In 1790, President George Washington delivered the first-ever State of the Union address, highlighting some of the most pressing issues facing the newborn nation. Among them, he articulated the need for a “uniform rule of naturalization” for foreigners who were to be “admitted to the rights of citizens." In the address, he defined this “uniform rule” as an “object of great importance” from Article III of the recently ratified United States Constitution. Significantly, there was no mention of race, ethnic background, or any other specified qualifications dictating who could receive citizenship status in the entire speech.
The Constitution grants Congress the ability to establish a “uniform rule” as described by Washington, and so they did. Almost three months after Washington’s address came the first piece of legislation that defined the citizenship process for foreigners to the United States: the Naturalization Act of 1790. Alternately known as the Nationality Act, the purpose of this law was, as its name suggests, to establish guidelines on how to become a naturalized citizen of the United States. Notably, the Act limited citizenship on racial grounds: only "free white persons" who had resided in the United States for at least two years were eligible for naturalization. What it meant to be “white” at that time, although seemingly clear in today’s language, would become a major detail of contention. Debate over interpretation of the law's text would inspire more significant and direct actions by the government in its admittance and acceptance of South Asian immigrants.
Early South Asians in America
The Naturalization Act of 1790 reflected the racial anxieties of the leadership of a newly emerged nation. The first bicameral Congress formed in 1789 — the same two-branch system we have today — and it is notable that among their first priorities was to establish racialized immigration protocols. The Act was passed to regulate and process immigration; this included some of the earliest South Asians to the Americas.
Perhaps the best-known 18th-century example of early South Asian immigration to the United States was a Bengali Muslim by the name of Sick Keesar, believed to be an anglicization of the name Sheikh Kesar. Keesar came to the United States as a conscripted lascar, or sailor, from British India. He and his shipmates experienced abusive treatment on their long journey, were forced to sail far past their initially-stated destination, and were eventually abandoned, penniless and without support, when the ship finally docked in Baltimore. Keesar then filed a petition of redress to the Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council, headed by Benjamin Franklin.
His legal challenge — primarily intended to register his grievance and receive appropriate compensation and safe passage home — is a case study in the contradictions of the new nation. Franklin did support Keesar's petition, on the grounds that "these people should not be permitted to carry home with them any well-founded prejudice about either the justice or humanity of these United States.” His anxieties over the global perception of the United States are clear; the opponents of the petition, on the other hand, primarily wanted to maintain their ability to mistreat conscripted, indentured, or enslaved labor in the name of forging global economic connections. It's impossible to say whether the controversy over early South Asian Americans like Keesar directly led to the passing of the Act, but their presences certainly had an impact.