"Pretended love of personal liberty": Antislavery, Nativism, and Deportation Policy in Antebellum Massachusetts

This paper explores the implementation of deportation policy during the 1850s, when anti-Irish nativism reached its zenith with the rise of nativist politicians, the Know Nothings, in state politics. In particular, it examines the contradiction between the defense of African Americans’ personal liberty and the seizure of Irish immigrants by exposing the tangible presence of nativist force in the antislavery movement.