Chinese Exclusion Act

The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882, which excluded Chinese immigrants from entering the United States. The act prohibited Chinese immigration into the United States and disqualified the Chinese already residing in the United States from naturalization and voting. The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed during a time of anti-immigration sentiment in the United States, expressed by organized labor and most notably felt in California.

Chinese immigrants first entered the United States from southern China in 1848. There were three groups of Chinese who immigrated to California. The first was the merchant class. Though considered of low status in China, the merchants served as the leaders of the Chinese community. The great majority of Chinese who emigrated from China were laborers, who had very little education, if any, and who did not interact often with the larger society. The third group allowed to immigrate consisted of the wives of merchants. Few women came to America because Chinese culture generally prohibited women from leaving the home.

There were a variety of factors that prompted Chinese immigration. One reason was the California gold rush, through which they hoped to get rich. Most Chinese who came to California considered themselves sojourners whose intent was to stay long enough to accumulate savings and then return home. The overcrowded living conditions, high taxes, and the chaos and destruction from the Taiping Rebellion in China also drove many Chinese immigrants to the United States. Another reason was that Fujien and Guangdong Provinces, the regions from which many Chinese immigrants hailed, had considerable contact with the outside world, and thus their inhabitants were more willing to traverse the oceans than their inland counterparts.

The numbers of Chinese immigrants arriving in the United States grew at an increasing rate. In 1852 alone, 30,000 Chinese arrived in San Francisco, where many sought employment as servants and laundrymen. The 1860 census reported 34,933 Chinese immigrants living in California. In 1870, the number had grown to 49,277, and by 1880, the Chinese population had grown to 75,132. Chinese immigration filled the demand for cheap labor in California. During the 1860s, cheap labor provided by Chinese immigrants facilitated in the construction of the transcontinental railroad. As many as 10,000 Chinese laborers were on the payroll of the Central Pacific Railroad. However, after the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 and with the outbreak of a financial collapse in 1873, thousands of Chinese workers found themselves unemployed and subject to growing anti-Chinese sentiment.

Hostility toward Chinese immigration was evident as early as the 1850s, but the need for cheap labor won out. Violence against the Chinese population erupted frequently, as early as 1856, with Chinese being subjected to lynching and rioting. The most common objection to Chinese immigration was its threat to the existing labor force. Chinese immigrants were said to be unassimilable, unable to accept American customs and values. Chinese immigrants were resented by [Page 153]native-born Americans for their willingness to work for lower wages, which nativists feared would drag down the wages of all Americans. Another objection to Chinese immigration was that they lived in unsanitary and overcrowded conditions. During the 1870s, there were claims that Chinatowns in San Francisco and other large cities were havens for venereal disease, smallpox, and leprosy. Perhaps the most fundamental reason for anti-Chinese animosity rested on racial and cultural prejudices toward a people who looked and worshipped differently. This hostility would manifest itself through legislative measures.

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