AAS notes
Chinese Immigration to the U.S.
First Chinese to arrive in the U.S. was around 1820.
Subsequent Chinese immigrants who came from the 1820s up to the late 1840s were mainly men.
In 1852, the ratio of Chinese males to females in California was 1,681:1.
Due to the lack of Chinese women in the U.S. at that time, a number of men intermarried with Americans of Eastern European descent.
However, the majority of male immigrants lived as bachelors.
The first major immigration wave started around the 1850s.
In the second war, France fought alongside Britain.
Britain was smuggling opium from British India into China, and when China attempted to enforce its laws against the trade, the conflict erupted.
China succumbed in both wars and was forced to tolerate the opium trade and sigh Unequal Treaties opening several ports to foreign trade and yielding Hong Kong to Britain.
Several countries followed Britain forced unequal terms of trade onto China.
As a result, many Chinese emigrated from the poor Toisanese –and Cantonese-speaking area in Guangdong province to the United States in order to work.
Chines population rose from 2,716 in 1851 to 63,000 by 1871, 77% were located in California, with the rest scattered across the West, the South, and New England.
Those in California tried their hand at mining for gold.
Eventually, protest rose from white miners to eliminate the growing competition from foreign miners.
From 1852 to 1870(when the Civil Rights Act was passed), the California legislature enforced a series of taxes aimed at foreign miners who were not U.S. citizens.
Given that the Chinese were ineligible for citizenship at that time and constituted the largest percentage of the non-white population, the tax revenue was generated almost exclusively by them.
Chinese came to America in large numbers as individual miners during the 1849 California Gold Rush with 40,400 being recorded as arriving from 1851-2860, and again in the 1860s when the Central Pacific
First Chinese to arrive in the U.S. was around 1820.
Subsequent Chinese immigrants who came from the 1820s up to the late 1840s were mainly men.
In 1852, the ratio of Chinese males to females in California was 1,681:1.
Due to the lack of Chinese women in the U.S. at that time, a number of men intermarried with Americans of Eastern European descent.
However, the majority of male immigrants lived as bachelors.
The first major immigration wave started around the 1850s.
In the second war, France fought alongside Britain.
Britain was smuggling opium from British India into China, and when China attempted to enforce its laws against the trade, the conflict erupted.
China succumbed in both wars and was forced to tolerate the opium trade and sigh Unequal Treaties opening several ports to foreign trade and yielding Hong Kong to Britain.
Several countries followed Britain forced unequal terms of trade onto China.
As a result, many Chinese emigrated from the poor Toisanese –and Cantonese-speaking area in Guangdong province to the United States in order to work.
Chines population rose from 2,716 in 1851 to 63,000 by 1871, 77% were located in California, with the rest scattered across the West, the South, and New England.
Those in California tried their hand at mining for gold.
Eventually, protest rose from white miners to eliminate the growing competition from foreign miners.
From 1852 to 1870(when the Civil Rights Act was passed), the California legislature enforced a series of taxes aimed at foreign miners who were not U.S. citizens.
Given that the Chinese were ineligible for citizenship at that time and constituted the largest percentage of the non-white population, the tax revenue was generated almost exclusively by them.
Chinese came to America in large numbers as individual miners during the 1849 California Gold Rush with 40,400 being recorded as arriving from 1851-2860, and again in the 1860s when the Central Pacific