Survival in New York's brutal FIVE POINTS Slum (The Bend on Mulberry Street)

Thanks for watching! If you enjoyed this and want to support the channel you can do this by using the SUPER THANKS button above! ▶ Unimaginable Filth in 1800s New York's Dirtiest Slum (Rag Pickers and Garbage Dumps): https://youtu.be/LSzlmCGuIPg ▶ A Horrific Night in a Filthy 1800s New York Flophouse: https://youtu.be/FNV1vG365Z0 ▶ Battle for New York's Slums: https://youtu.be/K9zcgfC9aTk ▶ Hell Holes of the Five Points Slum: https://youtu.be/D0pm7EIfMBE ▶ New York Tenement Slums: https://youtu.be/6po3A6-Sigo ▶ New York's Brutal Back Alley Slums: https://youtu.be/mbex5DEGZps ▶ Dangerous Gangs of New York Slums: https://youtu.be/iFMVmBhqOTQ ▶ The White Death (Slum Life): https://youtu.be/sixY7BP8UsY ▶ Slumming it in the Tenements: https://youtu.be/z0EmnXaoulA ▶ Evil Slums of Indiana: https://youtu.be/7ptYLnbmOgo

The Five Points was a stepping stone to better lives in other parts of America. The first arrivals had it the worst, their kids and grandkids were better off. My grandfather was one of 12 children, all of whom were sent to work in factories from the age of 7, not to mention the work of his father. The factory paid them, provided one meal per day, and had classes which taught the kids to read, write, and do basic math. The combined labor of the entire family allowed them to buy a farm in Pennsylvania, and their farm prospered. It still exists today. My grandfather, one of the youngest, hated farm life, and ran away from home at 14 to enlist in the US Army as a Cavalryman (almost half of the old Cavalry was Irish). The Army knew he wasn't old enough, but couldn't prove it, so they put him through hell to scare him off, but he toughed it out, becoming a horse soldier at the ripe age of 15. The people of those days were a made of sterner stuff than today.

I love how YouTube has more interesting stuff than I can find on the actual history channel

I live in the lower east side and I'm 1 of probably 10 Irish people who still live in the neighborhood. My family came to NYC during the famine and never left.

My Grandparents and mother and her siblings all lived in the Lower East side. My Grandfather had a push cart in the Essex Street market up unto the 1970’s. I am a product of those dirty streets and Mulberry Street is always special to me.

I'm forever fascinated with NYC.

The Mulberry “Bend” still exists. The neighborhood is now part of Chinatown. The tenement buildings on the east side of Mulberry Bend are still there and the west side of the street is now Columbus Park. The park extends south to Worth Street, encompassing the former Five Points intersection.

It's so tragic that these poor people came to America for a better life and landed up living in the same conditions they left or worse...

My Grandfather and uncle used to live in Manhattan in the 1920s. They still had tents in Central Park.

Just discovered you. Wow. What an absolute treat. Fantastic narration ,so poetic and descriptive . The old photos are still so clear after over 100 years and portray the plight of these people so poignantly. So glad I found you.

How bad were conditions in other countries, when someone says 'pack ur bags kids, we're moving to blood alley!'

Brilliant indeed, what a terrible hard life those poor people went through....

I was born and raised on the Lower East side of NY. My family lived there in the 40s We lived there until 1977. It was then and still is A rough neighborhood. In order to survive you HAD to be a good fighter or else!!! I grew up with a group of guys who were the Bowery boys. We all did things we won’t do now however, back then we did what we had to do.

I'm grateful that my Victorian era Irish and Scottish ancestors went West to farm. The were hungry, but they made a good life. The Potato Famine was a senseless and unnecessary event, cause by selfish greed. The Italians were initially "stuck" in the cities, but like smart immigrants do, they pooled together into ethnic neighborhoods or rural "Trachts" and helped each other: Germans did it, Irish, Japanese, Arab, until they became "accepted" into mainstream culture or whatever.

Sounds the same as parts of Victorin London or Glasgow

Bless the souls of the poor who once lived in the slums of NYC—most were decent people who, wanting to provide for their families, took their courage in hand—and their life savings—and immigrated across the ocean to a totally alien world…. Driven by The Great Irish Potato Famine, the nonstop German wars & uprisings for unity, and by a host of other upheavals, most didn’t speak the language, and took any job(s) they could find—while living in the only places they could afford (and as The Gilded Age swanned along, they died by the thousands — from all of the diseases associated with poverty, squalor & hopelessness: Cholera, Yellow Fever & Tuberculosis)…..Have mercy upon them.

My 3rd great grandfather John Mulrooney stayed at 74 1/2 Mulberry St. when he arrived from Ireland. It’s now part of Chinatown.

Now one of the better neighborhoods in NYC. Slept overnight in my father's shop on Baxter Street in the 1960's. Couldn't get any sleep as a drunk Italian neighbor practiced his opera singing no doubt fantasizing, he was Caruso. One of the reasons the subway system was built was to reduce the congestion in lower Manhattan.

I like the narrative style of all these readings, but something struck me especially about the words "pristine nastiness". In context, it really illustrates the feeling, I think.

I so look forward to your new posts, your stories and your narrative style are always so enjoyable. Thank you for all you put into your channel. Much respect from Maine, US.