This is a White Man's Government
Description
Josh Brown of the American Social History Project examines a cartoon by Thomas Nast that lampoons the Democratic Party right after the Civil War.
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Irish Immigrants Depend on the Catholic Church
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This iCue Mini-Documentary describes the results of the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s: one million people died, and another 1.5 million emigrated, mostly to the United States. These immigrants became reliant on the Catholic Church.
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Nativism
Description
This iCue Mini-Documentary introduces the nativism of the 1840s and 1850s—the fear that the flood of Irish and German immigration would result in immigrants out-breeding, out-voting, and out-working native-born Americans.
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Democratic Platform Made Easy
Description
The November 6, 1869 issue of Harper's Weekly included this double-page cartoon that mocks the platform of the New York Democratic Party, including its opposition to the 15th Amendment. Josh Brown of the American Social History Project examines the details.
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The Drunkard's Progress
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Anti-alcoholism cartoons like this one, which depicts the nine steps of the "drunkard's progress," were widespread in the 19th century. Josh Brown of the American Social History Project explains why.
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The Lowell Girls
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This iCue Mini-Documentary presents the textile industry in Lowell, MA, as representative of the transition of American girls from the farms to the factories.
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Immigration and the Rise of Nativism
Description
This iCue Mini-Documentary describes "Nativism," or the resentment of foreigners, which revived in the late 19th century as greater numbers of new immigrant groups arrived in America.
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German Immigration
Description
This iCue Mini-Documentary describes the wave of thousands of German immigrants that arrived in America between 1820 and 1860. These immigrants contributed to many early reform movements, and made cultural contributions as well.
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Tangled Roots
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Annotation
These more than 200 documents explore cultural connections between the experiences of African Americans and Irish immigrants in America. Materials relate to individual leaders, historical events, economic, political, and social factors, and cultural achievements. A section entitled "Making Connections" offers 15 questions about historical events and people that represent the intertwined histories of Africans and Irish in America.
Other topics include the end of English participation in the slave trade, the emergence of the nativist Know-Nothing Party in the 1850s, and Ku Klux Klan activities against Catholics and blacks after the Civil War. A section on "Acceptance" explores perceptions of individual and group identities and four timelines focus on displacement, oppression, discrimination, and acceptance in America. "Voices" provides a sample of 13 public statements and interviews on ethnicity and race from ordinary modern Americans. The site also provides a bibliography; an essay by writer James McGowan, a black American with an Irish paternal grandfather; and links to related websites.