1840s: Immigration, Nativism, and Expansion

Immigration and Anti-Immigrant Violence in the 1840s

Immigration Patterns (1841-1880)

  • Significant European immigration to the U.S., with fluctuations across decades.
  • Major sources: Ireland, German states, England.
  • Immigration affected the foreign-born population distribution across U.S. states.

Nativist Backlash

  • Violent anti-immigrant sentiment and actions, particularly against Irish-Americans and Catholics.
  • Examples include the Philadelphia Nativist Riots of 1844, targeting homes and churches, and the Louisville Bloody Monday Election Riots of 1855, led by the anti-Catholic "Know-Nothing" mobs.

Territorial Expansion and Political Instability

  • Rapid territorial expansion in the 1840s heightened political tensions.
  • A key question: What would be the status (free or slave) of these new territories?

Political Landscape

  • Whig Party: Supported federal infrastructure subsidies, congressional authority over the executive, tariffs, a central bank, and foreign trade; had reservations regarding westward expansion.
  • Democratic Party: A coalition of regional interests, demonstrated strength in the North and maintained a vibrant national presence.

The Burned-Over District

  • The Burned-Over District in New York was a hotbed of religious revivals, social reforms, and movements like abolitionism, women's rights, and the Free Soil Party which took 10% of the popular vote in the election of 1848.

Anti-Slavery Movement

  • Key Figures:
    • Frederick Douglass: Advocated for various reforms, including women's rights, temperance, peace, land reform, and public education.
    • Harriet Beecher Stowe: Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), which sold 300,000 copies in its first year and had a significant impact on the slavery debate.
  • Underground Railroad: A network that helped slaves escape to freedom.

Snapshot of the Nation in 1850:

  • Polarization over the disposition of the Unorganized Territory would bedevil Washington D.C. throughout the 1850s, polarize the nation, contribute to the destruction of the Whig Party, divide the Democratic Party, ignite a civil war in Kansas, & set a path toward a sectional civil war.