Pre-Civil War Discrimination

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how, in the years prior to the American Civil War, the general absence in the US of federal regulations and laws pertaining to discrimination against immigrants made it possible for entire groups to be subjected to extreme prejudice and bigotry, both of which were based upon xenophobia. In particular, the paper discuses how, out of all the various ethnic/religious groups which experienced discrimination in America, Roman Catholics and in particular the Irish (most of whom were Catholic) were among the first Europeans to be subjected to prejudice and ill treatment and to face a myriad of problems related to civil and religious rights in pre-Civil War America. It compares the Catholics to the then freed ex-slaves and the prejudices they experienced.

From the Paper:

"Overall, the prejudice and discrimination directed toward the Irish and the Roman Catholic faith had much to do with Irish Catholics, fleeing the horrendous years of the Potato Famine in Ireland in the early 1840's, bringing with them to America "a celibate clergy which struck native-born Americans as extremely strange, thus reawakening old religious hatreds and prejudices" against the Irish. However, in some ways, the Irish when it comes to discrimination were worse off than freed ex-slaves, often referred to as freedman, who "knew their place in white American society" and did not attempt to change the status quo by rioting, protesting or by forming organizations in favor of Irish workers and laborers (Donnelly, 2003, p. 162)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• "African-American Voices: Frederick Douglass." (2008). Digital History. Internet. Retrieved June 24, 2008 from http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/black_voices/voices_display.cfm?id=86.
• Donnelly, Richard A. (2003). Racial and Ethnic Prejudice Before the Civil War. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
• Du Bois, W.E.B. (1992). Black Reconstruction in America. New York: The Free Press.
• Gjerde, Jon. (1998). Major Problems in American Immigration and Ethnic History. New York: Houghton-Mifflin Publishers.

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• Comparison Essay # 21845 : "The Pre Civil War Republicans in Literature"
• Analytical Essay # 53794 : "James McPherson's Book on the Civil War"
• Comparison Essay # 98487 : "Political Race Relations"

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