The sawing-off of Manhattan Island is an urban legend about New York City that is largely unverified. It describes a practical joke allegedly perpetrated in 1824, by a retired ship carpenter named Lozier. According to the story, in the 1820s a rumor began circulating among city merchants that the weight of the urban district was causing the southern section of Manhattan Island to sink, near the Battery. It was believed that by cutting the island, towing it out, rotating it 180 degrees, and putting it back in place that Manhattan would be stabilized, and that the thin part of the island could be condemned. The main concern was not the futility of the idea but of Long Island's being in the way. Lozier finally assembled a large workforce and logistical support. At a massive groundbreaking ceremony, Lozier did not show up, but hid in Brooklyn and did not return for months. [1]
The story did not appear in any known newspapers (although the press supposedly did not report on such pranks in that era) and no records have been found to confirm the existence of the individuals involved. This has led to speculation that the incident never occurred and the original report of the hoax was itself a hoax, which is the conclusion Joel Rose suggests in his book, New York Sawed in Half: An Urban Historical (2001). [2] The hoax was first documented in Thomas F. De Voe's (1811-1892) [3] [4] volume The Market Book (1862), as conveyed by his uncle who was Lozier's supposed associate, and was told again in Herbert Asbury's work All Around The Town: Murder, Scandal, Riot and Mayhem in Old New York (1934, reissued as a Sequel to Gangs of New York). Another condensed retelling occurs in the 1960s Reader's Digest book, Scoundrels and Scallywags: 51 Stories of the Most Fascinating Characters of Hoax and Fraud (1968). [5] [6] [7]
An urban legend or contemporary legend is a genre of folklore comprising stories circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or family member, often with horrifying or humorous elements. These legends can be entertaining but often concern mysterious peril or troubling events, such as disappearances and strange objects. They may also be confirmation of moral standards, or reflect prejudices, or be a way to make sense of societal anxieties.
A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of persons of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into putting up the highest possible social currency in support of the hoax.
Francis Asbury was one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. During his 45 years in the colonies and the newly independent United States, he devoted his life to ministry, traveling on horseback and by carriage thousands of miles to those living on the frontier.
Gangs of New York is a 2002 American historical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan, based on Herbert Asbury's 1927 book The Gangs of New York. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis and Cameron Diaz, with Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly, Henry Thomas, Stephen Graham, Eddie Marsan and Brendan Gleeson in supporting roles.
Clifford Michael Irving was an American novelist and investigative reporter. Although he published 20 novels, he is best known for an "autobiography" allegedly written as told to Irving by billionaire recluse Howard Hughes. The fictional work was to have been published in 1972. After Hughes denounced him and sued the publisher, McGraw-Hill, Irving and his collaborators confessed to the hoax. He was sentenced to 2+1⁄2 years in prison, of which he served 17 months.
Herbert Asbury was an American journalist and writer best known for his books detailing crime during the 19th and early-20th centuries, such as Gem of the Prairie: An Informal History of the Chicago Underworld, The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld, Sucker's Progress: An Informal History of Gambling in America and The Gangs of New York.
The diamond hoax of 1872 was a swindle in which a pair of prospectors sold a false American diamond deposit to prominent businessmen in San Francisco and New York City. It also triggered a brief diamond prospecting craze in the western United States, in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado.
Joel Rose is an American novelist.
Philip Arnold (1829–1878) was a confidence trickster from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and the brains behind the legendary diamond hoax of 1872, which fooled people into investing in a phony diamond mining operation. He managed to walk away from the hoax with more than half a million dollars.
The Great Stock Exchange Fraud of 1814 was a hoax or fraud centered on false information about the Napoleonic Wars, affecting the London Stock Exchange in 1814.
Between C & D (1983–1990) was a Lower East Side quarterly literary magazine, edited by Joel Rose and Catherine Texier. The name of the magazine references the apartment where Rose and Texier lived and produced the magazine, which was located between Avenue C and Avenue D in the East Village. However, it has also been suggested that the title is short for "between coke and dope," giving an indication of the transgressive content and ethos. The tagline of the magazine was "Sex. Drugs. Danger. Violence. Computers."
Charles Tillinghast James was a consulting manufacturing engineer, early proponent of steam mills, and United States Democratic Senator from the state of Rhode Island from 1851 to 1857.
Albert W. Hicks, also known as Elias W. Hicks, William Johnson, John Hicks, and Pirate Hicks, was a triple murderer, and one of the last people executed for piracy in the United States. Cultural historian Rich Cohen places him as the first New York City legendary gangster figure, a bridge between the piracy of old and rise of a new "gangster nation".
The Big Book Of is a series of graphic novel anthologies published by American company DC Comics imprint Paradox Press.
James Sanders is an architect, author, and filmmaker in New York City, whose work has garnered him a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Emmy Award, and elevation to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects, among other honors.
Dancing for eels was a dance competition activity that was practiced during the 19th century by African-Americans at the market in Catherine Street and Catherine Slip in New York City. The dancing steps and gestures used were characterized by relatively fixed choreography. This activity is depicted in a number of folk paintings, and is described in Thomas F. De Voe’s 1862 The Market Book. It is also analyzed in the 1998 book Raising Cain: Blackface performance from Jim Crow to Hip Hop by W.T. Lhamon, in connection with the development of blackface minstrelsy as well as African-American music and African-American dance performances.
Spring Street is a street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, which runs west–east through the neighborhoods of Hudson Square, SoHo, and Nolita. It runs parallel to and between Dominick, Broome, and Kenmare Streets, and Vandam and Prince Streets. Address numbers ascend as Spring Street travels westward from the Bowery to West Street along the Hudson River.
Mary Simpson was an African-American woman who claimed to be a former slave of George Washington. She is credited with originating the tradition of celebrating Washington's birthday in New York City.
Lord of Scoundrels is a Regency romance novel by American author Loretta Chase. Published in 1995 by Avon Books, it is the third installment of her Débauchés series. Set in 1828, the story follows the Marquess of Dain, an aristocrat known as "Lord Beelzebub" and the "Lord of Scoundrels" for his unscrupulous, immoral behavior. The son of an English father and Italian mother, Dain is hardened due to a difficult childhood and meets his match in Jessica Trent, a 27-year-old bluestocking more than capable of trading wits with him.