The Hogs of New York

New York’s war against pigs was also a war against the poor

Illustration from Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York, 1859 (public domain)

On July 27, 1859, the New York Times reported breathlessly on a shocking act of violence. Eighty-seven armed men had descended on a New York City neighborhood:

All were armed with pistols, clubs, or daggers, and a few carried pickaxes and crowbars… A long train of ca…