Chinese Expulsion Act

For this assignment, you will read a document from American history and a few supporting items. Then, you will write a reaction paper on what you’ve learned. Our document will be the Chinese Exclusion Act. In 1882, the U.S. government, under pressure from anti-immigrant lobbies in Western states tried to ban immigration from China. The 1882 law (extended and made permanent in later legislation) enshrined racial and ethnic discrimination American immigration policy. Although it failed to stop all Chinese immigration, the act remained in force until 1943. Websites (each of these sites has a transcript of the document—you only need to view one of them): http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=47 (This site contains a copy of the original handwritten document. Click on “document transcript” on the right of the picture to see a regular copy of the law). http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/chinex.htm http://www-marine.stanford.edu/HMSweb/cea.htm http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/seven/chinxact.htm Also check out the following sites: http://www.harpweek.com/ Go halfway down to “Informative Websites” and click on “The Chinese-American Experience: 1857–1892” (Articles and cartoons from Harper’s Weekly Magazine detailing violence against Chinese. As you can see, not all Americans agreed with the 1882 law!) http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/41/ (This is the life story of a Chinese immigrant who relates both the good and bad times of living in America during this period.) REACTION PAPER: In light of what we’ve discussed in class and read in the text, explain the Exclusion Act terms of American attitudes toward immigrants. Also discuss how the Exclusion Act impacted Asian Americans of this period and how the Act may have served as a model for other immigrant restrictions in the 1920s. *Remember* to avoid generalizing. Not all Americans agreed with these measures!