Includes bibliographical references (p. 287-310) and index.
Summary
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.
C. Peter Ripley, editor ; co-editors, Roy E. Finkenbine, Michael F. Hembree, Donald Yacovone.
ISBN
0807820725 (cloth : alk. paper)
0807844047 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Place of Publication
Chapel Hill
Publisher
University of North Carolina Press,
Date of Publication
c1993.
Physical Description
xxiv, 306 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Notes
Chapter 37 is titled: William Whipper's letters.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [279]-289) and index.
Contents
The rise of black abolitionism : the colonization controversy; the growth of black abolitionism; the rise of immediatism; moral reform; prejudice; two abolitionisms -- African Americans and the antislavery movement : blacks as advocates; slave narratives; black women abolitionists; antislavery and the black community; problems in the movement -- Black independence : a new direction; the African American press; in the common defense; antislavery politics; black antislavery tactics; by all just and necessary means -- Black abolitionists and the national crisis : the slave power; the fugitive slave law; black emigration; black nationality; blacks and John Brown -- Civil war : debating the war; the emancipation proclamation; blacks and Lincoln; the black military experience; the movement goes south; reconstruction.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [1181]-1201) and index.
Summary
"The political home of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Horace Greeley, and the young Abraham Lincoln, the American Whig Party was represented at every level of American politics - local, state, and federal - in the years before the Civil War, and controlled the White House for eight of the twenty-two years that it existed. Now, in The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party, Michael Holt gives us the only comprehensive history of the Whigs ever written - a monumental history covering in rich detail the American political landscape from the Age of Jackson to impending disunion."--BOOK JACKET.
University of South Carolina Press, published in cooperation with the Institute for Southern Studies and the South Caroliniana Society of the University of South Carolina,
Date of Publication
c1992.
Physical Description
xxvi, 398 p. : map ; 23 cm.
Series
Southern classics series
Notes
Includes bibliographical references (p. 375-388) and index.
The Merrill Jensen lectures in constitutional studies
Notes
Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-206) and index.
Summary
"The most profound crisis of conscience for white Americans at the end of the eighteenth century became their most tragic failure. Race and Revolution is a trenchant study of the revolutionary generation's early efforts to right the apparent contradiction of slavery and of their ultimate compromises that not only left the institution intact but provided it with the protection of a vastly strengthened government after 1788. Reversing the conventional view that blames slavery on the South's social and economic structures, Nash stresses the role of the northern states in the failure to abolish slavery. It was northern racism and hypocrisy as much as southern intransigence that buttressed "the peculiar institution." Nash also shows how economic and cultural factors intertwined to result not in an apparently judicious decision of the new American nation but rather its most significant lost opportunity. Race and Revolution describes the free black community's response to this failure of the revolution's promise, its vigorous and articulate pleas for justice, and the community's successes in building its own African-American institutions within the hostile environment of early nineteenth-century America. Included with the text of Race and Revolution are nineteen rare and crucial documents-letters, pamphlets, sermons, and speeches-which provide evidence for Nash's controversial and persuasive claims. From the words of Anthony Benezet and Luther Martin to those of Absalom Jones and Caesar Sarter, readers may judge the historical record for themselves. 'In reality,' argues Nash, 'the American Revolution represents the largest slave uprising in our history.' Race and Revolution is the compelling story of that failed quest for the promise of freedom." [from the publisher]
C. Peter Ripley, editor ; Jeffrey S. Rossbach, associate editor ... [et al.].
ISBN
0807816256 (v. 1)
Place of Publication
Chapel Hill
Publisher
University of North Carolina Press,
Date of Publication
c1985-c1992.
Physical Description
5 v. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Notes
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Contents
v. 1. The British Isles, 1830-1865 -- v. 2. Canada, 1830-1865 -- v. 3. The United States, 1830-1846 -- v. 4. The United States, 1847-1858. -- v. 5. The United States, 1859-1865.