Chinese Exclusion Act

In the early 1880s China Camp in San Rafael, California was one of many coastal fishing villages throughout the bay area. At the peak of China Camp it had nearly 500 residents. The bay’s mud flats contributed to China Camp’s success as a shrimp provider. The mud flats provided an ideal grass-shrimping location. Every year around three million pounds of shrimp were caught and dried then sent to China. During the peak of China Camp’s success the small village thrived. With nearly 500 residents and most of them being fishermen, the village was the perfect place for a fishing village. The fishermen of China Camp mainly focused on catching and drying shrimp. The process for catching, drying and exporting shrimp was lengthy. First, the entire catch
The Chinese were the first group to be hit by exclusion acts but throughout the following years many other nations had exclusion acts placed against them. For example, the National Origins Act of 1924 limited immigration from many countries such as Eastern and Southern Europe and Asia. The U.S. limited immigration through a system of quotas. The Chinese Exclusion Act and the National Origin Act were in many ways similar. Both of the laws kept immigrants from legally coming into the United States. They were different though because the Chinese Exclusion Act kept the Chinese out because Americans didn’t want the Chinese taking job opportunities from them and Americans didn’t like the Chinese. The National Origins act kept immigrants out of the U.S. because the U.S. was starting to become overpopulated and Americans had the mindset of wanting to keep America for
A few examples are, n 1901: closed season during the best fishing months, in 1905: export of dried shrimp banned, in 1911: use of the stationary bag net prohibited. Many of these restrictions were set in place because of growing competition for the bay’s seafood. The State Fish Commission claimed that Chinese bag nets caught too many small fish and disrupted the bay’s food chain. When these restrictions were set in place, China Camp was devastated, but the demand for shrimp continued. By 1915 certain restrictions had been appalled. Although these restrictions had a huge, negative impact on China Camp, after recovering from the restrictions it continued to thrive in the 1930s and 1940s, just as a smaller village. As China Camp’s small community began to thrive again, so did its business. The Quan family became the center of China Camp. The Quans ran a small restaurant, rented our boats for their enjoyment and, most importantly, continued operating the las Chinese shrimp fishery in the bay. Since time had past, ways of cooking shrimp had too. The Quan family now cooked shrimp by heating the shrimp-cooking vat with fuel oil instead of wood. Many of the machines they now used were run by electricity instead of by hand. Many of the artifacts that still remain in China Camp are due to the Quan family’s