Bowery Boys pictured in the 1800s
The Bowery Boys were a nativist anti-Catholic gang based out of The Bowery section of Manhattan, New York City. The gang was made up mostly of lower-class Protestant English-Americans, mostly volunteer firefighters or butchers.
History[]
Bowery Boys in 1862
The Bowery Boys got their name from The Bowery section of Manhattan, New York City. They were mechanics, butchers, volunteer firemen, street crawlers, and all other types of lower-class WASPs, and they were united in their hatred of Catholic Irish immigrants that came to New York in the mid-19th century. They were allied with William Cutting's Natives gang, and they assisted them in their wars against the Dead Rabbits in 1846 and 1863. Gerard Whitchurch was one of their most famous leaders. Their uniforms consisted of red shirts, stovepipe hats, and brown trousers tucked into their boots to pay homage to their origins as volunteer firefighters.