Distinct Alien Race : The Untold Story of Franco-Americans: Industrialization, Immigration, Religious Strife

In the later 19th century, French-Canadian Roman Catholic immigrants from Quebec were deemed a threat to the United States, potential terrorists in service of the Pope.Books and newspapers floated the conspiracy theory that the immigrants seeking work in New England's burgeoning textile industry were actually plotting to annex parts of the United States to a newly independent Quebec.Vermette’s groundbreaking study sets this neglected and poignant tale in the broader context of North American history.He traces individuals and families, from the textile barons who created a new industry to the poor farmers and laborers of Quebec who crowded into the mills in the post-Civil War period.Vermette discusses the murky reception these cross-border immigrants met in the USA, including dehumanizing conditions in mill towns and early-20th-century campaigns led by the Ku Klux Klan and the Eugenics movement.Vermette also discusses what occurred when the textile industry moved to the Deep South and b