Apprehending Darkness in the Shadows

Five Points, 1827. New York: McSpedon & Baker, 1855.

The Five Points, in lower Manhattan, was New York City’s most notorious and long-standing slum. The area attracted Irish immigrants and African Americans who inhabited the neighborhood’s squalid tenements and patronized the pawnshops, used goods stores, and concert saloons lining adjacent Cross, Orange, Anthony, and Chatham Streets. With its dense concentration of the city’s poorest, the Five Points saw high rates of murders, robberies, and gang activity.