Photograph: Street View of Daily Advertiser and Weekly Farmer Newspaper Building

Street View of Daily Advertiser and Weekly Farmer Newspaper Building .The corner of the Bridgeport City Bank sits on the left side of the image. At the exact corner of the building is furniture that has been turned out onto the street, along with other debris. Two African-American individuals stand on the left side of the image. The right side of the image shows the street going down. The building has open windows, and a crowd of individuals, both white and African American, are seen on the street. The tin type is housed in an elaborate metal frame. The attack on the Daily Advertiser and Weekly Farmer newspaper (later called the Bridgeport Evening Farmer) office was part of a larger series of events on 21 August, 1861. There was a strong secessionist movement in Connecticut at the beginning of the Civil War, and on that particular day, supporters of the South's right to secede from the Union held a "peace"rally on the Stepney Green in Monroe, a small town north of Bridgeport. They flew the Confederate flag, called the "peace flag"in contemporary reports by the New York Times, an act that incensed many people who supported the Union cause. In response to the rally, a large group of pro-Union individuals, including volunteers who had returned from fighting for the Union Army, piled into about five omnibuses and other vehicles, and proceeded to Monroe. There, they interrupted the meeting, taking down the flag and running up the stars and stripes instead, and all while the secession supporters stood with guns cocked. The tension grew when P.T. Barnum took the stage to speak in favor of the Union, and a number of the returned Union soldiers got up to protect him since he was now himself being threatened. Barnum then encouraged the speakers who had been engaged for this event to come up and say what they had planned to say as long as there was no treason in their words. None came up. The pro-Union soldiers returned to Bridgeport feeling triumphant, and then proceeded to break into the office of the Daily Advertiser and Weekly Farmer newspaper, whose editor, Nathan S. Morse, was anti-abolitionist and supported peace with the South. The mob destroyed everything they could lay hands on, and dumped cases of type, printing presses, and anything else they could hurl from the building onto the street below. Barnum himself was not involved in the incident, and did not condone the actions of the mob. The full story, containing many references to Barnum, was written up on 28 August, 1861., and includes the Resolutions put forth during a regular Union meeting with Elias Howe, Jr. as Chair, and P. T. Barnum, Secretary. Though he opposed the Farmer editor Morse's views, Barnum used his own money to help repair the damage to the newspaper office. As a former newspaperman (1831-1834), Barnum believed strongly in freedom of the press and the right of citizens to express opposing views, the reason he had begun his own newspaper.