Chinese Immigrants In The Late 1800s

In the nineteenth century immigrants, specifically Chinese, had a poor reception among Americans. The Chinese immigrants were coming in at quite a steady rate and this didn’t make Americans happy because they believed that the Chinese immigrants were stealing the jobs that belonged to them. This created a problem that was large enough for the United States government to step in and create the Chinese Exclusion Act. This was something that was relevant for ten years. Part of the issue with Americans about the Chinese people was being misinformed. “Despite a lack of rights, these early Chinese immigrants were not coolies. They were voluntary immigrants who made their own arrangements and paid their own passage” (Kennedy). Americans had labeled the incoming Chinese people as coolies, contract laborers. The reality around this time however, was the Chinese immigrants

Thomas Nast created a cartoon in 1871 about congress, citizens in America, and the Chinese immigrant situation. The cartoon depicted the citizens as very angry with the congressmen, most likely because there was nothing happening with the Chinese immigration. The citizens were most likely feeling like they weren’t being heard and just being glossed over. Then if you look at the wall there are a bunch of not so polite things being written there and because of the time that it came out I think that it is safe to assume it is about the Chinese. Finally, you look at the congressman sitting down in displeasure because he is like a rock in a hard place. He understands that his people see this as a problem but when they talk about it in congress there isn’t anything that everyone can agree to do. Overall, you can see that there is not a decent persona out there about the Chinese