Riots In Philadelphia

Philadelphia also known as the ‘City of Brotherly Love’ was a part of the Nativist movement in the United States. There have been immigrants in Philadelphia, but the continuous influx began to change the demographic of city’s population. Tensions began to rise over religion then political motives set in as well. The Philadelphia riots of 1844 took root in considering the immigrants as the Other and finding ways to establish their superiority through suppressing the immigrants power. The 1844 riots in Philadelphia were brought about by a nativist culture shock that established a heightened sense of awareness concerning the American’s self-identity; the influx of immigrants were not trying to perpetuate their status as immigrants instead wanted
The disposition on Christianity in schools was called into question by some Catholics who saw the school district’s stance on the Nativist’s Protestantism and the Immigrant’s Catholicism was fairly one sided. The schools in Philadelphia taught Protestantism through the King James Version of the Bible because of legislation passed by Pennsylvania’s legislator, James Buchannan (Riots in the City 3). Catholics saw this as a way of undermining their religion and some demanded that the children be able to use their Bible of their religious preference or be excused from any religious teachings during the school day (Harry 60). The parents of the nativists and the immigrants have socialized their children in their respective religions so this became contentious in Philadelphia classrooms. The proposed compromise between the Catholicism’s Douai Bible and the King James Version was not executed, but the latter half of the compromise was executed where the Catholic students were allowed to exit during readings of the King James’ Bible (Riots in the City 1). The Nativist saw this as an attempt to accommodate the Catholic children at the expense of what the Nativist considered as a right: to have their children learn their truth faith within the school system. The Irish or German Catholics contested that this removal of their children from spiritual lessons is unfairly catered to serve the protestant children while
The rally in Kensington was held May 3, 1844 (1844: Philadelphia ‘Bible Riots’). The political rally was met with opposition and the Irish Catholics because the party deliberately staged the rally in front of Kensington’s Nanny Goat Market which was a social hub for the community (Mandell). The American Republican Party chose to rally in the Kensington area because it was the origin of the dispute and it was a hotbed where many of the Irish and German immigrants settled. The American Republican party also used their nativist platform in order to join for a common cause which was to rally support before the elections of 1844 (Cohn 370). The Republican rally was driven away by the residents on the same day because the rallies’ premise was anti-immigrant in nature, but the Kensington area’s majority was Irish immigrants (Schrag). As a group, the American Republican Party pushed for restrictions on immigrant’s naturalization and voting process, but what they need was to have representatives of the party in legislative bodies (Riots in the City 2). The American Republican Party’s platform did not subside from the opposition on May 3rd (Pfleger 134). On May 6, 1844 the party returned in the thousands to provoke more conflict within the community. The nativist held another rally that had the same goal as the first: “to