Ben and I continued reading Chapter 20 in our text about the Age of Reform. We learned that people who opposed immigration became known as Nativists; they were afraid their jobs would be taken over by immigrants. We learned that in 1849, a secret society of nativists founded the American Party and became known as the "Know Nothing" party because they refused to speak about the details of their organization. They were Anti-Catholic, supported longer waiting periods for naturalization and a ban on foreign-born people holding public office. The party fell apart in a few years over disagreements about slavery. Ben listened to music for the remainder of class.