The Problem of Immigration in a Slaveholding Republic: Policing Mobility in the Nineteenth-Century United States

by Kevin Kenny Narrated by Bill Andrew Quinn

Overview

Today the United States considers immigration a federal matter. Yet, despite America's reputation as a "nation of immigrants," the Constitution is silent on the admission, exclusion, and expulsion of foreigners. Before the Civil War, the federal government played virtually no role in regulating immigration.



Offering an original interpretation of nineteenth-century America, The Problem of Immigration in a Slaveholding Republic argues that the existence, abolition, and legacies of slavery were central to the emergence of a national immigration policy. In the century after the American Revolution, states controlled mobility within and across their borders. Throughout the antebellum era, defenders of slavery feared that, if Congress gained control over immigration, it could also regulate the movement of free black people and the interstate slave trade. The Civil War and the abolition of slavery removed the political and constitutional obstacles to a national immigration policy. Admission remained the norm for Europeans, but Chinese laborers were excluded through techniques of registration, punishment, and deportation first used against free black people in the antebellum South. To justify these measures, the Supreme Court ruled that immigration authority was inherent in national sovereignty and required no constitutional justification.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Kenny brings a fresh and insightful look at changing 19th-century immigration law in this crisp legal history... Based on a close reading of key immigration law cases and other primary sources, this erudite study sheds light on the long and complicated history of immigration law." — Library Journal

"One can't fully understand the origins of US immigration policy without knowing the history of slavery and Native American removal. In this beautifully written book, Kevin Kenny shows how these painful histories laid the groundwork for the barring, policing, detaining, and expelling of immigrants and shaped American understandings of federal plenary power, citizenship, and sovereignty. This book shows why Kenny is one of the most insightful historians of the nineteenth-century United States." — María Cristina García, author of State of Disaster: The Failure of US Migration Policy in an Age of Climate Change

"From Kevin Kenny, eminent scholar in immigration history, comes a timely reminder that slavery once touched every aspect of American life, including border control. He makes a powerful case that today's immigration policies still bear the scars of the slaveholding republic." — Beth Lew-Williams, author of The Chinese Must Go: Violence, Exclusion, and the Making of the Alien in America

"In a bold and sweeping reinterpretation, Kenny convincingly places slavery and its legacy at the heart of the US immigration history. The Problem of Immigration in a Slaveholding Republic is a must read for students of either field." — Sam Erman, author of Almost Citizens: Puerto Rico, the U.S. Constitution, and Empire

"The most comprehensive and penetrating analysis of nineteenth-century US immigration policy that I have read. Kevin Kenny's brilliant reconstruction of the intersecting efforts to police the movement of enslaved, immigrant, and indigenous populations will change the way we think about the history—and the current state—of America's immigration regime." — Gary Gerstle, University of Cambridge

Library Journal

03/01/2023

The history of U.S. immigration law is inextricably linked to slavery and the policing of the movement of free Blacks, biracial people, and Black sailors. Kenny (history, NYU; Diaspora: A Very Short Introduction) brings a fresh and insightful look at changing 19th-century immigration law in this crisp legal history. In the century after the American Revolution, states policed their own borders and communities with little guidance from Congress. Many states with slavery looked to Congress for help capturing freedom seekers, but feared that if Congress regulated immigration, their control over those who were free and the interstate trade itself would end. In the 1870s, in order to stop Chinese immigration in the Western U.S., the federal government asserted their right to control admissions into the country and to control their borders. The interplay between local and state regulations and Congressional laws still affects immigration law in the U.S. Based on a close reading of key immigration law cases and other primary sources, this erudite study sheds light on the long and complicated history of immigration law. VERDICT Readers interested in 19th-century American history, immigration, and legal history will find much to enjoy in this title.—Chad E. Statler

Product Details

BN ID:	2940159355102
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	01/16/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged

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