Law and Ethnic Diversity

The history of the United States of America is deeply rooted in religious freedom, protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that was adopted in 1791; however, legal protections to foster ethnic diversity have been less forthcoming. Early arrivals to U.S. settlements in the 1600s included European settlers from England, France, and the Netherlands, and Spanish and African slaves from Angola, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria, and Senegal. Although the Naturalization Act of 1790 gave citizenship to most white inhabitants of the country, blacks remained excluded.

Despite ethnic diversity, slavery based on race existed, even in the northern and predominantly abolitionist state of New York, until emancipation on July 4, 1827, which was granted by the Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery of 1799 (however, slaves born before July 4, 1799, remained in legally indentured servitude until death).

Efforts to abolish slavery created a path toward legal protections to foster racial and, by extension ethnic diversity in the United States. In 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude. Within five years, other important rights would follow for former slaves. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Fourteenth Amendment, adopted in 1868, gave all “persons born or naturalized in the United States” citizenship status with “equal protection of the laws.” This provided blacks the right to rent, hold, sell, and buy property. The Fifteenth Amendment, adopted in 1870, provided voting rights to all citizens, regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

In the 1870 census, those who reported their country of birth as other than the United States represented various nationalities, with primarily European origins and two notable exceptions. Chinese and African nationalities were confounded with race. Chinese was treated as both a race and an ethnicity. African was listed as a nationality, rather than any specific African nationality. These exceptions demonstrate the emphasis still placed on European ancestry at the time. Regardless, large cities had significant foreign-born populations, including nearly half of the population of New York, according to the 1870 census.