Pre-14th Amendment, was an ex-slave a citizen

[Dereich]

Was citizenship even a fully defined concept at the time? If voting rights are the main distinction for citizenship would that make poor whites of the era non-citizens? I know most blacks started with the franchise in the north but gradually lost it and other rights, would that mean they had citizenship, but lost it? I don't think the legislators at the time were giving much thought to the broader implications and questions of what their actions meant, leading to weird dilemmas like this.