Timelines

This Act set the first rules for U.S. citizenship, reserving it for "free white persons" of "good moral character" with a two-year residency. It excluded all those determined non-white and indentured servants. Unable to obtain citizenship, Native Americans as well as African and Asian Americans were denied basic protections under the law, such as the right to vote, own property, or testify in court. Each group finally won the right to citizenship through long struggles. White women could gain citizenship through the 1790 Act, but couldn't vote until the 19th Amendment in 1920.