# Histroy question about Gangs of New York trailer
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/histroy-question-about-gangs-of-new-york-trailer/104195
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 17, 2002, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/histroy-question-about-gangs-of-new-york-trailer/104195 "2002-04-17T18:58:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@BZ00000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BZ00000)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2002, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/histroy-question-about-gangs-of-new-york-trailer/104195/1 "2002-04-17T18:58:47Z")
A friend at work showed a trailer from the movie Gangs of New York. The trailer showed famous events/people from history of the US. However, one of them confused me. What is the reference to for 1879? The picture with the year shows people getting on a boat. What is going on here? The link to the site is [www.gangsofnewyork.com](http://www.gangsofnewyork.com) click on “Time” to view the trailer.
Maybe the date is off. I believe the picture for 1916 is WWI, but we didn’t declare war until 1917.
Any thoughts
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### Author:  [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2002, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/histroy-question-about-gangs-of-new-york-trailer/104195/2 "2002-04-17T19:36:23Z")
Maybe it’s meant to imply the waves of mass immigration that took place during the 1880’s to the end of the 19th century? (I don’t know what this movie is about or why these photos are being shown, though.)
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### Author:  [@diku](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diku)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2002, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/histroy-question-about-gangs-of-new-york-trailer/104195/3 "2002-04-17T20:28:54Z")
The book this is based off of starts in the 1800’s, and goes to the 20’s.
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### Author:  [@pinkflowerdog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkflowerdog)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2002, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/histroy-question-about-gangs-of-new-york-trailer/104195/4 "2002-04-17T22:54:27Z")
A lot of Irish were arriving in New York City at that time–also, the Draft Riots against the Civil War took place in 1863, which the movie also depicts.
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### Author:  [@Amok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amok)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2002, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/histroy-question-about-gangs-of-new-york-trailer/104195/5 "2002-04-17T23:48:04Z")
Well, since my understanding is that this movie is about Irish immigrants in New York, and you say the picture for 1879 shows people getting on a boat, my guess is that is a reference to a famine in Ireland. While not as bad as the famous Potato Famine of the 1840s, 1879 was the year of the biggest famine in Ireland of the second half of the 19th century. As such, it would have been a time when many people emmigrated from the country. From this [site](http://www.rootsweb.com/~fianna/irish/irhist.html)
> [@](#):
>
> The Famine (An Gorta Mor- Great Hunger) was from 1845-1852. The worst of the Famine was over by 1852 but many areas still suffered much. 1847 was the one single worst Famine year and was called Black '47. Even though the pototo blight was over by 1852 it took a long time to recover from what the Irish had suffered from 45-52. Another Famine hit in 1879. Ireland had many Famine years, but none as bad as between 1845-1852 for a variety of reasons. The Famine was devastating to Ireland and it was not easy to recover in many areas of the country, thus the continued large migration from Ireland.
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### Author:  [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2002, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/histroy-question-about-gangs-of-new-york-trailer/104195/6 "2002-04-18T01:22:39Z")
I don’t think they were careful with the dates and photos. The Wright brothers first flew in '03, not '09. If I had to guess I’d say the photo is of soldiers departing for war in Cuba in '98. Can’t see the uniforms well but look correct and the bedrolls are a giveaway it’s not immagrants boarding for America.