Walnut Street prisoners mounted armed insurrections echoing revolutionary ideals

Evidence

On occasion their insubordination compelled prison authorities to summon outside military assistance—to call out the marines. One of these episodes, which prison officials labeled “a general insurrection,” began on the afternoon of March 27, 1820, when forty prisoners attacked a notorious snitch. While he was attempting to flee, one of the convicts crashed in his skull with an iron bar, and another, a man named William McIlhenny, plunged a long knife into him. … The next morning McIlhenny, followed by forty other inmates, attacked the officials. “Down the stairs, in the greatest confusion, tumbled inspectors, keepers, and convicts, black and white, while the upper passages and rooms resounded with shrieks, yells, and groans, and clanging of chains and bars, as the fastenings were torn to pieces with wild fury. In a few moments every door was thrown open, and throughout the whole range the prisoners were released. The force of the rioters was increased by two hundred men, who hastened to the lower hall, and then the entire body of convicts had unlimited sway within the prison. They hurried into the yard to make their escape.…” There, the rebelling inmates raised the slogan, “Liberty or Death!” — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 157

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s broader project on category reclassification: convicts here acted as a united ‘black and white’ body before the Irish-white split hardened. — connects to: Anarchist art groups radicalized into armed gangs through urban insurrections — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now: The 1960s New York…, 1154; Freed prisoners and slaves armed themselves during the town’s chaos — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 541; Security-force killings of activists triggered escalatory cycles of mourning and reprisal — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 603 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• A small armed population draws its strength from a worldwide revolutionary movement #expands (0.88) — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 51
• Freed prisoners and slaves armed themselves during the town’s chaos #exemplifies (0.82) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 541
• Anarchist art groups radicalized into armed gangs through urban insurrections #exemplifies (0.78) — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 1154
• Security-force killings of activists triggered escalatory cycles of mourning and reprisal #complicates (0.72) — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 603