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Foreign Slave Trade Becomes Illegal;50,000 Slaves Become First Illegal Aliens in the US
the authors of the Constitution... protected the foreign slave trade, a major source of immigration, by prohibiting interference with it for twenty years (Article 1, Section 9). When that period expired, Congress, at President Jefferson's invitation, promptly made that trade illegal, but did not interfere with either the domestic slave trade or slavery itself. The approximately 50,000 slaves smuggled into the United States after 1808 became the first illegal immigrants." -
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Indians Exempted from Naturalization and Forced from Tribal Land; Slave Populations in Ceded Land Increase Dramatically
The [1790] Naturalization Act excluded from citizenship not only nonwhite immigrants but also a group of people already here - Indians. Though they were born in the United States, they were regarded as members of tribes, or as domestic subjects; their status was considered analogous to children of foreign diplomats born here. As domestic 'foreigners,' native Americans could not seek naturalized citizenship, for they were not 'white.' .Tribe after tribe in the south was forced to cede their land -
Irish Immigration to US Begins along with Anti-Irish Sentiments in US
In the century after 1820 [Irish immigration started in 1816], 5 million Irish immigrants came to the United States. Their presence provoked a strong reaction among certain native-born Americans, known as nativists, who denounced the Irish for their social behavior, their impact on the economy, and their Catholic religion... Nativists launched a sustained attack on Irish immigrants because of their Catholicism. In 1834 a mob burned down the Ursuline convent in Charlestown, Massachusetts. -
20,000 to 30,000 Expedited Naturalizations Before Elections in New York City
"As late as 1868, when the Scotchman William M. Tweed was mobilizing the IrishAmerican vote for Tammany, between 20,000 and 30, 000 were naturalized in New York City courts in the six weeks before election. Both Democrats and Republicans paid the necessary fees. One judge naturalized over 10,000 in two weeks." -
First "Great Wave" of European Immigrants to the United States
The first great wave of European immigration did not come until the 1880s. Previous events such as the Irish potato famine of 1845, the Gold Rush in 1849 and failed revolutions in Germany and France in 1848 led to the immigration of more than one million people by the 1850s. Nevertheless, the 1880s saw a huge immigration explosion. The period between 1880 and 1924 witnessed an average of 560,000 immigrants per year, amounting to over 25 million immigrants over a 44 year period.
