New York in the first half of the 1800s had only 100,000 people, and by 1900, there were 50 times more people. With New York’s population vastly growing in amounts of people from places from all over the world, chaos was likely to overtake order. Newspapers like the New York Herald now write of all the conflicts and problems going on throughout the city. Streets were busy with thieves, prostitutes and gang fighting, and the city was only getting more crowded. The speakers in New York - Order & Disorder argue that New York was only going to continue down this path of chaos and conflict by giving us quotes from people alive during that time. The places the New York residents lived away from work in tenements, which were slum dwellings with poor lighting, plumbing and heating. They did however have valuables such as fine china and smoking pipes, and were even able afford meat as a main part of their diets. Rebecca Yamin wanted the reader to understand how life for both immigrants and American citizens lived as New York was becoming a more advanced city.
The producers of New York - Order & Disorder give the points of view of the New Yorkers and how they struggled to work closely alongside one another and the problems that they had. We didn’t hear from the people in charge and what they planned on doing about all the crimes and chaos. The author of New York's Mythic Slum, Rebecca Yamin is a principle archaeologist who was involved with the recovery of artifacts dated back to 1800s New York. Through the uncovering of these artifacts we are able to see how life was for New York residents while they lived in a place, “that until now has been portrayed as a living hell.” The voices we didn’t hear are specifically ones of the people themselves who might have lived in the slums their entire lives.
In class we talked of how New York during this time had a lot of corruption, chaos and no order. How there were no properly implemented garbage or sewage systems yet, so the city streets were a mess. We looked at a painting of Five Points by George Catlin from 1827, and it showed the streets packed with people of all origin going about their daily lives. This helped to understand how these people lived and what they had been experiencing during the development of New York.
One question that was asked in class was what is a privy? We came to the conclusion that a privy is a type of hole in the ground outhouse, in which New Yorkers tossed away unwanted possessions, because of the lack of a garbage system. Another question that was asked was why did Americans dislike the Irish? We came to the conclusion that the Irish immigrants, other than being Catholic and foreign, stuck together and didn’t blend into society, were very poor and malnourished, and Americans saw them as unintelligent and as though something were wrong with them because of this.
A question that could still remain would be what was done to help preserve the order in the city? Would the American government have done anything if the disorder extended beyond New York? What did the residents who didn’t have a job do to help their family survive? Did those who contributed to the chaos suffer as many other have as well?
