Cincinnati riots of 1841 The Cincinnati Riots of 1841 occurred
after a long drought had created widespread unemployment in
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Over a period of several days
in September 1841, unemployed whites attacked the blacks, who
then fought back. Many blacks were rounded up and held behind a
cordon and then moved to the jail. According to the authorities,
this was for their own protection. By 1840, Cincinnati had grown
from a frontier settlement to the 6th largest city in the US. It
was a city of contrasts, with prosperous neighborhoods and
squalid, violent slums. Many of the businessmen who controlled
the city were interested in good relationships with the slave-
owning states to the south of the Ohio River and were hostile to
abolitionists and blacks. The Ohio constitution denied blacks
the franchise, and the Black Laws imposed further restrictions.
Black children were denied education in the public schools, but
black propertyholders had to pay taxes to support these schools.
Black immigra