Order of the Star Spangled Banner
Encyclopedia
The Order of the Star Spangled Banner (OSSB) was an oath-bound secret society
in New York City. It was created in 1849 by Charles Allen
to protest the rise of Irish, Roman Catholic, and German immigration into the United States.
To join the Order, a man had to be at least 21 years old, a Protestant, and willing to obey the Order's dictates without question. Members were Nativists, citizens opposed to immigration. Members invariably responded to questions about the OSSB by claiming that they "knew nothing." This practice caused newspaper editor Horace Greeley
to label them "Know Nothing
s." The OSSB would eventually form the nucleus of the nativist American Party.
According to The American Pageant
, an American history textbook used in high schools:
Secret society
A secret society is a club or organization whose activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-members. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla insurgencies, which hide their...
in New York City. It was created in 1849 by Charles Allen
Charles Allen
Charles Allen may refer to:* Charles Allen , Canadian hurdler* Charles Allen , previously Chief Executive of ITV plc., and prior to that Granada plc.* Charles Allen , Massachusetts judge...
to protest the rise of Irish, Roman Catholic, and German immigration into the United States.
To join the Order, a man had to be at least 21 years old, a Protestant, and willing to obey the Order's dictates without question. Members were Nativists, citizens opposed to immigration. Members invariably responded to questions about the OSSB by claiming that they "knew nothing." This practice caused newspaper editor Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley was an American newspaper editor, a founder of the Liberal Republican Party, a reformer, a politician, and an outspoken opponent of slavery...
to label them "Know Nothing
Know Nothing
The Know Nothing was a movement by the nativist American political faction of the 1840s and 1850s. It was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by German and Irish Catholic immigrants, who were often regarded as hostile to Anglo-Saxon Protestant values and controlled by...
s." The OSSB would eventually form the nucleus of the nativist American Party.
According to The American Pageant
The American Pageant
The American Pageant, initially written by Thomas A. Bailey, is an American high school history textbook often used for AP United States History, AICE American History as well as IB History of the Americas courses. Since Bailey's death in 1983, the book has been updated by historians David M...
, an American history textbook used in high schools:
Older-stock Americans...professed to believe that in due time the "alien riffraff" would "establish" the Catholic church at the expense of Protestantism and would introduce "popish idols." The noisier American "nativists" rallied for political action. [..] They promoted a lurid literature of exposure, much of it pure fiction. The authors, sometimes posing as escaped nuns, described the shocking sins they imagined the cloisters concealed, including the secret burial of babies. One of these sensational books – Maria MonkMaria MonkMaria Monk was a Canadian woman who claimed to have been a nun who had been sexually exploited in her convent...
's Awful Disclosures (1836) – sold over 300,000 copies.