"In 1854, an anti-Catholic mob in Ellsworth, Maine, dragged
Jesuit priest John Bapst—who had circulated a petition
denouncing the use of the King James Bible in local
schools—into the streets where they stripped him and
sheltered his body in hot tar and feathers. That same year,
the Know-Nothings in Bath, Maine, smashed the pews of a
church recently purchased by Irish Catholics before hoisting
an American flag from the belfry and setting the building ablaze.
When the bishop of Portland returned to the city a year later
to lay a cornerstone for the church’s replacement, another mob
chased him away and beat him. Wild conspiracy theories took root
that women were held against their will in Catholic convents
and that priests systematically raped nuns and then strangled
any children born as a result of their union."
“When America Despised the Irish: The 19th Century’s Refugee Crisis.”
History.Com, A&E Television Networks,www.history.com/news/when-america
-despised-the-irish-the-19th-centurys-refugee-crisis. Accessed 7 May 2024.