I’m sure lots of people aren’t familiar with the party system prior to the modern era, so don’t feel bad.
Not my field or time period (I study the cold war era with a focus on youth/music and subcultures), but the Democratic party emerged out of the Jacksonian era (20s) and prior to the GOP which formed in the 50s, there were the Whigs, which I really can’t tell you much about, other than that they split over the issue of slavery and its expansion westward. The anti-catholics/immigrant Know Nothings rose up briefly to replace it, but the Irish refugees from an Gorta Mor (the great famine in the 1840s) became the backbone of the Democratic party in the north, and the Know Nothings had nothing other than anti-immigration, so they fell apart pretty quickly. The GOP was moderate, anti-slave expansion whigs and the more radical abolitionist wing. It was the disintegration of the second party system…
I haven’t read this, so can’t say if it’s any good, but it might have more details about the Whig party if you’re interested in the topic:
Hope that helps!
