As far as riots go, the 1835 “Snow Riot” in Washington DC isn’t widely remembered. But it was an extremely important point in American history.
It started with Anna Thornton. She was a widow; her husband, William, was the architect who designed the US Capitol Building. She was also a slave owner at a time when the abolitionist movement was gaining momentum and causing tension.
One night, she woke to see one of her slaves standing next to her bed, wielding an axe and demanding his freedom. He didn’t harm her, but the mere fact of his presence in her room was enough to have him thrown in jail.
This arrest was the spark that ignited the prevailing racial tension of the time. Angry mobs of blacks took to the streets, angry mobs of whites vandalized businesses owned by free blacks.
The first such business to be destroyed was a popular restaurant called “The Epicurean Eating House,” owned by Mr. Beverly Snow. For some reason, it’s his name that stuck when the press needed a name for the riot, even though he had nothing to do with it, other than his undeniable bad luck at having opened a restaurant in that particular spot.
The Snow Riot precipitated the creation of the National Guard, and is now often seen as the first in a long string of events directly leading to the Civil War. It caused pro- and anti-slavery lines to be drawn in Congress, and today’s so-called “red” and “blue” states still basically match the divisions that emerged at the time.
Here’s a cool aspect of this story for me: Mr. Snow was, needless to say, a bit annoyed that his restaurant had been destroyed. He packed up and moved to Canada, where he opened a new restaurant which he named “The Epicurean Recess” and which stood about 5km from my house.
But here’s the even cooler part: the intersection in DC where Snow’s original restaurant stood is now the site of the museum of journalism known as the “Newseum.” Take a look on Google street view and you’ll see that the first amendment to the constitution– the one that guarantees the right to peaceful assembly –covers the entire south-facing wall of the museum. Right next door is the Canadian embassy. Turn right and you’re staring at the Capitol Building.
So, in a wonderful piece of geographic coincidence, the small stretch of road where Snow’s restaurant was destroyed now displays a huge mural commemorating the right to protest, the embassy of the country to which he escaped, and the building designed by the man whose wife played a key role in the start of the whole thing.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. The placement of the words “lullaby” and “riot” in the same lyrical line.
2. A few moments later, the line, “She knows it’s mad, the snow’s come back.” I know they’re not talking about Beverly Snow, but I like to pretend they are.
3. The way the strings open the whole thing up at the end is just gorgeous. It’s enough to start tiny riots in my tear ducts.
Recommended listening activity:
Making a list of laws you would pass if you ran the world.