During the Civil War, why were so many violently opposed to the Northern Draft?

Question

How many were killed during the New York City Draft Riots? Was this the only instance of rioting or protesting? Why does it seem that only blacks were murdered in NYC and hunted by the mobs?

Answer 1

Basically working and underclass people did not want to experience hard and dangerous living and be required to kill people. They wanted to get on with their lives in peace, and adopted violence as a tactic to achieve this. Many men were too smart to accept being sent as cannon fodder in a notoriously inefficient army opposed by a then very successful Confederate force.

Answer 2

Here is a quote from the wikipedia link located below.

"The exact death toll is unknown, but according to Cook (1974), at least 100 civilians were killed and at least 300 more injured; property damage was about 1.5 million US dollars.

On August 19, the draft was resumed. It was completed within 10 days without further incident, although far fewer men were actually drafted than had been feared: of the 750,000 selected for conscription nationwide, only 6% actually went into service.[4]"

You may have heard the Civil war called "The rich mans war, the poor man's fight" because the rich could buy deferments and the poor couldn't. However, like the civil war it's self, the exact cause of the riot was complicated. An example was the tension was between free blacks and the Irish Immigrants. Kind of like the Asians and African Americans in the LA riots. Hate and distrust simmered for a while and then burst into flame. There was also a strong political dimension. Republican police and Democratic Irish immigrants who were caught in the draft and very unhappy about it.

As to who was attacked, (again quoting Wikipedia).

"The blacks became a scapegoat and the target of the rioters' anger; those who fell into the mob's hands were often beaten, tortured, and/or killed. Other targets included the office of the leading Republican newspaper, the New York Tribune."

Make sure to go the the "Mr. Lincoln and New York" site, (link provided below). There is a lot of information related to Lincoln and New York. There are several pages with information related to the 1861 riots.

The following link has some more detail related to your question.
http://www.mrlincolnandnewyork.org/inside.asp?ID=92&subjectID=4