The Chinese Exclusion Act

To begin with, the Chinese were a group of people who immigrated from China in order to find work advertised in America during the 1800s. The Chinese were primarily interested in the jobs correlated with the Gold Rush in California. For the most part, they would go around looking for gold in areas where white settlers had abandoned the mining; however, they began to realize that there would be no real profit from the job. It was then that the Chinese began to resort to working for the rail road companies, a job that many Americans had left unattended. Often times they were not wanted due to the fact that they were small in height and stature and were expected not to have many work capacities. Once they began to work, many employers began to realize that they were loyal and hardworking, and were being constantly hired by employers for the railroad jobs and jobs outside of the railroad business.

It was in 1882 that the Chinese Exclusion Act came about in the Americas. The first reason that this act came into existence was the fact that the Chinese were now useless in the eyes of the American work force. The Chinese, now that the railroads were completed, had no real jobs to go by. Although they were great workers, they had served their purpose in the creation and expansion of the railroad business.  Another factor as to why the act was passed was due to the fact that there was great jealousy from white Americans and other European immigrants. The jealousy was attributed to the fact that the Chinese were taking over the jobs. In Document A, the play called "The Chinese Must Go", the Chinese are stereotyped and described as "advantageous" and "smart" for taking the jobs and knowing how to save money. In a certain way, it was stereotyping the Chinese in a negative way to the rest of America. In Document C, it was described to the people that the Chinese were becoming a threat to the rest of America. It is delineated that it was believed that the government was taking care of the number of Chinese that were coming in to the country, but now they have overflowed. It is explained that there are no jobs left that the Chinese have not taken over such as clothes making. In document D, a Chinese immigrant is explaining his experiences in America. He describes the disgust other immigrants combined with the whites have towards them. He describes that the people have mistreated them because they are merely good workers. From the timeline, we can see more discrimination from the government when they are not allowed to marry others in 1880, although they were not allowed to bring their wives to live with them.

The Exclusion Act of 1882 was passed due to the fact that the Americans believed they were beginning to become a problem to the labor force. Because the Chinese were such good workers, there was no more room for the hiring of whites or other immigrants. The white Americans felt that they were beginning to steal jobs from the Americans, and now that the rail roads were finished, there was no more real use for them.