania. The collapse of the Liberty, Free Soil, and Know-Nothing Parties set the stage for Democratic and Republican contestation on the issue. Meanwhile, shifts in the political atmosphere led to a petition campaign to repeal Pennsylvania’s personal liberty laws. During the Civil War, South Central Pennsylvania became ground zero for the confl ict over the meanings of slavery and freedom. Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania, which culminated in the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, had calamitous impacts on the black community. The Confederate army rounded up African Americans and sent them South. In the postbellum period, the decimated antebellum black population was replaced largely with Southern migrants, who experienced racism, discrimination, and, in 1869, an attempted lynching. David Smith’s On the Edge of Freedom is an important addition to the literature on antislavery in the North. By linking the antebellum and postbellum trajectories of slavery and freedom, readers can understand and appreciate the complexity of antislavery sentiment in a border region infl uenced by starkly opposed ideologies. South Central Pennsylvania proved neither a beacon of hope nor a bastion of freedom. Instead, it refl ected and refracted the nation’s uneasy and unfi nished sensibilities on issues of race in the antebellum and postbellum years, residues of which are still felt in the present day. Alcorn State University             STEPHEN G. HALLThe Philadelphia Nativist Riots: Irish Kensington Erupts. By KENNETH W. MILANO. (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2013. 160 pp. Illustrations, appendix, bibliography, index. Paper, $19.99.)Kenneth W. Milano has written a local history of the Third Ward, West Kensington neighborhood (St. Michael Parish) that became the site for three days of violent clashes between nativist rioters and Irish Catholic residents in May 1844. Milano, a lifetime resident and local historian of Kensington, dedicates the book to “those Irish Catholics, known and unknown, who gave their lives for their religion” during the riots, so that “their memory will never be forgotten” (5). The book is written for readers with an interest in a street-by-street, residence-by-residence study of this neighborhood. There’s much to be gained from an in-depth look at this small area (about four square blocks) where nearly all the fi ghting, shooting, and arson occurred during the May riots. Yet at times, this is local history with an antiquarian fl avor. Readers are unlikely to acquire a greater understanding of the interrelationship of this enclave of Irish immigrant weavers to long-term developments in Philadelphia’s history, but they will discover the dimensions of the Master Street School and learn that it had “detached unheated This content downloaded from 130.58.88.100 on Wed, 17 May 2017 14:47:08 UTCAll use subject to http://about.jstor.org/termsBOOK REVIEWS346 Julytoilets,” that a Colonel Rambo was hired as clerk of the Nanny Goat Market (which was open most days until 3:00 p.m.), and that the sister of nativist martyr George Shiffl er afterward lived in Kensington with her uncle (36).Most of the book is devoted to a meticulous retelling of the roughly seventy-two hours of violent skirmishes that took place within the blocks surrounding the market, the school, and St. Michael’s church and convent. Milano builds his narrative on newspaper accounts and the trial evidence. The book includes no footnotes, so future scholars cannot trace any of the details of his very specifi c reconstruction of this period of urban warfare. One of Milano’s original contribu-tions is his claim that the violence between nativists and Irish Catholics was mostly the work of a relatively small group of about seventy-fi ve well-armed fi ghters on each side. The thousands of nativists who gathered in Center City for rallies and who marched en masse to Kensington generally kept out of the fray, cordoning off the neighborhood and beating up occasional Irish residents who fl ed into their grasp. By focusing his attention exclusively on the May riots in Kensington, Milano only tells one half of the history of Philadelphia’s nativist violence in 1844, by-passing the riots that rocked the Southwark district in July. Although his de-sign was to write a neighborhood history, his intensely local focus on Kensington draws no comparisons between the violence in that district and the rioting that  took place only a few months later. The riots were both a citywide confl ict and a neighborhood-specifi c fi ght. Three of the eight nativists killed—and many of the wounded—in the Kensington riots lived in Southwark. This volume reminds us that a long-forgotten section of Kensington was once the site for a clash between religious bigotry and immigrant self-preservation, but it is unlikely to supplant any of the existing scholarly literature on nativism and Philadelphia’s riots. Swarthmore College                  BRUCE DORSEYMaking Freedom: The Underground Railroad and the Politics of Slavery. By R. J. M. BLACKETT. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013. 136 pp. Notes, index. $27.95.)Richard Blackett has spent a decade gathering and analyzing newspaper accounts, fugitive slave advertisements, personal narratives, and other sources associated with the Underground Railroad, accumulating a massive database of information along the way. Shorter essays and presentations have appeared during that time, but this volume represents his efforts at providing a larger synthesis of his research. Making Freedom is a result of a series of talks Blackett gave for the Steven and Janice Brose Lectures in the Civil War Era at Penn State University. His goal is to illustrate how the actions of escaping slaves and their helpers not This content downloaded from 130.58.88.100 on Wed, 17 May 2017 14:47:08 UTCAll use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

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Review Of The Philadelphia Nativist Riots: Irish Kensington Erupts By K. W. Milano

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