Estivel New Post ENN195

Estivel Garcia

It is incredible how all the people of New York City lived during such violent time in the 1840s. In the movie “Gangs of New York”, the state of New York was controlled by the power of gangs and rich people.  There was an arduous war between American citizens and the new Irish immigrants who came to the neighborhoods of New York escaping from the Great potato famine and to get more opportunities. The Natives American and the Dead Rabbits, an Irish immigrant gang, faced a deadly dispute due to the increased of immigrants to the Five Points, power, no job opportunities and corruption.

People set the streets on fire and then steal properties because there was no kind of public welfare, no protection from police and government, and no rules. People were out of control and scared during such economic depression in 1837. The city was a chaos; people lived in bad conditions with no sanitation, there were too much violence in the streets and economic unfairness. Many immigrants came to the United States for the American dream, looking for freedom, properties and rights. But at the end many people were disappoint because of the political corruption that didn’t fight poverty and protect the working class.  During the Civil war, many men were draft to war but only those who could pay three hundred dollars stayed out of war. Only the working class went to battle.  People saw naturals right as a lie.

At the end of the movie, “Gangs of New York” it could be appreciated how industrialization had change the society over the years. People don’t even know how the city of New York was built. The true history of the city is been forgotten and buried under the evolution of a new city.