My husband and I were engaged in a very interesting discussion about the history of immigration in America. As a recent immigrant from Scotland, this is a very hot and frequent topic around the house.
He could not believe that initial Irish immigrants were treated so poorly and that laws were even enacted to curtail the flood of European immigration at the turn of the last century. In my ego-driven nerd hysteria to not only prove my point but flood the discussion with reputable facts, I discovered an article on the Bible Riots of 1844.
I had surprised even myself. Having spent half of my impressionable childhood growing up in Philadelphia, were these violent and religiously fueled riots took place, I was amazed at my lack of knowledge. History was a gigantic part of public education in the city of brotherly love and my teachers NEVER told us about the Bible riots of 1844. These bloody riots burned down churches and all started over the argument of using the King James version of the bible in public school.
I knew that the history of America has always been a violent one but this really took the cake. Much of the discussion around immigration today still revolves around these same talking points and truthfully the same false idea. The idea that we can own land. Native American people would laugh at the whole thing and call it crazy. How could we, mere humans, say that we can own our mother? We are all guests and bad ones at that fighting over our seat at the table. When truthfully none of us fighting even deserves to sit down. Food for thought, but when it comes to fighting over immigration maybe none of us is right?
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/nativist-riots-of-1844/
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