Here in America, with our recent history, we really do not have much of a history of wide-spread violence against a particular religious group. The early days of Mormonism are one instance. However, I believe the most widespread and longest lasting persecution was of Catholicism.
Most American Catholics are aware that the spirit of New England's North American settlements was hostile to Catholicism. But few are aware of the vigor and persistence with which that spirit was cultivated throughout the entire colonial period. Few Catholics realize that in all but three of the 13 original colonies, Catholics were the subject of penal measures of one kind or another during the colonial period. In most cases, the Catholic Church had been proscribed at an early date, as in Virginia where the act of 1642 proscribing Catholics and their priests set the tone for the remainder of the colonial period.
Even in the supposedly tolerant Maryland, the tables had turned against Catholics by the 1700s. By this time the penal code against Catholics included test oaths administered to keep Catholics out of office, legislation that barred Catholics from entering certain professions (such as Law), and measures had been enacted to make them incapable of inheriting or purchasing land. By 1718 the ballot had been denied to Catholics in Maryland, following the example of the other colonies, and parents could even be fined for sending children abroad to be educated as Catholics.
In the decade before the American Revolution, most inhabitants of the English colonies would have agreed with Samuel Adams when he said (in 1768): "I did verily believe, as I do still, that much more is to be dreaded from the growth of popery in America, than from the Stamp Act, or any other acts destructive of civil rights."
These early sentiments continued, and only worsened as large amount of Catholic emigrated from Ireland, Germany, and Italy. This grew into what is known as the Nativist Movement.
Immigration grew sharply in the 1830s-40s with the arrival of many Irish and Germans, who were largely Roman Catholic. Simultaneously, a Protestant revival flourished in a climate of economic change and insecurity. Evangelists demonized Catholics as immoral "Papists" who followed authoritarian leaders, imported crime and disease, and stole native jobs. Protestant workingmen burned the Ursuline Convent near Boston and rioted in several cities. Thirty people were killed and hundreds injured in Philadelphia in 1844. By the mid-1850s, the nativist American Party won six governorships and controlled legislatures in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and California. They enacted numerous laws that penalized immigrants (as well as newly annexed Mexicans), including the first literacy tests for voting, which disfranchised the Irish in particular. Attacking the "un-American" foreigner served as a diversion for those unwilling to acknowledge America's irreconcilable difference of slavery versus abolition, an issue that split nativists. As sectional conflict sharpened, the American Party virtually collapsed by 1860.
The largest group which grew out of Nativism was called the Know-Nothings.
The Know-Nothings wanted to use government power to preserve their vision of a particular kind of Anglo-Saxon Protestant society. Their state and national platforms demanded that immigration be limited, that politics be "purified" by limiting officeholding to native-born Americans, and that a 21-year wait be imposed before an immigrant could become a citizen and vote. They also sought to limit the sale of liquor, to restrict public-school teaching to Protestants, and to have the Protestant version of the Bible read daily in classrooms.Among the acts of violence which were stirred up by anti-Catholic sentiments was the burning of an Ursuline convent. The catalyst for this event, was the circulation of stories which were very similar to the Sister Charlotte story which Candy has posted previously, and which was on her sidebar for several months.
From the actual article in the Boston newspaper:
The subject of universal interest in the city today has been the work of destruction accomplished by a mob, last night and this morning, at and about the Ursuline Convent, on Mount Benedict, in Charlestown—resulting in the complete sacking of the principal building itself—a four-story handsome brick edifice, with wings, and front about eighty feet—together with the farm house, cottage, and every other building upon the premises, and also with the demolition or consumption by fire of all the furniture and chattels of every description, appurtant to the whole.
In 1844, there were a series of riots in Philadelphia which originated over the issue of religion in public schools. Catholics had asked to be able to read their own Bibles during the morning devotional reading, but this was not permitted.
In May, two Catholic churches were burned down, a convent was attacked, and a riot broke out which ended in 14 killed (between both sides) and many more injured.
In July, a riot broke out again. When a church was again attacked, the militia got involved and another 15-20 people were killed, with many more injured.
The incidents in Philadelphia are credited with ultimately creating the Catholic school system in America.
In 1853, Cincinnati saw a similar riot, but one with less tragic results. A mob of 600 men set out to burn the Cathedral to the ground, but after the police fired upon the mob and injured several, the mob disbursed. No one was killed.
In 1854, numerous churches were burned down, blown up, or simply vandalized.
The last year of violence was 1855, which saw the "Bloody Monday Massacre" in Louisville, Ky. You can read several articles from the Louisville paper here:
A remembrance on the 150th anniversary of one of the deadliest anti-immigrant riots in American history, the Bloody Monday Massacre of August 6, 1855 was held in Louisville Kentucky on Saturday, August 6th, 2005. The instigators of the massacre were the Know Nothings, a Nativist political party who were fearful of losing control of the Louisville City Council. They were driven by an anti-immigrant vitriolic press to attack and slaughter as many as 150 German and Irish immigrants who lived in the poorest sections of Louisville.
In the aftermath, more than 10,000 Catholics left Louisville for other cities, having a huge impact on the population of the city. The actual number of dead remains disputed. Most accounts leave it at "at least 22" but a letter written by the Bishop of Louisville says that 100 were killed. The Louisville paper also weighs in on the conflicting accounts:
Bloody Monday has also left a burden for Louisville historians, who continue to wrestle with the sketchy, partisan accounts of it that appeared in the city's newspapers and official records.
"We don't argue about what happened in the earthquakes of 1811-12," said historian and Metro Councilman Tom Owen. "We don't argue about what happened in the 1937 flood or the tornado of 1890. But professionals debate both the causation and the result of Bloody Monday."
Within ten years, the Know-Nothings and the Nativist movement had died down, and the violence had ceased. Clearly, the same sort of tales of murderous Catholics, and convents torturing young girls are still floating around out there, popular in some quarters.
Because this has been a persistent topic at Candy's blog, I created a "Those Killer Catholics" tag for such articles. If you click on it at the bottom of this article, you can find other entries I've written on similar lines, including the Inquisition(s) and the Sister Charlotte articles.