Timeline of Chinese Immigration and Exclusion
1842 China lost the First Opium War to Britain. The Qing Dynasty signed a treaty favorable to
British trade interests and ceded Hong Kong Island to the British Empire.
1848 Gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill, California; thousands of Chinese immigrants
departed from Hong Kong to mine for gold in California.
1850 California instituted the Foreign Miners’ tax, which targeted Chinese and Latino miners.
The Taiping Civil War began in China XXXXXXXXXXmillion died as a result, and millions more were displaced by its end in 1863.
1852 Approximately 17,000-25,000 Chinese in California.
1854 California Supreme Court ruled that Chinese did not have the right to testify against white
citizens in People v. Hall.
1860 United States trade with China tripled from 1845 levels.
China lost the Second Opium War to France and Britain. The Qing Dynasty signed a treaty favorable to Western interests,
including the legalization of the opium trade.
1865 Central Pacific Railroad recruited workers directly from China.
1868 China and U.S. signed the Burlingame Treaty. It guaranteed Chinese immigration to the
U.S., protection of Chinese citizens, and helped U.S. trade interests in China.
1869 First transcontinental railroad completed.
1871 A white mob tortured and hanged 17 to 20 Chinese in Los Angeles.
1873 Panic of 1873 lead to a major economic depression in the U.S. The effects of the
depression were felt into the 1880s.
1877 A white mob rioted against Chinese in San Francisco, killing several and extensively
damaging Chinese-owned property.
1878 A U.S. federal court ruled in In re Ah Yup that Chinese were not eligible for citizenship.
1879 New California State Constitution fo
ade corporations and governments offices in
California from employing Chinese.
1880 Approximately 105,000 Chinese in America (less than 10% of California’s population);
California passed anti-miscegenation law (Chinese and whites could not ma
y).
1882 Chinese Exclusion Act restricted Chinese immigration (in one year, the number of new
lawfully admitted Chinese immigrants dropped from 40,000 to 23).
Document A: Pioneer Laundry Workers Flyer (Modified)
The document below is an 1878 flyer by the Pioneer Laundry Workers
Assembly in Washington D.C. The group was part of the Knights of Labor, an
influential labor union in the United States at the time.
MEN FROM CHINA come here to do LAUNDRY WORK. The Chinese Empire
contains 600,000,000 inhabitants.
The supply of these men is inexhaustible. Every [Chinese man] doing this
work takes BREAD from the mouths of OUR WOMEN. So many have come of
late, that to keep at work, they are obliged to cut prices. . . .
Will you oblige the AMERICAN LAUNDRIES to CUT THE WAGES OF THEIR
PEOPLE by giving your patronage to the CHINAMEN? We invite you to give
a thorough investigation of the STEAM LAUNDRY BUSINESS of the country;
in doing so you will find that not only does it EMPLOY A VAST NUMBER OF
WOMEN, but a great field of labor is opened to a great number of mechanics
of all kinds whose wages are poured back into the trade of the country.
If this undesirable element "THE CHINESE EMIGRANTS" are not stopped
coming here, we have no alternative but that we will have California and the
Pacific Slope's experience, and the end will be that our jobs will be
eliminated UNLESS we live down to their animal life.
We say in conclusion that the CHINAMAN takes labor from our country
without the returning prosperity to our land the way the labor of our labor does
to our glorious country.
Our motto should be: OUR COUNTRY, OUR PEOPLE, GOD, AND OUR
NATIVE LAND.
Source: 1878 flyer by the Pioneer Laundry Workers Assembly.
Document B: New York Herald (Modified)
A financial crisis triggered a “panic” in 1873, and a six-year economic
depression followed.
Effect of the Panic: Trade and Transportation Unusually Dull.
The express companies are suffering very materially from the crisis. . . .
The Southern steamers and the railroads that generally do a large business
in ca
ying freight to the West are experiencing the effects of the panic in a
way that is proving quite unprofitable. . . .
The sales of houses have not been numerous enough of late to be worth
talking about. . . .
There has been a large diminution in the business of importing. It results
not less from the unwillingness on the part of importers to form new
contracts than from the decrease on the part of the consumer and the
etailer. In other words, the crisis seems to have taught a widespread
lesson—a little economy and less extravagance XXXXXXXXXXThe country will lose
from the depression of the retail trade many millions of dollars. When so
many hundred thousand people are thrown out of employment, and money
ecomes stringent, a drop in the overall economy will occur. . . .
The decline in cotton prices has been continuous. . . .
The grocery trade has suffered severely in consequence of the panic. . . .
Source: New York Herald, Tuesday, November 4, 1873.
Document C: Congressional Testimony of
California Attorney General (Excerpted)
The burden of our accusation against them is that they come in conflict with
our labor interests; that they can never assimilate with us; that they are a
perpetual, unchanging, and unchangeable alien element that can never
ecome homogenous; that their civilization is demoralizing and degrading
to our people; that they degrade and dishonor labor; that they can never
ecome citizens; and that an alien, degraded labor class, without desire of
citizenship, without education, and without interest in the country it inhabits,
is an element both demoralizing and dangerous to the community within
which it exists
Source: Frank Pixley, former Attorney General of California, in testimony to
the Joint Committee of the two Houses of Congress on Chinese
Immigration, October 21, 1876.
Document D: Wong Ar Chong’s Letter (Modified)
Wong Ar Chong was a Chinese American tea merchant in Boston. He wrote this
letter to William Lloyd Ga
ison, a prominent abolitionist and social reformer.
Ga
ison had publicly debated Senator James G. Blaine of Maine, arguing
against the senator’s support for banning Chinese immigration.
The able Senator from Maine says the Chinese must go XXXXXXXXXXI claim for my
countrymen the right to come to this country as long as other foreigners do. . . .
The Honorable Senator calls us heathens, but I should judge from the tone of his
letter that he was somewhat lacking in Christian charity. Let him look at the
ecords of fire in Chicago and yellow fever in New Orleans, and he will find
Chinamen giving as much as any other people.
He says that China people pay no taxes in this country, but I think if he will look
into the matter he will find that they pay as much taxes in California as any other
foreigners. . . .
He says that China people are not healthy, do not keep their places as clean as
other people, that they smell badly, etc. I could mention several other
nationalities, each having its own particular smell XXXXXXXXXXIf the Chinese are allowed
to come to this country and enjoy the same privileges as the people from any
other foreign land, they will educate themselves and conform to your laws and
manners and become as good citizens as any other race. . . .
The Chinese must not be blamed because other men have no work. It is not their
fault. If merchants ca
ied on business within their means, instead of failing and
going through bankruptcy, then laboring men would have plenty of steady work.
Source: Letter from Wong Ar Chong to William Lloyd Ga
ison, Fe
uary 28,
1879.