The Bloody Tubs or Blood Tubs were a 19th-century gang of opportunistic street thugs in
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, and
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, who worked primarily for
Nativist Know Nothing
The Know Nothing party was a nativist political party and movement in the United States in the mid-1850s. The party was officially known as the "Native American Party" prior to 1855 and thereafter, it was simply known as the "American Party". ...
politicians to commit
election fraud
Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of ...
.
Formed in the mid-1850s, the gang became known as the Bloody Tubs for their method of dunking political opponents in slaughterhouse tubs. Other sources claim it was derived from the "bloody oaths" members took upon joining the gang. The gang's violent tactics included blocking voting booths and attacking opposing voters, discouraging many people from the polls altogether.
[Sifakis, Carl. Encyclopedia of American Crime, New York, Facts on File Inc., 1982]
During the
presidential election of 1860, the Blood Tubs reportedly planned to abduct, or possibly assassinate, President-elect
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
when he visited Baltimore.
At various times they also championed the Union cause. After the infamous
Pratt Street Riot, the Blood Tubs could be seen sailing up and down the harbor flying U.S. flags.
[Brave, R. (2001).]
"First Blood: Baltimore, the Civil War, and the Lasting Legacy of the Pratt Street Riots"
{{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060619072123/http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=3506 , date=June 19, 2006 ''The City Paper Online''. Retrieved December 4, 2006.
The gang operated for more than a decade before their brutal acts caused so much public outrage that politicians were forced to withdraw their political support, and after 1870 the gang was eventually broken up by police "head smashers" or "strong arm squads," as were many other gangs of the era.
References
Former gangs in Baltimore
Know Nothing
Gangs in Philadelphia