Bowery Street should have been the title of the second half of Sean Wilentz\u2019s book, Chants Democratic<\/i>.\u00a0 Wilentz\u2019s detailed description of working class life in Antebellum New York City can be followed through the rise and changes of Bowery Street.\u00a0 Wilentz described the street as a, \u201cplebian boulevard, the workingmen\u2019s counterpart to fashionable Broadway\u201d (257).\u00a0 It is almost seems like the Atlantic City to Las Vegas.\u00a0 It was built in the mid-1820s and by the early 1830s it was a swinging street with food, drinks, dancing, and entertainment.\u00a0 Much of what Wilentz described about Bowery Street, he could use to describe the bigger picture of the working class.<\/p>\n
The theater on Bowery Street is the first place where the street becomes an obvious microcosm of working class life.\u00a0 The crowded theatre with prostitutes up in the third acted just as the working class would be expected to.\u00a0 Wilentz details about the crowd, \u201cfortified by drink, armed with an arsenal of peanut shells and rotten vegetables, the Boweryites felt perfectly at home and interrupted the action on the stage at will\u201d (258).\u00a0 This can be paralled with the mobs that form during the Crisis of 1836.\u00a0 Armed with drink, fire, and hundreds of men, the mobs would use systematic violence and symbolic attacks to get their point across.\u00a0 Furthermore, the crowds almost rioting when English actors acted superior and smug on stage ties in nicely with Wilentz\u2019s descriptions of the Nativist views that were prevalent during the coming decade.\u00a0 The racial tensions that took place on stage also offer a look at the views of many working classmen.\u00a0 The set-piece minstrel shows \u201ctook racism for granted\u201d and were extremely popular with the lower-class audience.\u00a0 These shows also gave the working class a chance to criticize and laugh at the aristocratic plantation owners and other \u201cdimwitted\u201d upper class leaders (259).<\/p>\n
In the next chapter, after the Panic of 1837, the street changes dramatically.\u00a0 The workers have less spending money and struggling to find work.\u00a0 As the temperance push becomes greater, many men are found on Bowery Street and brought to the weekly experience meetings to become sober.\u00a0 The classic Bowery Theater shows that used to be filled with debauchery and partying are moved to temperate theaters as the Washingtonians seem to be taking over the city.\u00a0 Wilentz could have emphasized how this shift in theaters and action on the street symbolized the working class change of life after the Panic.\u00a0 All in all, Bowery Street seems to be a good indication of what the working class is up to at any given time.<\/p>\n
Maxwell Paul Reihmann (Cincinnati, Ohio) makes several interesting points about the Washingtonian Temperance movement.\u00a0 It seems like they were able to be so effective because of their acceptance of all religions.\u00a0 Instead of pushing sobriety and religion on their converts, they just stressed a better life filled with steady meals and hope.\u00a0 Max also makes a great comparison with the Women\u2019s Rights Movement later in the century.\u00a0 His point about the outspoken minority is a good one.\u00a0 Another example of the outspoken minority working today is the push for the legalization of gay marriage.\u00a0 A small minority of people feels strongly about it and is pushing our country to change for the better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bowery Street should have been the title of the second half of Sean Wilentz\u2019s book, Chants Democratic.\u00a0 Wilentz\u2019s detailed description of working class life in Antebellum New York City can be followed through the rise and changes of Bowery Street.\u00a0 Wilentz described the street as a, \u201cplebian boulevard, the workingmen\u2019s counterpart to fashionable Broadway\u201d (257).\u00a0 … <\/p>\n