Nativism and the Civil War: The Impact of the Emancipation of Slaves on American Immigration

Abstract

The emancipation of enslaved people after the Civil War dramatically altered the perception of immigrants in the United States. This paper explores legal and social changes that took place in America after the Reconstruction period and analyzes the effect of those changes by comparing the treatment of the Irish in the mid-19th century with that of immigrants who arrived later in the century. It focuses on three main topics: the evolution of immigration laws, the rising popularity of post-war pseudo-scientific theories on race in the late 19th century, and immigrant groups assimilation rates. The study demonstrates how these concepts are interrelated to illustrate the impact of the Civil War on immigration trends. It concentrates on Irish and Italian families since they share many traits: both groups came from poor, rural backgrounds, both took jobs away from Americans and lowered wages, both immigrant groups practiced Catholicism, and both came in waves from Europe. Despite these similarities, Italians, like Asian and Jewish immigrants fleeing their homelands between the 1880s and early 1900s, faced more virulent forms of nativism and more restrictions than Irish newcomers a few decades earlier, in part because of the 14th Amendments definition of birth-based citizenship and post-Reconstruction discrimination that was intended to subordinate newly freed African Americans.