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In the Heart of Darkness

Blackouts and the Social Geography of Lighting in the Gaslight Era

University of Connecticut

In the gaslight era of the mid-1800s, affluent urban Americans worried that any interruption of artificial lighting might set off crime and rioting among the lower classes. Gas lighting seems to have helped middle- class Americans make sense of their place in the chaotic urbanlandscape. In an era when differences in light- ing were a marker of status, blackouts threatened to level a fragile social hierarchy. When the lights failed, so did confidence in the social order. The shock and even panic that accompanied mid-nineteenth-century blackouts can be seen in the reactions of Philadelphians in 1868, Bostonians in 1872, and New Yorkers in 1848, 1871, and 1873. Unlike in the aftermath of the notorious 1977 New York City Blackout, though, tech- nology itself was not blamed or viewed with suspicion; rather, it was thought to be what stood between civilization and anarchy.

Key Words: blackouts • gas lighting • class relations • New York • Boston • Philadelphia

Journal of Urban History, Vol. 30, No. 5, 749-768 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/0096144204265194


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