Nativist discrimination against Catholics and free African-Americans before the Civil War

U.S. And Immigrant History

IMMIGRANT and ETHNIC HISTORY

The objective of this work is to:

Describe the reasons advanced to justify discrimination against Catholics and free African-Americans in the United States until the Civil War.

Answer the question of: 'How did Nativists define being American?'

Discuss to what extent the experience of discrimination for Irish Catholics and free African-Americans was comparable before the Civil War, and to what extent not, and the reasons for that.

REASONS ADVANCED to JUSTIFY DISCRIMINIATION

Lyman Beecher warned that danger existed from the flux of immigrants into the country because, the immigrants lacked education and because they were "unacquainted with our institutions." Furthermore, a danger was stated to exist with the immigrants because they were not accustomed to the American form of government, or that or "self-government." Beecher further stated the danger that these immigrants would exert their pressure upon the press and the politics in the nation.

Samuel F.B. Morse stated his cause against the Roman Catholic immigrants by stating that: "Popery is opposed in its very nature to Democratic Republicanism; and it is therefore a political system as well as religious, opposed to civil and religious liberty" therefore being opposed to the very form of the American government. Morse blamed the occurrence of "riotous conduct" that had culminated among the Roman Catholics when "exciting topics" had been discussed public ally to be completely different than the prior peaceful deliberations of Americans and finally that the Roman Catholics did not know the American laws. Morse further stated that the Roman Catholic immigrants had both influenced elections and organized political forces in the country.

Thomas Whitney justified the discrimination of the Roman Catholic as well stating that Romanism is completely opposed to the value of Republicanism through stating that Romanism is an 'absolute government' while the government of American is a 'popular' government demonstrating that these two are extremes which as in "direct opposition' to one another. Furthermore, it was held that these immigrants were by-products of bad governance and that the country of America was ill-equipped to handle.

III. SIMILARITIES BETWEEN DISCRIMINATION

The discrimination of the free African-American and the discrimination against the Roman Catholic were similar in that the African-American people were discriminated against in America due to the religious beliefs, languages and cultural practices that they brought with them from Africa just as the Roman Catholic immigrants discriminated against for this reason however, the difference lies in the fact that the African-American people did not bring with them the organized form of government as represented by the 'Popery' and its' 'absolute' form of government.

African-Americans had been stripped of their culture at the time they entered the United States because those who owned slaves did not allow the different African languages to be spoken or taught on their plantations thereby eliminating the original African groupings the opportunity to reform any type of political or social type parties therefore the political danger believed to be represented by the Roman Catholic individuals did not exist in the form of the African-American immigrants.

U.S. Immigrant and Ethnic History