[Ultra Sonic 007] One can believe that slavery is immoral, and that the slaves deserved freedom, without then claiming they therefore qualified as citizens.[DiogenesLamp] What else would they be?
They were considered a form of property. The 14th Amendment was necessary as they could not be naturalized. They could not be naturalized because they were not aliens. They had no municipal status whatever.
Not if they were citizens. According to Rawle, birth in a nation makes you a citizen, therefore if he was correct, they could not be property because they were citizens.
Now if you want to say they couldn't be citizens because they weren't born to citizen parents, you've just capitulated on the central argument here.