The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first American law banning the immigration of a group of people based on ethnicity. The conflict over the right to live and work in the United States meant that Chinese immigrants were often subjected to severe discrimination and violent attacks. This 61 year edict led to over a half a century of compromise with each new immigration law.
O workingmen dear, did you hear But strife will be in every town Twelve hunred honest laboring men
The news that's goin' round? Throughout the Pacific shore Thrown out of work today
Another China steamer And the cry of old and young shall be, By the landing of these Chinamen
Has been landed here in town. "O, damn, "Twelve Hundred More." In San Francisco Bay....
Today I read the papers,
And it grieved my heart full sore They run their steamer in at night This state of things can never last
To see upon the title page, Upon our lovely bay; In this our golden land,
O, just "Twelve Hundred More!" If 'twas a free and honest trade, For soon you'll hear the avenging cry
They'd land it in the day. "Drive out the China man!"
O, California's coming down, They come here by the hundreds- And then we'll have the stirring times
As you can plainly see. The country is overrun- We had in days of yore,
They are hiring all the Chinamen And go to work at any price- And the devil take those dirty words
And firing you and me; By then the labor's done. They call "Twelve Hundred More!"
-Twelve Hundred More, 1877
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
-The Declaration of Independence
Why should a nation which did not shrink from three millions of Negroes, get into a panic over a paltry one hundred thousand Mongolians?” |