The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1868 in the wake of the Civil War, giving former slaves citizenship as part of the Citizenship Clause, which granted citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States." A panel of professors looks at the history behind the 14th Amendment, discussing what constituted citizenship in the pre-Civil War era, the debate in Congress and in the states over the Citizenship Clause, and the political consequences of that clause through U.S. history. This discussion was part of a conference on birthright citizenship hosted by the University of Maryland’s Center for the History of the New America.