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Chinese Exclusion Act

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Chinese Exclusion Act

The exclusion act was law made to limit the Chinese movements in America. It started out with limitations with how many Chinese were allowed to enter the U.S., but in 1984 additional rules were added limiting anyone that was Chinese descended to leave or enter the United States, no matter where they were born. In 1992 the law was renewed for another ten years adding rules that Chinese couldn’t testify in court. They had to have passports otherwise if they were caught without one they would face being deported.1
After the California Gold Rush started two years later, China’s condition seemed to worsen. The people of China had faced poverty caused by wars such as the Opium War and the T'aip'ing Rebellion. This made the men of China flee to the safety of American soil in hopes of starting a brighter future for their family and their native lands, even though of the rough conditions the Chinese workers they still managed to make small businesses for themselves making them more alienated from the whites “Perfect life style”. 1
This still didn’t stop the Chinese though. They continued working hard and started lives for themselves and businesses. Chinese men spread everywhere working at railroads and coalmines. Both jobs paid very little, but Chinese still took the jobs. Railroad managers seemed pleased by this fact and paid the same wages to the whites making them angrier and soon they started to protest. Soon there were more Chinese workers then there were whites.1 On September 2 1885, whites protesting started to become violent. In Rocky Spring, Nevada, at the number 6 coalmine white men confronted Chinese workers threatening them to retreat to their homes in China. When the Chinese refused the whites started a brawl which injured some of the Chinese very badly. As the Chinese continued to work the white men stormed off the war exile.

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