All language subtitles for 4. African Americans in New York

The air is beautiful. Fresh.

Much better than Five Points.

The experience of living
in Five Points...

...particularly when Copper begins, for
African Americans is sort of like a purgatory.

When we think about black New York in this
period, we've got to think of a population...

...that has its own communities, has its
own churches, has its own social world.

But that is increasingly feeling threatened.

The influx of Irish immigrants
coincided with the beginning of an exodus...

...from the Five Points by African Americans.

Since the riots, my people have been moving
out of Five Points.

Because the Five Points had become...

...a life threatening neighborhood
for black people.

We burned down your last orphanage, Garland.
We can burn this one down too.

No man will harm these children.

There was a tremendous fear
among white working class New Yorkers...

...that there would be an influx
of even more African Americans into the city.

One of the things that drove the draft riots
was a fear of competition.

Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation
has put fear in the hearts of the Irish.

They're terrified that the Negroes
will come north and steal all their jobs.

The draft riots culminated
the perfect storm of events.

The US government were going to start
drafting people into the war.

However, black people, since they were not
citizens, were not going to be conscripted.

So you can imagine the working class in
Five Points at that time were pretty pissed off...

...because now we're fighting a war
and going to die...

...for black people
who they didn't really like.

Her brothers were hung by the neck
from that very lamppost.

She remembers the screams.

During the draft riots, not only were men hung,
but in some cases they were mutilated...

...or carried across all of Five Points
by their genitals...

...which I can't even imagine.

Perhaps Freeman represents a time
when there will be no prejudice...

...much like Martin Luther King
wanted for us.