What Were Chinese Workers Move To The United States During The California Gold Rush?

Many Chinese workers made their way to the United States around 1848 during the California Gold Rush. By 1880, there was approximately seventy-five thousand newcomers in the Golden State which was nine percent of the state’s total population. These numbers increased because of mining and the hiring of large labor forces to conduct work on the Transcontinental Railroad across the West. Employers viewed the Chinese as “cheap labor”, and for this reason, Americans welcomed them (Kennedy and Cohen 500). These Chinese workers, composed of mostly men, came from a background of poverty and turmoil in their homeland. After the gold was becoming harder to find and competition increased, about half of the Chinese who came to America, returned to their
homeland; however, many stayed. Those who stayed, faced hardship without spouses or children.
They worked the lowliest of jobs as “cooks, laundrymen, or domestic servants” (497). Many of the Americans complained that the Chinese were taking their jobs, which was true because they worked for less than the white man. The Chinese were also making themselves at home wherever economic opportunities presented, and they also came with their native attitudes. They created Chinatowns in “cities, railroad towns, and farming villages” (500). They had formed groups and clubs among their own people and found safety from violence and prejudice society. This then spurred into the creation of “tongs” which were secret societies that alienated from traditional-Chinese and American society. Many anti-Chinese groups were formed. The Kearneyites were a group of followers of Denis Kearney. They formed a protesting group for many issues, and one of the issues were Chinese laborers. This group in particular terrorized, tortured, and murdered the Chinese to make a point (498). Most Americans and groups like these saw Chinese laborers as menaces and as a whole, a catastrophe to
America. America then implemented the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. This Act prohibited all further immigrants from China and was intended to last ten years. However, there were certain exemptions made for merchants, teachers, students and diplomats so that we could continue trade with China. This Act is said to be the result of continued racial resentment, which is most likely true because of the previous tension with the freeing of the Blacks. The Chinese Exclusion Act lasted more than ten years and was not repealed until 1943. One problem that occurred after the Act was in place concerned families.
Families were torn apart because the Act also applied to those who had already settled on America’s soil. “Any Chinese who left the United States had to obtain certifications for reentry, and the Act made Chinese immigrants permanent aliens by excluding them from U.S. citizenship” (“Exclusion”). Men had little chance of reuniting with wives from their homeland or starting families in their new homes. It left them with the choice of staying for work or seeing their families again. The Act put a halt on all Chinese growing communities. In result, we do not have a large Chinese population in the United States. Another problem was that through this Act, America was hurting ties and straining our relationship with China. Their government was insulted by the strict Act. Adding to that, as the years went by the laws only became stricter and it made reentry to the United States more impossible. There was a time when merchants began an Anti-American boycott, but the Chinese government suppressed
it. These problems continue today because we are a melting pot country. A lot of times we hear the terms “Black, Hispanic, Chinese”, but if we are living in America, those terms no longer classify us because we are American. As people born and raised in America, we fail to remember that. On the other hand, when immigrants come into the states, it is important for them to realize that they are American as well. Yes, they can bring their religious freedom and speech, but they will live under America’s standards, not their homelands’. We see from example when the Chinese came and started creating their own lands on our soil. History has a way of repeating itself almost 200 years later. We are seeing this today in the DFW area with Muslims wanting to be tried under the terms of their religious Sharia court. This should not happen. America’s guaranteed rights and Constitution will reign highest in our nation, regardless of a particular way of life.

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