Chinese-American Men, between 1890 and 1910(?) History of the American West, 1860-1920

While the majority of immigrants came to settle in the United States permanently, many worked for a time and returned home with whatever savings they had set aside from their work. The majority of Chinese immigrants, for example, were single men who worked for a while and returned home. At first, they were attracted to North America by the gold rush in California. Many prospected for gold on their own or labored for other miners. Soon, many opened their own businesses such as restaurants, laundries, and other personal service concerns. After the gold rush, Chinese immigrants worked as agricultural laborers, on railroad construction crews throughout the West, and in low-paying industrial jobs.

With the onset of hard economic times in the 1870s, other immigrants and European Americans began to compete for the jobs traditionally reserved for the Chinese. With economic competition came dislike and even racial suspicion and hatred. Such feelings were accompanied by anti-Chinese riots and pressure, especially in California, for the exclusion of Chinese immigrants from the United States. The result of this pressure was the Chinese Exclusion Act, passed by Congress in 1882. This Act virtually ended Chinese immigration for nearly a century. As the following documents suggest, there were many opinions about this issue.

To find other documents relating to this topic in American Memory, you might search the collections using such terms as Chinese, Chinese immigration, or Chinese immigrants.
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• Mark Twain's Observations About Chinese Immigrants in California

• A Memorial from Representative Chinamen in America to President U.S. Grant

• Mary Cone Describes the Chinaman in California

• David Phillips Discusses the "Chinese Question"

• Hinton Rowan Helper on Chinese Immigration

• "Enactments So Utterly Un-American"

• Edward Holton's Observations About Denis Kearney, a Leading Advocate of Chinese Exclusion

• William C. Pond's Ministry Among Chinese Immigrants in San Francisco