Collision Course
Free Soilers
By the mid-1850s, the fissure in the Union, which Thomas Jefferson predicted in 1820, had become evident. Both sides in the slavery debate manipulated the insecurities of new German and Irish immigrants in order to gain support in pivotal elections. Pro-slavers exploited racial tensions and played on fears of competition for jobs if enslaved workers became free. Free Soilers tried to persuade immigrants that the extension of slavery would lead to the virtual enslavement of all unskilled laborers, including themselves.
Die Cincinnati Platform und die Rechte der Arbeiter [Cincinnati? Ohio, 1854?] .
(Broadside 1854 .C45)