How did the definition of citizenship in the new republic exclude Native Americans and African Ameri
- angela sanchez and brandon caltrider
- Oct 19, 2015
- 3 min read

How did the definition of citizenship in the new republic exclude Native Americans and African Americans?
The definition of Citizenship within the new republican government became misconstrued from two groups of individuals who weren’t included. Within the new Constitution, it spoke of natural unalienable rights, equality, and liberty, but yet how could we as citizens accept this Constitution without it including those that even we oppress? The same principles our fathers and brothers fought and died for, are the same ones were taking from people we apparently see as less civilized and overall unable to fit into our society. The African Americans and Native Americans in our nation have less to no representation, while which we dispute amongst each other about our own selfish desires.
The Native Americans, being native to the lands that we now own, have been treated as if they were barbarous, and worth less than any man of liberty. During the time of the constitution, we still wanted to push westward, even though we understood the consequence behind it. The positive attribute is that we would have more land for cultivation and agriculture, which means the demands of the people would be meet within a good quantity. It will also give us space to be recognized by our neighboring nations, including European ancestors. It would give us a chance to grow and spread our ideas of liberty and equality passed the current limitations that we have. The negative impact behind expanding westward is that the lands of the natives would be taken from right beneath them. This would cause conflict between the Native Americans and us, the colonist. It would make the gap that is continuing to grow, grow even further apart from each other, making our relationship as an unstable sediment. The new republic I’m sure, has already inspected these elements in ebt, but has failed to include their liberties and rights, whether they’re apart of our society or not. They are our neighbors, which means we should respect them and their culture, lands, freedom, and existence period. The definition of their citizenship did not extend past the physical borders of our current nation. This in conclusion has truly limited our own freedoms to only a certain level of degree, wand has expressed man's capacity for ignorance and greed even in the present times of now.
Citizenship excluded the African Americans because the slaves were not considered as people, let alone an American citizen. For example, the 3/5ths compromise stated that 3 african american slaves out of every five equated to one person of the population. It reads “Rather than halting or slowing the importation of slaves in the south, slavery had been given a new life — a political life. Even when the law stopped the importing of new slaves in 1808, the south continued to increase its overall political status and electoral votes by adding and breeding slaves illegally. The Three-fifths Compromise would not be challenged again until the Dred Scott case in 1856.” This is according to www.aaregistry.org. African Americans were treated as less than human, and even less than animals. They provided much profit for the colonies by working in the plantations growing and picking crops.
A negative Impact of African American refusal of citizenship was that the topic of slaves was a huge controversy, and caused the Civil War many years later. After that, the Civil Rights Movement happened. This could have all been avoided if African Americans were not denied their citizenship and not treated as less than humans.
Both Native Americans and African Americans were denied appropriate treatment. They were also denied real citizenship and actual acknowledgement of human existence. It was really unfair ,and has ultimately set us back as a society . This may have contributed to the fact that now we see them as inferior rather than the past flourished societies they were before we began to interfere with them. African Americans were treated as if they had no liberties established even if they were freemen living in the North of the United States of America. I susspect that this occurred from the fathom that they were merely tools of work, rather than a society of intelligent human beings, being able to cooperate and work with each other.
In conclusion, we have seen that the Constitution and the new republic has nothing to offer for either the Native Americans and the African American societies. The two societies has been truly neglected and had no fulfillment until later times. During our days, racism was a card that seemed to naturally occur after one set group of individuals over time have been seen as inferior compared to those who are looking. We see that even though during the constitutional convention had concerns of slaves and native americans, it truly did not subject them to be established into our societies.




Comments