No Foreign Despots on Southern Soil: The Know-Nothing Party in Alabama, 1850-1857

AbstractThe 19th century was a time of rapid population growth in the United States, and much of it was due to immigration from Europe. In the 1840s and 1850s, the largest proportion of immigrants came from Ireland and Germany, and most were Catholic. The Germans spread across small communities as far west as Wisconsin and Texas, but the Irish concentrated in the larger cities on the eastern seaboard, especially Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Local third- and fourth-generation Protestant immigrants from England resented the new arrivals and organized “Nativist” associations. Among these was the anti-Catholic American Party, better known as the Know Nothing Party, which enjoyed spectacular success in Massachusetts and other states during 1854–1855. But, by 1862, the party was dead. This article examines how moral panic theory, the theory of persistent cultural patterns and cycles, and revitalization theory may offer insights into the Know Nothing Party. Each of these theories explains both the emergence of the party and its rapid demise, and suggest that each can make a contribution to understanding anti-Catholicism in nineteenth-century America, and the Know Nothing Party in particular.

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Ambivalent Americans: The Know-Nothing Party in Maryland.

The Journal of Southern History ◽

10.2307/2208334 ◽

1978 ◽

Vol 44 (2) ◽

pp. 311

Author(s):

W. Wayne Smith ◽

Jean H. Baker

Keyword(s):

Know Nothing Party

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The rhetoric of the know‐nothing party: Nativism as a response to the rhetorical situation

Southern Communication Journal ◽

10.1080/10417948909372768 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 54 (4) ◽

pp. 364-383 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

A. Cheree Carlson

Keyword(s):

Rhetorical Situation ◽

Know Nothing Party

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Deshler and the Know Nothing Party

The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries ◽

10.14713/jrul.v4i1.1177 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Paul Halerberg

Keyword(s):

Know Nothing Party

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Resurgence of Nativism: 1850–55

The Know Nothings in Louisiana ◽

10.14325/mississippi/9781496816849.003.0003 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 29-46

Author(s):

Marius M. Carriere

Keyword(s):

Native American ◽

New Orleans ◽

The State ◽

State Party ◽

Whig Party ◽

National Organization ◽

Know Nothing Party ◽

American Party

This chapter begins with how the Compromise of 1850, temporarily, calmed ethnic, anti-foreign prejudice, and sectional tension in Louisiana. Yet, nativism remained close to the surface. Nativism returned as the National Whig party fell apart and foreign immigration increased. The chapter discusses a new native-American party rising to replace the old Whig party, the American or Know Nothing party. The chapter covers how many Whigs found a new political home in this party. Violence characterized the elections in the state, particularly, in New Orleans. However the chapter notes how the large number of Catholics in the state, who often became members of the Know Nothings, put the state party at odds with the national organization.

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