Customer Reviews

Becoming American Under Fire: Irish Americans, African Americans, and the Politics of Citizenship During the Civil War Era

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I just finished this excellent book on the process of naturalization and the definition of citizenship in America which occurred as a result of the Civil War. The author, Christian Samito, who had previously authored a fine regimental history of the Ninth Massachusetts Volunteers, explores Irish-American and African-American struggles to obtain equal rights under their new American citizenship. It details how Irish-American politics, especially the Fenian nationalist activity that resulted in arrests of American citizens in Ireland and England after the civil war, created a serious problem for British and American relations [which were strained anyway by the Alabama reparations issue]. Since the American Revolution the impressment of American sailors on the high seas had been a contentious result of Britain's claim that if you were born in Great Britain you could not renounce your British citizenship and become the citizen of another country. The reality was that many German, Scandinavian, Irish and other national immigrants, upon arrival in the U.S. did just that; many fought in the Civil War -- in most cases receiving citizenship for enlisting. The process by which Britain was forced into a reciprocity agreement that validated the U.S. position that an individual could renounce British citizenship and become a legal citizen of America and vice versa makes for fascinating reading. The investigation also covers African-Americans who fought or were freed during the civil war and who then found themselves in a the position of being "citizens" with no vote and limited rights compared to whites. The book shows how the African-American community began to test the legality of laws that promulgated two versions of citizenship in America, a process which some say continues today. Irish Americans, who could vote, also found discrimination and strove to acquire equal rights which their citizenship implied. How these two groups' struggles played out, at times in unison, at times juxtaposed, and the impact the struggles had on the evolving definition of the meaning of American citizenship, makes Samito's well written, researched and footnoted book a must-read for anyone interested in this subject. Mike Ruddy