The spark, which inflamed what one historian has termed “probably the most terrifying and brutal riot in the young nation's history up to that time.”1 appears to have come when young boys began throwing stones. Aimed at 10 Charles Street, where Federalist Printer Alexander Contee Hanson and his friends had gathered, these stones represented Democratic-Baltimore's disposition towards Federalists who voiced disdain for President Madison. When a man in the crowd (who actually, it appears, was trying to stop the boys) had his foot crushed by a stone the simmering anger was unleashed. Hoping to disburse the mob, Hanson addressed them from his second story window, warning that he was ready to defend himself. Unmoved, eventually officials convinced Hanson and his followers to be escorted to the city jail for greater protection.

Such anger had been simming in Baltimore for some time. Five weeks earlier, with what many deemed sufficient warning against Hanson's diatribes, a small crowd of Democratic—Republicans had torn down his printing shop on a warm June night. Tired of his tirades against Madison, and his accusations of French infiltration into the United States government, his fellow citizens had exercised a colonial tradition to enforce restraint. Hanson advisedly fled the city, reestablishing his paper in Georgetown. However, convinced that his rights had been severely denied, he, along with friends made secret plans to re—enter Baltimore on the evening of July 26, 1812. Expecting opposition, Hanson's defenders had brought arms and munitions with them.

Upon reaching the Baltimore City Jail, Hanson and his supporters were locked in a cell and told that full protection would be given them. However, the following night another mob gathered, this time outside of the jail. Let into the jail by a sympathetic democratic turnkey, the real horror of the Baltimore Riot began. Tarring and feather, beating and chanting, the crazed mob unleashed all types of brutalities upon the defenseless Federalists.

One of the unhappy victims, John Thompson reported “I had left my coat in the gaol, and they tore my shirt and other clothing, and put the tar on my bare body, upon which they put feathers. They drew me along in the cart in this condition, and calling me traitor and tory and other scandalous names.”2 As they danced around the prisoners the mob sang, “We'll feather and tar every d—d British tory. And this is the way for American glory. One Federalist ruefully observed, the crowd could not have been more joyful at a dance, than they were at the abuse of the murdered. When the victims cried for mercy, the women bawled out kill the tories.”3

One witness noted, “During this whole time the Mob continued to torture their mangled bodies, by beating first one and then the other; sticking penknives into their faces and hands, and opening their eyes and dropping hot candle grease into them.”4 Revolutionary War hero, Lingan was beaten to death and many other Federalists would have perished had not a local doctor taken pity on their plight. Someone noted that he said, “he was as much a republican as any of them—but his republicanism could not approve of such proceedings—it was shameful to insult a fallen foe, and shocking to murder our fellow citizens.”5

Though this photograph was taken mid-century, Baltimore in 1812 experienced significant urbanization revealed here, creating tensions which erupted over Hanson's dramatic war essays.

In the port city of Baltimore, the world of the public sphere was experiencing a huge transition from an oral culture dependent upon spoken rhetoric to a print culture dependent upon publications began to occur.6 Newspapers, such as Hanson's Federal Republican or the democratically led Whig, began publicly airing debates that previously had been restricted to those few men gathered in the local tavern. The consensus and homogeneity previously enjoyed by the inhabitants of Baltimore was crumbling and the tensions that emerged erupted against Hanson.

1 Frank A. Cassell, “The Great Baltimore Riot of 1812,” Maryland Historical Magazine 70.3 (1975): 241—242.

2 “An exact and authentic narrative, of the events which took place in Baltimore, on the 27th and 28th of July last. Carefully collected from some of the sufferers and eyewitnesses. To which is added a narrative of Mr. John Thomson, one of the unfortunate sufferers...,” American Memory: The Capital and the Bay: Narratives of Washington and the Chesapeake Bay Region, ca. 1600-1925, Washington D.C., 43.

3 Cassell, Frank A., “The Great Baltimore Riot of 1812,” 256.

4 “An exact and authentic narrative, of the events which took place in Baltimore, on the 27th and 28th of July last. Carefully collected from some of the sufferers and eyewitnesses. To which is added a narrative of Mr. John Thomson, one of the unfortunate sufferers, ...,” 28.

5 Cassell, Frank A. , “The Great Baltimore Riot of 1812,” 256.

6 Patricia Crain, The Story of A: The Alphabetization of America from The New England Primer to the Scarlet Letter (Stanforda: Stanford University Press, 2000), 4.