Here, it is worth taking a brief tour of the history of birthright citizenship in the United States. Although the idea of birthright citizenship was present in English common law at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, the Constitution as ratified said nothing about acquiring citizenship by either birth or naturalization. To the extent that citizenship came with rights, the scope of those rights was a question of state laws and state constitutions. But there were always proponents of a broader, more expansive and rights-bearing birthright citizenship. “Our common country is the United States,” Delany wrote.

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Persons: ”, Martin Delany, ” Delany, Martha S, Jones Organizations: Colored People, Rights, Antebellum, Convention Locations: United States, Union, Antebellum America, America, Rochester , New York