After the American's won the war with Britain and became an independent country much of the Britain laws were still left behind. In 1790 the first Naturalization and Immigration law was suggested by George Washington and later was drafted by Thomas Jefferson. The Naturalization Act of 1790 was founded bases on the current immigration situations that were going on, Americans were scared that all they had worked for was to then be shared by the incoming immigrants and demonstrated "nativism" (Fox). This law was the country’s first step to define who a citizen and restrictions on citizenship. The early ages of government left allot of open space for discrimination. The early ages of government left allot of open space for discrimination with the creation of the Naturalization Act of 1790.
Racism was the most obvious point of unfairness that this early American law demonstrated. The article states “ Any alien, being a free white person...” (Naturalization Act of 1790). The law left out slaves and free black. I assume that they left out slaves since although not all people were slaves? Going off that, the people that were slaves also included whites that were termed salves (waiting to payoff the trip to America) to ensure that the masters get payment. The Indentured servants (slave term in exchange for a free trip to America) would eventually fade out since that form of migration to America was not really happening; once that faded, then this still leaves the non-whites. The Naturalization Act of 1790 discriminated against non whites and thus, showing that since the early colonial times, our founding government embraced racism.
Besides race, women also were cut short of rights. In the article Major Acts of Congress, Fox wrote: “ While the 1790 act naturalized all "persons" and so included women, it also declared that "the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States..." This prevented the automatic grant of citizenship to children born abroad whose mother, but not father, had resided in the United States. Citizenship was inherited exclusively through the father” Woman in colonial times probably thought nothing much about this when it came out. But lets suppose that a women bare a child outside of the United States then that child would not have the rights to be a citizen had that child not have an American Citizen father. That sure does sound mean; we can bear the child but are not worthy to grant them citizenship by birth? I am sure that the colonies had other troubles to worry about but if this law was not intended for the sole purpose to benefit a white male then the details described by fox would have been omitted.
To a relief, because the colonies feared that the French revolutionaries might want to come to the United States, The Naturalization Act of 1790 only lasted five years. The replacement did not get better though, the naturalization laws that followed years to come only got worse, the rules and requirements got harder and the definition of whom is entitled to be a citizen were finer. Racial and sex bias has not changed much since then, maybe perhaps our laws are different now but If our country would have started on a different foot and gave everyone an equal chance then our present future would not have some of the unjust problems that women and minorities still face today.
Fox, James W.. "Naturalization Act (1790)." Major Acts of Congress. The Gale Group Inc. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 18 Sep. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.
Statutes At Large, First Congress, Session II, p. 103
“The President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2006.” Harvard Libraries, Open Collections Program: Immigration to the United States 1789-1930. 17 OCT 2006. Date Accessed 2 Feb 2008. http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/outsidelink.html/http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HLS.LIBR:981715
