Boston was a huge seaport, and an eventual melting pot. Irish immigration began in the 1700s. There was a lot of friction between the English and Irish Americans, which continued into the 1900s. This friction had actually erupted into the huge Broad Street Riot of 1837. The following is quoted from the 1838 Boston Almanac: On June 11 1837, a Great Riot [occurred] in Broad Street. It commenced between an engine company returning from a fire, and an Irish funeral procession. It has not been satisfactorily ascertained which party were the aggressors. The tumult increased to such a degree, that nearly a thousand persons, at one time, were supposed to be engaged in a brawl, the most desperate that ever occurred in this city. Several houses were broken into, furniture shattered inside, and cast into the street. Beds were ripped open and their contents given to the winds. Sticks, stones, bricks, and all manner of missiles, were discharged by the combatants at each other, with the utmost ferocity and yet, strange to tell, no one was killed in the affray. The military was called out, and in a strong body marched to the scene of action, and in a short time the rioters were dispensed or captured.