Irish Catholics VS Protestants

In the Nineteenth century there was a close relationship between religion and education.
Protestants values controlled the United States education.
Irish Catholics were discriminated against. Hatred developed
Protestants feared that the Irish might destroy the American dream.
Many Protestants believed that the Catholic Church was a church of Satan
Religion was a focal point in public school education.
The public school used the King James Version of the bible, which the Catholics were strongly opposed to.
Catholics were not allowed to use their prayers or their bibles in school.
Catholic children were forced to learn the “Protestant” way if they were to go to school.
This eventually led to the development of the Catholic school system
In the 1830’s and 40s New York City was the scene of religious conflicts when Catholics demanded a share of the state educational funds that were being monopolized by the public school Society.
In 1838 more conflict erupted between the Catholics and Protestants when Governor Seward supported giving state money to Catholic schools.
He saw that most Catholic children were not attending school because of discrimination.
Governor Seward proposed that Catholic schools become part of the state school systems.
Governor Seward denounced the American hatred of “foreigners.”
By 1842 the school issue had heightened to the point of causing a riot between anti-Catholics and Irish Catholics.
In 1843 Philadelphia public school board ruled that Catholic children could read their own version of the bible in public schools and that they could be excused from other religious instruction.
The result was the Philadelphia bible riots in which 13 people died and a Catholic church was burned to the ground.
An important legal event during this period wad Donahoe v. Richards. The Supreme Court of Maine gave the School board legal right to expel children from school for refusing to read the bible used by the school.
All of these events led to the private Catholic school system as it is today.

Annotated Bibliography

Springer J. : The American School 1642-2000. (McGraw Hill, 2001)

Springer describes the conflict between the Irish Catholics and Protestants during the common school era. As the Irish arrived they were met with a great deal of open hostility. Protestants believed that the Irish Catholics might destroy the American dream. Springer paints and accurate descriptive picture of the issues that arose between the Irish Catholics and Protestants.

Kern J. : http//www.nd.edu/~rbarger/www7catholic.html

Catholic immigrants begin to arrive in America. The difference in religious belief results in prejudice and discrimination against Catholics who were the minority. This discrimination eventually led to the development of the Catholic school system. This website is a good supplement to the Springer text. It describes the Catholic Protestant conflict and describes the key player during this period. This site explains the Catholic point of view and how the events that took place in the nineteenth century helped to shape the common school.

Seamus D. : http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/csc/reports/common.htm

“Seamus Dunn is a professor at the University of Ulster. He has written and published on many aspects of education in societies.”

Author Dunn does a thorough job at discussing the conflict and violence that arose out of the nineteenth century because of differences in religion. He addresses the factors that led to the common schools and led to Catholics developing their own schooling system. Dunn analyzes the history of the common school area and perceives education as a way of preserving differences in society.