The American grievance over impressment was legitimate, although later War of 1812 politics magnified it. American naturalization papers did not settle the issue because the British government used a different definition of citizenship. Under the criteria described here, birth in Britain, marriage to a British woman, or two years of service on a British ship could make a sailor British for impressment purposes. Similar accents and a mobile Atlantic labor pool made identity difficult to judge aboard merchant vessels. The dispute involved competing legal definitions of allegiance alongside coercive naval manpower policy. Wrongful seizures still occurred. Competing rules explain why the two sides could classify the same individual differently.
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War of 1812 impressment exposed conflicting citizenship rules
The American impressment grievance was real, but British and American governments did not agree on which sailors a naturalization paper placed beyond British claims.