How Castors Would Have Changed the Five Points in New York History

Have you ever seen the 2002 movie Gangs of New York with Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day Lewis? If not then you are really missing out. If you have then you will be familiar with the Five Points in New York City as well as the monumental unrest that existed in the neighbourhood back then, then being the mid 19th Century. Now located in central lower Manhattan, it was then the point at which Orange Street, Anthony Street, Cross Street and Little Water Street met, creating the five points of Paradise Square, Park Row, Centre Street, The Bowery and Canal Street. Sound complicated? Well, the geography was but the fighting that went on over it was not. There were numerous gangs fighting over religion, turf, crime and many more things besides in what was effectively a “disease-ridden crime-infested slum”. However, the fighting that went on then would have been far less protracted had one of the gangs had access to Castors.

Castors, I hear you ask, how would they have changed the gangs of New York and put an end to the fighting? Well, the little wheels would have given one of the gangs a major advantage over the rest as a result of their versatility. They would have had many uses. For example, in 1862 alone 82,072 New Yorkers were arrested. This was largely a result of the fighting between the gangs but wheels, no matter how small, would have enabled perpetrators of violence a chance to get away. Think of a modern day scooter or skateboard and how much of an advantage that would give a gang member.

However, there would have been a few more pressing uses for them. For example, trolleys with Castors on them would have been used to wheel out the dead so that the gangs did not have to do one of two things that actually happened – retrieve their dead after the fighting ceased or leave them where they were to decompose. The latter was one of the reasons as to why the Five Points was considered to be an infectious, disease ridden pit back then. The streets were not clean as there was no waste disposal system back then but the fighting just made it worse. Carrying out the dead on BZMM series Castors would definitely have been beneficial, and the same trolleys would also have been handy for helping to administer what little medical care was available as well.

Another great use for a castor or two back then would have been moving weapons. Of course, the combat that took place in Five Points was often hand to hand because of the masculine connotations that came with it. The gangs took such combat as a badge of honour. However, that is not to say that cannon could not have been used to disperse rival gangs and make individual members more vulnerable during the fighting. Little wheels used in industry today would have been perfect back then. With such an advantage, a gang would have quite possibly ruled the Five Points!