Accordingly, on Tuesday, the twenty-ninth of August, there broke out on the corner of Sixth and Broadway a quarrel in which two or three persons were wounded.  On the following night the fracas was renewed.  A group of ruffians attacked the Dumas Hotel, a colored establishment, on McCallister Street, demanding the surrender of a Negro, who, they believed, was concealed there.  As the Negroes of the neighborhood came to the assistance of their friends in the hotel the mob had to withdraw.  On Thursday night there took place another clash between a group of young men and boys and a few Negroes who seriously wounded one or two of the former.  On Friday evening the mob incited to riotous acts by an influx of white ruffians, seemingly from the steamboats and the Kentucky side of the river, openly assembled in Fifth Street Market without being molested by the police, armed themselves and marched to Broadway and Sixth Street, shouting and swearing.  They attacked a colored confectionery store near by, demolishing its doors and windows.  James W. Piatt, an influential citizen, and the mayor then addressed the disorderly persons, vainly exhorting them to peace and obedience to the law.  Moved by passionate entreaties to execute their poorly prepared plan, the assailants advanced and attacked the Negroes with stones.  The blacks, however, had not been idle.  They had secured sufficient guns and ammunition to fire into the mob such a volley that it had to fall back.  The aggressors rallied again, however, only to be in like manner repulsed.  Men were wounded on both sides and carried off and reported dead.  The Negroes advanced courageously, and according to a reporter, fired down the street into the mass of ruffians, causing a hasty retreat.  This melee continued until about one o’clock when a part of the mob secured an iron six pounder, hauled it to the place of combat against the exhortations of the powerless mayor, and fired on the Negroes.  With this unusual advantage the blacks were forced to retreat, many of them going to the hills.  About two o’clock the mayor of the city brought out a portion of the “military” which succeeded in holding the mob at bay.[41]

On the next day the colored people in the district under fire were surrounded by sentinels and put under martial law.  Indignation meetings of law-abiding citizens were held on Saturday to pass resolutions, denouncing abolitionists and mobs and making an appeal to the people and the civil authorities to uphold the law.  The Negroes also held a meeting and respectfully assured the mayor and citizens that they would use every effort to conduct themselves orderly and expressed their readiness to give bond according to the law of 1807 or leave the city quietly within a specified time.  But these steps availed little when the police winked at this violence.  The rioters boldly occupied the streets without arrest and continued their work until Sunday.  The mayor, sheriff and marshal went to the battle ground about