Nativists framed Catholic immigrants as a papal plot to subvert American institutions
Evidence
Secondly, a fresh Catholic challenge to American institutions emerged. The Catholic empires that had seemed to block national aspirations in the eighteenth century had given way; but in their place the nineteenth century brought a flood of Catholic immigrants, Nativists, charged with the Protestant evangelical fervor of the day, considered the immigrants minions of the Roman despot, dispatched here to subvert American institutions. (Indeed, the most excited patriots detected a vast European plot headed by the Pope.) Surely such creatures were unfit for citizenship. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 39
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Anti-Catholic nativism prefigured the pattern of religious othering in America — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 272; Anti-Catholic and anti-radical nativism shared one core assumption of immigrant disloyalty; A quarter of mid-century Americans believed Catholics plotted to take over America — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes…, 309 (+7 more)
Broader Connections
- Anti-Catholic nativism prefigured the pattern of religious othering in America
#expands(0.85) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 272 - A quarter of mid-century Americans believed Catholics plotted to take over America
#corroborates(0.85) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 309 - Protestant nativism reinvigorated where Catholicism clashed with American liberty ideals.
#corroborates(0.85) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 38 - Anti-Catholic and anti-radical nativism shared one core assumption of immigrant disloyalty
#expands(0.80) - Religious justifications for subordination were recycled across successive immigrant groups
#expands(0.80) - Anti-Catholicism became nativist only when Catholics seemed foreign agents.
#corroborates(0.80) - Anti-Catholic and anti-radical nativism shared a cardinal loyalty assumption.
#expands(0.80) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 44 - Anti-Catholic conspiracy claims about takeover plots recur verbatim against American Muslims today
#expands(0.80) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 310 - Anti-Catholic nativists framed parochial schools as threats to national loyalty
#exemplifies(0.75) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 303 - Religious identity historically served as a proxy for race in American immigration debates
#expands(0.75) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 249