Nativism

1. America’s Economic Revolution Nativism

2. Immigration • Throughout the nineteenth century, land and jobs in America were plentiful • Between 1840 and 1860: • Irish: 2,000,000 • Germans: 1,500,000 • Britons: 750,000 • Many Germans settled in the Midwest, while the rest settled along with the Irish in the Northeast • Irish accounted for about 1/3 of white adults in the Northeast by 1860 • Most immigrants avoided the South because: • They opposed slavery • Feared competition from enslaved workers • Preferred manufacturing jobs

3. Irish Immigrants & Poverty • Many Irish were fleeing famine caused by severe overpopulation • The settled mostly in Northeastern cities, because they could not afford to go anywhere else • They took low-paying jobs and lived in crowded tenements • Living conditions left them especially susceptible to disease • Fueled the rise of the Catholic church in the United States, which led to a rise in suspicion among the mostly Protestant citizens of the United States

4. Nativism • Many Americans believed that Catholic immigrants would obey the dictates of Pope Gregory XVI who had condemned liberty of conscience, freedom of publication, and the separation of church and state • During recessions, unemployed mobs often attacked Catholic immigrants, accusing them of taking jobs • American society was divided along class, ethnic, and religious lines

5. The Know-Nothings • The American Party • Their objective was to extend the period of naturalization in order to undercut immigrant voting strength and to keep aliens in their place • Backed by former Whigs looking for a new party • The Know-Nothings rose to power quickly in New England • The Know-Nothings collapsed when they tried to hold a national convention, and could not come to agreement on slavery

6. Close What were the political responses to immigration in mid-nineteenth-century America? Do you see any parallels in responses to immigration today?