Debates over slavery touched every aspect of American life during the decades leading up to the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865). As was the case with Americans in general, immigrants could be found on all sides of the issue. Some immigrants became active abolitionists, but ethnic, political, and economic issues often kept recent immigrants from playing a major role in the efforts to end slavery. Abolitionism was strongest in the Whig Party, and later in the Republican Party. However, because immigrants did not find these parties congenial, only a small number of recent immigrants played a significant role in the antislavery movement.
Between 1800 and 1860, nearly five million immigrants came to the United States, mostly from Ireland, Germany, and Scandinavia. Most of these immigrants settled in northern states, and those who went to the South tended to settle in cities, where they became laborers, artisans, or small businessmen. Few recent immigrants had the money to become slave owners, but some immigrants did own slaves. There were also others who defended slavery although they were not directly involved with it, and still others who were active in the antislavery movement.
Abolitionism was strongest in the
Often on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder, immigrant laborers–like their native-born counterparts–were generally not supportive of the abolitionist movement. Many feared that freed slaves would compete with them for employment. However, just as relatively few immigrants were actively involved in the abolitionist movement, few were active defenders of slavery or outspoken critics of the abolitionist movement. Nevertheless, there were exceptions. For example,
The German immigrant
Economic concerns led some immigrants to fear competition for jobs from freed slaves, but other immigrants came to believe that they shared common class interests with the slaves. Immigrants who had risen above the lowest levels of the working-class poor did not feel they were in competition with free blacks for employment and were often more sympathetic toward the condition of the slaves. Many
After the failure of
In general, immigrants were not unlike native-born Americans in the antebellum era in their attitudes toward the abolition of slavery. They were found on every side of the debate, and they based their positions on economic interests, philosophical or theological principles, or general humanitarian ideals.
Berlin, Ira, and Herbert G. Gutman. “Natives and Immigrants, Free Men and Slaves: Urban Workingmen in the Antebellum American South.” American Historical Review 88, no. 5 (December, 1985): 1175-1200. Excellent study by a major scholar of American slavery and a leading labor historian. Foner, Eric. Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1970. Classic work on the rise of the Republican Party and its connection to antecedents such as the Free Soilers and the Know-Nothing Party. Especially helpful in showing why immigrants did not feel at home in this new party during the 1850’s. Morrison, Michael A., and James Brewer Stewart, eds. Race and the Early Republic: Racial Consciousness and Nation-Building in the Early Republic. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. Collection of essays that are helpful for understanding attitudes toward race among abolitionists, the general American public, and European immigrants. Osofsky, Gilbert. “Abolitionists, Irish Immigrants, and the Dilemmas of Romantic Nationalism.” American Historical Review 80, no. 4 (October, 1975): 889-912. Excellent study that shows how the abolitionist movement hoped to attract the support of Irish immigrants and why this attempt was largely a failure. Roediger, David R. The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class. London: Verso, 1991. Excellent study of the attitudes of working-class Americans toward race. Wittke, Carl. The Irish in America. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1956. Standard study on Irish immigration; gives some examples of prominent Irish immigrants on both sides of the slavery and sectional debates.
African Americans and immigrants
American Colonization Society
History of immigration, 1783-1891
Irish immigrants
Know-Nothing Party
Liberia
Nativism
Political parties
Slave trade