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DBQ: Chinese Exclusion Act
Do Now Instructions
a) Read the background information below, underline main ideas, and think about this question:
Why did the Unitcd States pass the Chinese Exclusion Act of 7882?
b) Write your HYPOTHESIS for why the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in the box on page 3.
Chinese Exclusion Act [1882]
The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first major
law restricting immigration to the United States.
The Chinese Exclusion Act, signed into law on
May 6, LBBZ, by President Chester A, Arthur,
effectively halted Chinese immigration for ten
years and prohibited chinese from becoming us
citizens.
The first significant Chinese immigration to
America began with the California Gold Rush of
1B4B-L849. During the early stages of the gold
rush, when surface gold was plentiful, the
Chinese were tolerated, even well received. As
gold became harder to find and competition
increased, animosity toward the Chinese and
other foreigners increased. After being forcibly
driven from the mines, most Chinese settled in
enclaves in cities, mainly San Francisco, and took
up low end wage labor such as restaurant work
and laundry just to earn enough to live.
From 1850 to 1865, political and religious rebellions within China left 30 million dead and
the country's economy in a state of collapse. Meanwhile, the timber, mining and railroad
industries on the United States'West Coast needed workers. Chinese business owners also
wanted immigrants to staff their laundries, restaurants, and small factories.
The Chinese Exclusion Act was the nation's first law to ban immigration by race or
nationality. From 1882 until L943, most Chinese immigrants were barred from entering the
United States. All Chinese people--except travelers, merchants, teachers, students, and
those born in the United States--were barred from entering the country. The few Chinese
non-laborers who wished to immigrate had to obtain certification from the Chinese
government that they were qualified to immigrate, which tended to be difficult to prove. If
people were caught bringing Chinese immigrants into the country they would be fined five
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hundred dollars per head that was brought in and /or imprisoned fbut not for more than a
year). Vessels landing on American soil could not have Chinese people on them and if they
did they were not allowed leave any of them behind or let them step off the boat.
The GearyAct passed in 1892, required Chinese aliens to carry a residence certificate with
them at all times. Immigration officials and police officers even conducted spot checks and
demanded that every Chinese person show these residence certificates or risk being
deported.
The Act also affected Asians who had already settled in the United States. Any Chinese
person who left the United States had to obtain certifications for reentry. The Act also made
Chinese immigrants permanent aliens because it prohibited them from becoming
naturalized citizens no matter how long they had legally worked in the United States.
After the Act's passage, Chinese men in the U.S. had little chance of ever reuniting with their
wives, or of starting families in their new homes. Due to intense anti-Chinese
discrimination, many merchants' families remained in China while husbands and fathers
worked in the United States. Since federal law allowed merchants who returned to China to
register two children to come to the United States, men who were legally in the United
States might sell their testimony so that an unrelated child could be sponsored for entry. To
pass official interrogations, immigrants were forced to memorize coaching books which
contained very specific pieces of information, such as how manywater buffalo there were
in a particular village. So intense was the fear of being deported that many "paper sons"
kept their false names all their lives. The U.S. government only gave amnesty to these
"paper families" in the 1950s.
The law was repealed by the Magnuson Act in 1943 during World War II, when China was
an ally in the war against fapan. Nevertheless, the 1943 act still allowed only 105 Chinese
immigrants per year, reflecting persisting prejudice against the Chinese in American
immigration policy. Itwas not until the Immigration Act of L96s,which eliminated
previous national-origins poliry, that large-scale Chinese immigration to the United States
was allowed to begin again after a hiatus of over 80 years.
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Chinese Immigration and Exclusion: Graphic Organizer
Why did the United States pass the Chinese Exclusion Act of L882?
STEP 1: HYPOTHESES
Write your HYPOTHESES for why the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882.
STEP 3: Read documents A-D. For each documen! askyourself: If this documentwere your
only piece of evidence, how would you answer this question: Why did Americans pass the
1882 Chinese Exclusion Act? Fill in your document notes graphic organizer.
STEP 4: For homework, answer the following question on a separate sheet of paper using
the background reading and all four primary sources: Why did Americans pass the
Chinese Exclusion Act of L882? Your response must have:
At least 3 paragraphs
A thesis statement
Evidence: lots of specific SRT and only ONE piece of well-chosen DRT
Each paragraph should have related evidence from more than 1 source
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Document A: Anti-Chinese Play, 1879
From Henry Grimm, The Chinese Must Go: A Farce in Four Acts.
San Francisco: Bancroft and Co., 1879.
'THE CHINESE MUST GO"
ACT I.
SCENE--A Kitchen; Sam Gin woshing dishes; Ah Coy smoking his opium pipe.
Ah Coy. I telly you, white man big fools; eaty too muchee, drinky too muchee, and talkee too muchee.
sam Gin. white man catchee plenty money; chinaman catchee little money.
Ah Coy. By and by white man catchee no money; Chinaman catchee heap money; Chinaman workee
cheap, plenty work; white man workee dear, no work-sabee?
Sam Gin. He heep sabee.
Ah Coy. Chinaman plenty work, plenty money, plenty to eat. White man no work, no money, die-sabee?
Sam Gin. Me heep sabee.
Ah Coy. White man damn fools; keep wifee and children--cost plenty money; Chinaman no wife, no
children, save plenty money. By and by, no more white workingman in California; all Chinaman--sabee?
(Enter Frank Blaine.)
Frank B. Damn such luck; can't borrow a cent to save my life. Money is getting as scarce as flies about
Christmas. I must have some. Losing three games of billiards, one after the other, with this flat-footed
Jack Flint is a shame. (To Ah Coy.) Why don't you work?
Ah Coy. Your mother no payee me last month; no payee, no workee--sabee?
Frank B. How much does she owe you?
Ah Coy. Six dollars.
Frank B. All right, John; I get it for you. (Aside.) lf I squeeze the six dollars out of the old man that
Chinaman has to pay me commission, that's business (pulling Som Gin by the queue). Exit.
Sam Gin. Damn hoodlum. What for you foolee me all the time?
a
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Document B: Political Cartoon, 1B7I
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Source: The cartoon was drawn by Thomas NastforHarper's Weekly, o
Northern magazine. In this certoon, we see Columbia, the feminine symbol of
the United States, protecting a Chinese man ogainst a gang of lrish and
German thugs. At the bottom it says "Hends offGentlemen! America
means fair play for all men."
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Document C: Workingmen of San Francisco
"An
From
Address from the Workingmen of San Francisco to Their Brothers Throughout
the Pacific Coas!" a speech delivered August L6, 1888,
We have met here in San Francisco tonight to raise our
voice to you in warning of a great danger that seems to us
imminent and threatens our almost utter destruction as a
prosperous community.
The danger is, that while we have been sleeping in fancied
security, believing that the tide of Chinese immigration to our
State had been checked and was in a fair way to be entirely
stopped, our opponents, the pro-China wealthy men of the
land, have been wide-awake and have succeeded in reviving
the importation of this Chinese slave-labor. So that now,
hundreds and thousands of Chinese are every week flocking
into our State.
Today, every avenue to labor, of every so6 is crowded with
Chinese slave labor worse than it was eight years ago. The
boot, shoe and cigar industries are almost entirely in their
hands. In the manufacture of men's overalls and women's
and children's underwear they run over three thousand
sewing machines night and day. They monopolize nearly all
the farming done to supply the market with all sorts of
vegetables. This state of things brings about a terrible
competition between our own people, who must live as
civilized Americans, and the Chinese, who live like degraded
slaves. We should all understand that this state of things
cannot be much longer endured.
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Document D: Autobiography of a Chinese Immigrant
From the testimony of Lee Chew, published in Independent magazine, L903.
There is no reason for the prejudice against the Chinese. The cheap
labor cry was always a falsehood. Their labor was never cheap, and
is not cheap now. It has always commanded the highest market price.
But the trouble is that the Chinese are such excellent and faithful
workers that bosses will have no others when they can get them. If
you look at men working on the street you will find a supervisor for
every four or five of them. That watching is not necessary for
Chinese. They work as well when left to themselves as they do when
some one is looking at them.
It was the jealousy of laboring men of other nationalities
- especially
the Irish-that raised the outcry against the Chinese. No one
would
hire an lrishman, German, Englishman or Italian when he could get a
Chinese, because our countrymen are so much more honest,
industrious, steady, sober and painstaking. Chinese were persecuted,
not for their vices [sins], but for their virtues [good qualities].
There are few Chinamen in jails and none in the poor houses. There
are no Chinese tramps or drunkards. Many Chinese here have
become sincere Christians, in spite of the persecution which they
have to endure from their heathen countrymen. More than half the
Chinese in this country would become citizens if allowed to do so,
and would be patriotic Americans. But how can they make this
country their home as matters now are! They are not allowed to bring
wives here from China, and if they marry American women there is a
great outcry.
Under the circumstances, how can I call this my home, and how can
any one blame me if I take my money and go back to my village in
China?
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Document Notes Graphic Organizer
Document
If this document were your only piece of evidence, how would you answer the question:
Why did Americans pass the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act?
Document A:
Plav
.--F
Document B:
Nast cartoon
Document
C:
Workinsmen
Speech
Doc_unnent D:
Lee CheW s
Autobiography