CP 2 - Reconstruction

Challenges: The Know-Nothings and Immigration during the Antebellum Period German and Irish immigrants left their homes for a variety of reasons, ranging from famine to political repression. However, some native-born Americans resented these new arrivals. In 1849, some organized into an anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant political group famously called the “Know-Nothings,” which derived its name from the secrecy of its members. Know-Nothings believed that native-born Americans were superior to the newly arrived immigrant groups on the basis that Irish and German immigrants tended to be poorer and Catholic, which Know-Nothings took as traits of cultural and economic backwardness. The Irish, in particular, became economic scapegoats during periods of economic uncertainty, a pattern that would repeat itself during subsequent waves of immigration. Resentment toward the Irish began to abate after the Civil War when Irish American communities became more established.

Why can we infer that German and Irish immigrants came to the United States in the Antebellum period?

What did the Know-Nothings believe about newly arrived immigrants and how did they support this?

According to the text, when did the resentment toward the Irish immigrants begin to decrease, and what contributed to this change?