How Did Many White Americans Support The Chinese Exclusion Act Of 1882

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Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882.
• I feel like there were many reasons for the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 has many factors that are contributing to why it was passed. The first being the quick population growth of Chinese immigrants from 1852 – 1880. In just 28 years, 81,000 Chinese immigrants had migrated to America after Chinese started arriving in 1848 when gold was discovered in California. In 1862, 20 years before the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed the Chinese formed the Consolidated Benevolent Association. I feel this had a part in the act because it made Americans feel like they were monopolizing and possibly staging an uprising.
STEP 2: Read document A-D. For each, write any evidence you find for what led to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Based on this document, why did many white Americans support the Chinese Exclusion Act?
Document A
Anti-Chinese Play

With this document as my ONLY piece of evidence, I would say the Americans passed the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act because the Chinese were trying to take all the jobs and money. They thought the Americans were fools and were trying to make sure they had no money, even if it meant making their family suffer the consequences. This document made it look as if the Chinese were hateful and greedy. …show more content…

This was causing monopolies and a large population of Asians, overcoming the population. In document C it talks about how the Chinese had already began to monopolize the shoe, boot, and cigar industries and were starting to take over farming. This caused problems for many Americans and was quickly putting them out of work. That also brings up the point that the Chinese required fewer workers to complete a job because they did not require micromanagers. They could work independently and get the job done, therefore requiring less workers, as stated in document

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