This is not a surprise simply due to the time period. Things were very different back then. Free white men were in charge of the country and that is just the way that it was. People still owned slaves so anyone who was not white was viewed as being beneath them and certainly not an equal. The intent of the Naturalization Act was to limit who was allowed to become a citizen.
It was also limiting to women because the act stated that citizenship was inherited through the father. In other words, if a woman was a citizen of the US but the father was not and she had a child born abroad that child would not be a citizen of the US.
It was not until the 14th amendment (post Civil War) was passed that ALL people born in the US were granted citizenship. It was not until 1870 when people of African descent were granted naturalization.
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