Boundaries of Responsibility: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and the Pennsylvania Riot Damage Law, 1834–1880

Abstract

Pennsylvania stands in the forefront of a great many trends in American history, not all of which brought honor to the commonwealth. In the 1830s and '40s, and again in 1877, Pennsylvania experienced rioting to an unrivaled extent in varying combinations of cause, frequency, violence, damages, and death. Beginning in 1834, Philadelphia would experience an ongoing series of riots for more than ten years, punctuated by the horrific burning of Pennsylvania Hall in 1838 and culminating in the massive nativist outburst beginning in May 1844 at the Nanny Goat Market. In the railroad strikes of 1877, Pennsylvania led the nation once again. Although the strikes and related violence began in Martinsburg, West Virginia, Cumberland, Maryland, and Baltimore, those outbursts were soon overshadowed by violence and death in Pennsylvania, most notably in Pittsburgh, but also in Reading, Easton, and Scranton.