in the last video we discussed who did
and did not have citizenship and voting
rights from 1789 to the 1830s
to summarize
citizenship was reserved for white men
women and children
and by the 1830s the right to vote
extended to all white men regardless of
whether they owned property
although they were citizens white women
could not vote
indigenous people enslaved people and
free black people weren't permitted to
be u.s citizens or to vote
so let's pick up the story now in the
1840s when the united states rapidly
colonized north america as part of the
treaty of guadalupe hidalgo the peace
treaty that ended the mexican-american
war the mexican government ceded the
territory that's now most of the western
half of the united states
the mexican people who were already
living in that territory were granted
u.s citizenship although the indigenous
people who were living there were not
although the mexican-american citizens
were eligible to vote in theory in
practice they faced intimidation from
white americans that limited their
access to voting
during the 1850s debate over the
institution of slavery and the status of
black americans consumed the country
in the midst of this turmoil in 1857
the supreme court issued the dred scott
opinion which we'll talk about in more
detail in another video
ruling that black people were not
guaranteed birthright citizenship and
had no pathway to citizenship asian
immigrants who started coming to the
united states in larger numbers in the
1850s were also not considered eligible
for citizenship and in the late 19th
century and early 20th century the us
government banned immigration from china
and japan altogether
in the 1860s
the tensions between slave and free
states boiled over into war the southern
states seceded from the union to protect
slavery starting a civil war that lasted
for four years during the civil war the
u.s government issued the emancipation
proclamation
declaring the end of slavery in the
southern states and after the war
ratified the 13th amendment which
outlawed slavery everywhere in the
country
but ending slavery didn't automatically
guarantee citizenship rights for black
people in the united states
in 1868
the ratification of the 14th amendment
established that all persons born or
naturalized in the united states were
citizens
this ensured that black people both men
and women had citizenship
as well as the us-born children of asian
immigrants
although again it was still not
interpreted to mean that indigenous
people had citizenship at this time
in addition a new naturalization act of
1870 broadened the people who were
eligible for citizenship to include
aliens of african nativity and persons
of african descent
but just like the end of slavery didn't
automatically guarantee citizenship
rights citizenship didn't automatically
guarantee voting rights nowhere in the
constitution or the bill of rights was
the right to vote protected elections
then as now were controlled by the
states and although the 14th amendment
stipulated that states would lose
representation in congress if they
denied the vote to any male citizen of
voting age this was the first time that
the word male was introduced into the
constitution which we'll see the
importance of in just a sec it quickly
became clear that a stronger amendment
was needed to ensure black citizens
could vote
so in 1870 congress passed and the
states ratified the 15th amendment which
prohibited the federal government and
the states from denying a citizen the
right to vote based on that citizen's
race
color or previous condition of servitude
this was intended to ensure that black
men had the right to vote which they
exercised in the south for several years
until the u.s government stopped
enforcing the rights of black citizens
in the south and white supremacist
governments returned to power
the 15th amendment also did not prevent
the denial of voting rights on the basis
of sex which was a major blow for the
women's suffrage movement women would
not succeed in their campaign for the
vote until 1920. so that's a very brief
overview of the changes in citizenship
and voting rights in the first 100 years
after the founding of the united states
i'll leave you to reflect on a few
questions
why do you think that citizenship
changed over time
what does the history of who did and
didn't have citizenship at various
points tell us about the concept of
citizenship in the united states
and what's the relationship between
citizenship and voting rights