Introduction
Naturalization is the process by which a non-citizen becomes an American citizen. The Naturalization Act of 1790 was one of the first naturalization act of the United States. The act was concerned with the legalizing of citizens in the United States. This was owed to the fact that during the time, the country had different classes of people as well as people from different races. The naturalization act of 1790 paved way for discriminative and racist behavior in the American system, a concept that has continued to influence the mindset of the American people.
Summary of the Naturalization Act of 1790
The Naturalization Act of 1790 was the first naturalization Act to be established in the United States. The act was intended to create uniformity among the American citizens. According to the naturalization of 1790, any free white person above the age of 21 years was allowed to apply for citizenship as long as they qualified (Lyon, 2010). These requirements included residence in America for two years, at least one year of residence in their current location, good moral conduct confirmed by the court and taking an oath of allegiance. The citizenship could be processed by any common law court in the United States. Women and children below the age of 21 years were expected to take the naturalization under their husbands. Children born outside the borders of the sea were to be considered natural citizens, provided their fathers were residents of the United States. Any person not naturalized by the court of law was not considered a citizen of the United States. In 1795, the Act was amended, and the requirements for the citizenship toughened. The citizenship could only be acquired if the person had been a resident of the United States over the last five years and had applied for the citizenship for three years before they could acquire the citizenship.
Discrimination in the Act
The Naturalization Act of 1790 is considered discriminative. The Act denied women the right to apply for citizenship directly, but instead, women were expected to acquire their citizenship through their husbands. Another factor to consider is the fact that the act only offered citizenship only to free white persons. This definition only favored the high-class whites in the United States, discriminating those with a lower socio-economic status as well as non-whites in the United States.
How the Act protected the Status Quo
The law of the time protected the status quo in the society by providing citizenship only to those citizens who were considered free citizens of the United States. Various other groups which were considered minority groups were left out by the Act (Lyon, 2010). These groups included the slaves, free blacks, women, Asians and indentured servants. Americans and Europeans considered themselves more superior to others in the society during the time, a privilege they believed was provided to them by the Constitution of the United States.
The Influence of the Act on the Current Mindset of the American People
The Naturalization Act of 1970 led to the racist tendencies among the American people. Although the term racism did not exist at the time, the implications of the act are no different. The act could have been considered highly racist is the present world. This aspect was worsened by the many immigrants flowing into the United States, which included the slaves who were imported in the 19th century as early as 1804, and the large influx of immigrants who flowed into the United States following the gold rush in California during the early 19th century. The gold rush added the Chinese as part of the population of the American non-citizens who were also considered as inferior and were tasked with heavy duties at the gold mines. Discrimination in the United States has been ongoing since the naturalization act of 1790, with other discriminative acts such as the Chinese Exclusion Act being passed by the government (Lyon, 2010). During the 1860’s, the antislavery activists finally managed to acquire independence for the black people. At first, attempts for reconstruction were made to assimilate the blacks into the industrialization system, but when that these attempts got in the way for industrialization growth, these plans were abandoned. The now freed black slaves were forced to live in worse conditions than they were expected to live in before. The concept of white people and people of color quickly gained popularity during this time, with many immigrants coming into the country in the search for cheap labor. These nonwhite people were considered non-citizens. This discrimination has continued to dominate the United States up to the present times.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the failure of the Naturalization Act of 1790 to recognize nonwhites as citizens was discriminative, a factor which has continued to influence the mindset of the American people. According to the act, the Constitution only recognized those who were considered free white people. The United States did not recognize those working low positions, slave, free blacks, Asians and other immigrants as citizens. This was the beginning of discrimination especially on racist grounds, an element which has continued to prevail the mindset of the American people up to the present day.
References
Lyon, R. (2010, May 14). A History of American Racist Immigration Law. Daily Kos.
