Title

Subtitle

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Know Nothing Broadside

Tags:

1850s America,

19th Century Politics,

Antebellum Politics,

Anti-Slavery Movement,

archival documents,

German immigration history,

historical broadsides,

Irish immigration history,

Know Nothing Broadside,

Know Nothing Party,

Massachusetts history,

nativism in America,

photo of the week,

political ephemera,

political posters,

Primary Sources,

public history,

The American Party,

US History,

US immigration history,

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The Broadside mocks party members who, when asked about their political beliefs, are trained to respond “I know nothing.” The roots of the party trace to the 1855 founding of The American Party opposing the sudden jump in Irish and German Catholic immigrants around 1848. The Know Nothings become a dominant political force especially in and around Massachusetts in 1856 before their anti-slavery members drop out and the party folds in 1860.

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