-
Period: to
US Immigration
provided the first rules to be followed by all of the United States in the granting of national citizenship. At that time and by that law naturalization was limited to aliens who were 'free white persons' -
Period: to
Naturalization act of 1790
First Alien Naturalization Act Enacted by the Newly Created US Government. -
Period: to
The act of January
increased the period of residence required for citizenship from 2 to 5 years. It also required applicants to declare publicly their intention to become citizens of the United States and to renounce any allegiance to a foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty 3 years before admission as citizens. -
Period: to
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. -
Period: to
Native Americans Exempted from Naturalization and Forced from Tribal Land; Slave Populations in Ceded Land Increase Dramatically
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. -
Period: to
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. In 1836 -
Period: to
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo Results in United States Acquiring Colorado, Arizona ,New Mexico, Texas, California, and Parts of Utah and Nevada
ended the Mexican-American War allowing the United States to acquire Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, California, and parts of Utah and Nevada from Mexico. 80,000 Mexicans living in the territory are allowed to remain and receive citizenship. By 1849, the English-speaking population of California reached 100,000 compared to 13,000 of Mexican ancestry. -
Period: to
Know-Nothing Party Forms and Pushes for Major Restrictions on Immigrants
n 1849, some organized into an anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant political group famously called the 'Know-Nothings,' which derived its name from the secrecy of its members. [They] believed that native-born Americans were superior to the newly arrived immigrant groups on the basis that Irish and German immigrants tended to be poorer and Catholic, which Know-Nothings took as traits of cultural and economic backwardness -
Period: to
Homestead Act of 1862 Passed to Encourage Westward Migration.
In 1862, the U.S. Congress offered to sell public lands to citizens and to immigrants at the cost of $1.25 per acre, or less. The law was designed to attract people to settle vast stretches of territory in the Midwest and West, and it was highly effective. The promise of land at a low price attracted hundreds of thousands of people from the East and from Europe. The offer greatly increased the numbers of people migrating. westward. -
Period: to
Central Pacific Railroad Hires Chinese Laborers and the Union Pacific Hires Irish Laborers to Construct the First Transcontinental Railroad.
The Central Pacific hires Chinese laborers and the Union Pacific hires Irish laborers to construct the first transcontinental railroad, which would stretch from San Francisco to Omaha, allowing continuous travel by rail from coast to coast. The First Transcontinental Railroad [begins construction in 1863 and] is completed when the Central Pacific and Union Pacific lines meet at Promontory Summit, Utah -
Period: to
First Congressional Attempt to Centralize Immigration Control; A Commissioner of Immigration Is Appointed by the US President
"First Congressional attempt to centralize control of immigration.
a. A Commissioner of Immigration was appointed by the President to serve under the authority of the Secretary of State.
b. Authorized immigrant labor contracts whereby would-be immigrants would pledge their wages to pay for transportation." -
Period: to
Burlingame Treaty Is Revised; Chinese Immigration Is Suspended
President Hayes did not object to the goal of limiting Chinese immigration... he raised the possibility of revising the Burlingame Treaty... In November [1880], the new treaty was signed which allowed the American government to suspend, but not prohibit, the immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States. The document reaffirmed the panoply of 'rights, privileges, immunities, and exemptions' enjoyed by the subjects of a most favored nation for Chinese laborers currently residing in the Uni -
Period: to
First "Great Wave" of European Immigrants to the United States
President Hayes did not object to the goal of limiting Chinese immigration... he raised the possibility of revising the Burlingame Treaty... In November [1880], the new treaty was signed which allowed the American government to suspend, but not prohibit, the immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States. The document reaffirmed the panoply of 'rights, privileges, immunities, and exemptions' enjoyed by the subjects of a most favored nation for Chinese laborers currently residing in the Uni -
Period: to
Chinese Exclusion Act Passes and Immigration Exclusion Era Begins
In the beginning Congress created the Chinese Exclusion Act. That May 1882 statute, which has long been treated as a minor if somewhat disreputable incident, can now be seen as a nodal point in the history of American immigration policy. It marked the moment when the golden doorway of admission to the United States began to narrow and initiated a thirty-nine-year period of successive exclusions of certain kinds of immigrants, 1882-1921, followed by twenty two years, 1921-43, when statutes and ad -
Period: to
Alien Contract Labor Law Bans Immigration of Workers to Break Strikes
The Knights of Labor replaced the NLU [National Labor Union] as the dominant labor organization in the 1880s. As immigration soared in the 1880s, nativists and labor unions, including the Knights, sought to ban Chinese immigration and to reduce the inflow of other immigrants… [I]n 1885, three bills banning contract labor worked their way through Congress. The first bill through the system was that of Congressman Foran, which is why the Alien Contract Labor Act was called the Foran Act. The law b -
Period: to
Statue of Liberty Unveiled; "The Huddled Masses Yearning To Be Free" Invited to Immigrate
the Statue of Liberty, on Bedloe's Island, was dedicated as a gift of the French nation to the American people and as a symbol of their eternal friendship. The statue was the work of Auguste Bartholdi... The funds needed to build a pedestal for the monument were raised by a campaign sponsored by the New York World, owned by Joseph Pulitzer, a Hungarian refugee, and it was Emma Lazarus who wrote the immortal lines for the tablet inside the pedestal, with their oft-quoted invitation to 'the tired -
Period: to
hinese Immigration Lowers Dramatically
"The Chinese Exclusion Act worked. In 1882, before it took effect, over 39,000 Chinese came to America. In 1887, Chinese immigration bottomed out at 10! While America’s population more than doubled between 1880 and 1920, the population of Chinese ancestry declined by over a third." -
Period: to
The Melting Pot Play Opens on Broadway; Its Title Becomes a Metaphor for the United States
America becomes one of the most successful productions in the history of Broadway. Zangwill updates the story of Romeo and Juliet. This time, instead of feuding families in a medieval Italian city, the lovers were from Russian Jewish and Russian Cossack families. Zangwill’s play emphatically claimed that America was a new country where the old hatreds had no place. For the new immigrants in America to try to keep alive their old hatreds and prejudices was pointless, evil, and probably impossibl -
Period: to
Mexican Revolution Drives Thousands of Mexicans across the US-Mexican Border
Development of mining and industry in northern Mexico, as well as building of north-south railroad lines, attracted large numbers of Mexicans to the northern part of the country in the late nineteenth century... At the same time, economic pressures were mounting. Many small landowners were losing their holdings to expanding haciendas, while farm workers were increasingly and systematically trapped into peonage by accumulating debts. Finally in 1910, political opponents of mexicans.