In August 1832, rumors started spreading that sinister things were happening behind the walls of the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown, Massachusetts. The Catholic school had become popular with affluent Boston Protestants and Unitarians, but word had spread that a “mystery” woman was being held there against her will. On the morning of August 10, posters appeared around Charlestown: “To arms!! To arms! Leave not one stone upon another of that curst nunnery that prostitutes female virtue and liberty under the garb of holy religion.”

The next day, a few thousand people gathered around the Convent. Most were working-class, many were drunk, and some were disguised as Indians, as was the fashion among the anti-immigrant nativists of the day. About fifty girls between the ages of six and fourteen huddled inside. Finally, a few hundred men busted through the convent gate, chanting, “Down with the pope! Down with the convent!” The Mother Superior hurried the nuns and the students out the back and over the wall. The men rampaged, destroying Bibles,  the nuns’ belongings, and musical instruments. After taking Eucharist wafers, one rioter laughed, “now I have God’s body in my pocket.” Some descended to the convent’s crypt, opened the coffins of deceased sisters, and grabbed their teeth as souvenirs. Then they burned the convent to the ground while a fire company stood by and watched.