Nativism and Slavery

Nativism and Slavery PDF Author: Tyler Anbinder
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195072332
Category : Antislavery movements
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
Political protest against immigrants has come to a head several times in American history. The most famous and influential such protest was exemplified by the Know-Nothing Party, founded in 1854 and directed especially against Catholic immigrants. By the end of 1855 the party had elected eight governors, over one hundred Congressmen, and thousands of local officials. Prominent politicians of every persuasion joined the party, which then changed its name to the American Party. It; became a major element in the new Republican Party, which first produced a presidential candidate in 1856. The party and its influence has not attracted much attention from historians, because the events involved in the coming of the Civil War eclipsed interest in a movement that was only; peripherally involved with Civil War issues.; The Know-Nothings had a precipitous decline, starting with the 1856 election, at which their presidential candidate Millard Fillmore carried only one state. The Republican Party soon eclipsed it, too. Tyler Anbinder has written the first comprehensive history of the Know-Nothings, and his book represents a major revision of historiography in the years leading up to the Civil War.

Nativism and Slavery

Nativism and Slavery PDF Author: Tyler Anbinder
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195072332
Category : Antislavery movements
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
Political protest against immigrants has come to a head several times in American history. The most famous and influential such protest was exemplified by the Know-Nothing Party, founded in 1854 and directed especially against Catholic immigrants. By the end of 1855 the party had elected eight governors, over one hundred Congressmen, and thousands of local officials. Prominent politicians of every persuasion joined the party, which then changed its name to the American Party. It; became a major element in the new Republican Party, which first produced a presidential candidate in 1856. The party and its influence has not attracted much attention from historians, because the events involved in the coming of the Civil War eclipsed interest in a movement that was only; peripherally involved with Civil War issues.; The Know-Nothings had a precipitous decline, starting with the 1856 election, at which their presidential candidate Millard Fillmore carried only one state. The Republican Party soon eclipsed it, too. Tyler Anbinder has written the first comprehensive history of the Know-Nothings, and his book represents a major revision of historiography in the years leading up to the Civil War.

Nativism and Slavery

Nativism and Slavery PDF Author: Tyler Anbinder
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195089227
Category : Antislavery movements
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
Although the United States has always portrayed itself as a sanctuary for the world's victim's of poverty and oppression, anti-immigrant movements have enjoyed remarkable success throughout American history. None attained greater prominence than the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, a fraternal order referred to most commonly as the Know Nothing party. Vowing to reduce the political influence of immigrants and Catholics, the Know Nothings burst onto the American political scene in 1854, and by the end of the following year they had elected eight governors, more than one hundred congressmen, and thousands of other local officials including the mayors of Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Chicago. After their initial successes, the Know Nothings attempted to increase their appeal by converting their network of lodges into a conventional political organization, which they christened the "American Party." Recently, historians have pointed to the Know Nothings' success as evidence that ethnic and religious issues mattered more to nineteenth-century voters than better-known national issues such as slavery. In this important book, however, Anbinder argues that the Know Nothings' phenomenal success was inextricably linked to the firm stance their northern members took against the extension of slavery. Most Know Nothings, he asserts, saw slavery and Catholicism as interconnected evils that should be fought in tandem. Although the Know Nothings certainly were bigots, their party provided an early outlet for the anti-slavery sentiment that eventually led to the Civil War. Anbinder's study presents the first comprehensive history of America's most successful anti-immigrant movement, as well as a major reinterpretation of the political crisis that led to the Civil War.

Temperance, Slavery, and Nativism

Temperance, Slavery, and Nativism PDF Author: Erik Benjamin Alexander
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Antislavery movements
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Chivalry, Slavery, and Young America

Chivalry, Slavery, and Young America PDF Author: John Burke
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Aliens
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Nativism, Anti-slavery, and the 1855 Desegregation of the Boston Public Schools

Nativism, Anti-slavery, and the 1855 Desegregation of the Boston Public Schools PDF Author: Sujit M. Raman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Massachusetts
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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The Know Nothing Party

The Know Nothing Party PDF Author: Charles River Editors
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 84

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*Includes pictures *Includes a bibliography for further reading "Immigration during the first five years of the 1850s reached a level five times greater than a decade earlier. Most of the new arrivals were poor Catholic peasants or laborers from Ireland and Germany who crowded into the tenements of large cities. Crime and welfare costs soared. Cincinnati's crime rate, for example, tripled between 1846 and 1853 and its murder rate increased sevenfold. Boston's expenditures for poor relief rose threefold during the same period." - James McPherson It is not uncommon that a failed movement or group from the past might be cited as a "cautionary" example for the world today. In the wake of contemporary debates over immigration, the "Know Nothings" have been regularly cited as an example of how dangerous nativist attitudes can become and, indeed, have proven to be in America's history. Several columnists, for instance, have striven to make comparisons between the Know Nothings of antebellum America and President Donald Trump's immigration policies, helping in part to generate modern interest in a political party that many Americans have heard of but tend to know little about. The Know Nothing movement can actually be tied to a number of violent episodes and ethnically-charged riots that occurred during the last 1850s. The debate over immigration in the 1850s was more than a clash of worldviews - it touched upon the core of America's values. While nativists, like the Know Nothings, believed that immigrants who embraced politics from their native lands represented a threat to America's values, those who opposed them argued that it was precisely America's values that made immigration a necessity and a valuable component of American life. As the Republicans and Know Nothings spread from the ashes of the Whig Party, the Republicans, led by President Lincoln, rejected nativism and embraced a kind of American exceptionalism. Lincoln did not believe that America was "better" or even more "moral" than other nations, but his brand of exceptionalism advanced the view that America represented a great experiment, one that proposed that a society based on the ideals of the Declaration of Independence (i.e. life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness). Should it fail, Lincoln believed it would shatter the hopes of the rest of the world as people sought to overcome despotic and tyrannical forms of rule. Thus, to the Republicans, when it came to the issue of immigration, America's economy and democracy itself were at stake. At the same time, there was quite a bit more to the background of this short-lived, but widely impactful "third party" than xenophobia and religious intolerance. In places like Boston, where the Know Nothings took over nearly all of the city's elected offices, including capturing the state's governorship in 1854, the Know Nothings were largely viewed as a progressive party. While the North's Know Nothings supported the party's national anti-immigrant positions, it also embraced an anti-slavery policy, supported an expansion of the rights of women, believed that industries should be more heavily regulated, and supported a variety of measures intended to support the labor class. Accordingly, in order to understand the Know Nothing party's nativism, it requires more nuance than simply condemning them as xenophobes. It is typical in the contemporary media and in political commentary to cite a caricature of the Know Nothings as an example of "hate" and a dark xenophobic history, but the movement grew out of the controversial political landscape of the mid-19th century, and the party achieved prominence and power across wide sections of the North (albeit for a relatively short period of time). This book examines the party's platform from the perspective of their own political climate, the complex events at the time, and the impact the Know Nothings had.

Nat Turner and the Rising in Southampton County

Nat Turner and the Rising in Southampton County PDF Author: David F. Allmendinger
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421414791
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
In August 1831, in Southampton County, Virginia, Nat Turner led a bloody uprising that took the lives of some fifty-five white people—men, women, and children—shocking the South. Nearly as many black people, all told, perished in the rebellion and its aftermath. Nat Turner and the Rising in Southampton County presents important new evidence about the violence and the community in which it took place, shedding light on the insurgents and victims and reinterpreting the most important account of that event, The Confessions of Nat Turner. Drawing upon largely untapped sources, David F. Allmendinger Jr. reconstructs the lives of key individuals who were drawn into the uprising and shows how the history of certain white families and their slaves—reaching back into the eighteenth century—shaped the course of the rebellion. Never before has anyone so patiently examined the extensive private and public sources relating to Southampton as does Allmendinger in this remarkable work. He argues that the plan of rebellion originated in the mind of a single individual, Nat Turner, who concluded between 1822 and 1826 that his own masters intended to continue holding slaves into the next generation. Turner specifically chose to attack households to which he and his followers had connections. The book also offers a close analysis of his Confessions and the influence of Thomas R. Gray, who wrote down the original text in November 1831. Allmendinger draws new conclusions about Turner and Gray, their different motives, the authenticity of the confession, and the introduction of terror as a tactic, both in the rebellion and in its most revealing document. Students of slavery, the Old South, and African American history will find in Nat Turner and the Rising in Southampton County an outstanding example of painstaking research and imaginative family and community history. "The exhaustive research Allmendinger presents greatly enriches our historical understanding of the Southampton Rebellion through the eyes of its key victims. Nat Turner and the Rising in Southampton County reveals important dimensions of the rebellion's local history and contextualizes the event, as Nat Turner did, within the context of slavery in Southampton County."—Reviews in History "Allmendinger’s great achievement is that he made full use of ‘new’ primary sources related to the uprising of 1831—new sources hitherto hidden in plain sight. Most importantly, he understood the significance of this material and knew exactly how to mine it for valuable new insights into virtually every aspect of Nat Turner’s rebellion."—Reviews in American History "No one has done more to corroborate and sync the details, nor to illuminate Turner’s inspirations and goals. Nat Turner and the Rising in Southampton County is a model of historical methodology, and goes further than any other previous work in helping readers understand Turner’s motives and meaning."—African American Intellectual History Society "We are all in David Allmendinger's debt for the labor of research that has given The Rising in Southampton County its absent material context."—Law and History Review "Though the subject of countless histories, novels, videos, and websites, Nat Turner, the leader of the largest slave insurrection in U.S. history, remains an enigma; yet, in this new and challenging study, the life and times of the legendary revolutionary come into much better focus. A must-read for historians of slave resistance and all others interested in the history of antebellum Virginia and in particular Southampton County."—Register of the Kentucky Historical Society "Allmendinger approaches a well-trodden historical event from a distinctive perspective. [He] provides the most complete historical context surrounding the rebellion. Ultimately, Allmendinger succeeds in providing a more complete understanding of the community of Southampton, Virginia, and offers a better explanation for the motivations that led Turner and his followers down such a bloody path in 1831."—Choice David F. Allmendinger Jr. is professor emeritus of history at the University of Delaware. He is the author of Paupers and Scholars: The Transformation of Student Life in Nineteenth-Century New England and Ruffin: Family and Reform in the Old South.

Nativism and its expression in Lyman Beechers "A Plea for the West"

Nativism and its expression in Lyman Beechers Author: Elena Kramer
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640395840
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 17

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 3,0, University of Kassel, language: English, abstract: In this paper, I will analyze Lyman Beecher’s A Plea for the West with regard to his attitude towards immigration. In particular, I want to examine in how far the author supports the idea of nativism. On this account I will start by giving a definition of nativism and pointing out its different motivations; chapter 2.2 then shows the development of the concept as well as its political expression from the very beginning of the United States until now. Chapter three contains some background information, both about the author and the time he lived in, which I consider necessary for a deeper understanding of the primary source. The main part of my work, the analysis of A Plea for the West will follow in chapter four: At the beginning, I will describe what great potential the author sees in the American West and what problems he sees it faced with. Then, I will continue by investigating what attitude towards immigration in general and, in particular, towards Catholic immigration the author expresses in his work. What makes him support nativism, and which of its complex ideas does he support at all? Finally, I will point out what solution Lyman Beecher proposes for the problem of immigration in the American society with regard to the understanding of democracy he promotes in his work.

Inventing America's First Immigration Crisis

Inventing America's First Immigration Crisis PDF Author: Luke Ritter
Publisher: Fordham University Press
ISBN: 0823289877
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Why have Americans expressed concern about immigration at some times but not at others? In pursuit of an answer, this book examines America’s first nativist movement, which responded to the rapid influx of 4.2 million immigrants between 1840 and 1860 and culminated in the dramatic rise of the National American Party. As previous studies have focused on the coasts, historians have not yet completely explained why westerners joined the ranks of the National American, or “Know Nothing,” Party or why the nation’s bloodiest anti-immigrant riots erupted in western cities—namely Chicago, Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis. In focusing on the antebellum West, Inventing America’s First Immigration Crisis illuminates the cultural, economic, and political issues that originally motivated American nativism and explains how it ultimately shaped the political relationship between church and state. In six detailed chapters, Ritter explains how unprecedented immigration from Europe and rapid westward expansion re-ignited fears of Catholicism as a corrosive force. He presents new research on the inner sanctums of the secretive Order of Know-Nothings and provides original data on immigration, crime, and poverty in the urban West. Ritter argues that the country’s first bout of political nativism actually renewed Americans’ commitment to church–state separation. Native-born Americans compelled Catholics and immigrants, who might have otherwise shared an affinity for monarchism, to accept American-style democracy. Catholics and immigrants forced Americans to adopt a more inclusive definition of religious freedom. This study offers valuable insight into the history of nativism in U.S. politics and sheds light on present-day concerns about immigration, particularly the role of anti-Islamic appeals in recent elections.

American Slavery, Irish Freedom

American Slavery, Irish Freedom PDF Author: Angela F. Murphy
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807137448
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
In American Slavery, Irish Freedom, Angela F. Murphy examines the interactions among abolitionists, Irish nationalists, and American citizens as the issues of slavery and abolition complicated the first transatlantic movement for Irish independence. For Irish Americans, the call of Old World loyalties, perceived duties of American citizenship, and regional devotions collided as the slavery issue intertwined with their efforts on behalf of their homeland. By looking at the makeup and rhetoric of the American repeal associations, the pressures on Irish Americans applied by both abolitionists and American nativists, and the domestic and transatlantic political situation that helped to define the repealers' response to antislavery appeals, Murphy investigates and explains why many Irish Americans did not support abolitionism.