The 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts are often characterised as the product of intense political infighting amid the rise of the first US party system. Yet, as this paper demonstrates, this formative moment was not a mere partisan dispute, but a genuine disagreement on the nature of US citizenship that spilled out into the public arena. Through petitioning, public meetings, and protests, among other forms of popular political culture, everyday Americans debated the role of migration in the young republic and, at the same time, how it shaped their own status as citizens. In doing so, they breathed life into otherwise abstract debates, crafting a political community where citizenship was not only articulated but actively performed.

Connie Thomas is an Associate Lecturer in United States History at University College London (UCL). She is currently in the process of turning her thesis into her first book, Out of Many: Migration Policy and the Making of an American Republic, which explores the relationship between migration, citizenship, and identity formation throughout the founding era. Connie has also published work on the contestation of early American citizenship, national identity, and historical memory in the Journal of the Early Republic and The Panorama.

https://www.history.ac.uk/news-events/events/performing-citizenship-public-activism-1798-alien-sedition-acts