The Forgoten Gate
... Rush” through merchant vessels stopping over for supplies in the Kwangtung province. Coming to “Gamsaan” or “Gold Mountain” meant leaving family and home (Mosaic 250). A man would have to borrow money from the company his was going to work for just to pay for his passage to the United States. These Chinese workers usually came to the United Sates under the “credit fare” system. A man would repay the loan that paid his passage by working under contract for a specified period. He was then free to pursue his own living (Songs 5). The Chinese first started arriving in the United Sates in great numbers between 1849 and 1870 (Mosaic 250). By 1852, 20,000 Chinese immigrants reached California in search of gold and intended to return with their new riches to their families in China. The Chinese represented 25% of the entire work force in California alone (uiuc.edu). Along with building the railroads and mining, they were critical to California’s agriculture and fishing industries. They worked well in mass teams to reclaim swamp land. Not only did the Chinese take any and all jobs available to them, they were efficient at what they did do and were willing to work for nominal wages. The individuals who ventured out on their own were successful entreasures. All these positive attributes did not sit well with the “Euro-American” (Mosaic 10). An Irish labor group called the “Workingmen’s Party,” started the “Chinese Must Go” campaigns in the late 1870s (chsa.org). This group along with many other laborers set up racial divisions to ensure failure for the Chinese. Americans also claimed that the Chinese were sending too much gold back to China. They believed that the wealth should remain within the United States (Knoll 24). Along with physical assaults, anti-Chinese laws were ratified. For example, San Francisco passed ordinances such as the Cubic air Ordinance in 1870, forbidding Chinese to rent room with fewer than 500 cubic feet of air per person; the Sidewalk Ordinance in 1870, prohibiting Chinese from using poles to carry laundry loads on the sidewalk; and the Queue Ordinance in 1873, requiring Chinese prisoners to cut their hair short, a disgrace to Chinese national. In 1879 California’s second constitution prevented municipalities and corporations from employing Chinese. The legislature passed laws requiring all towns and cities to remove Chinese outside of the city limits. Mark Twain was quoted as saying of the Chinese, “They are a harmless race when white men either let them alone or treat them no worse than dogs” (Island 10). On May 6, 1882, with the help of politicians and opportunistic labor leaders, the Forty-Seventh Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Act states “…in the opinion of the Government of the United States the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities with in the territory…” (ourdocuments.gov). The once free and unrestricted immigration was replaced with restrictions and racism. For the first time in American history, members of a specific ethnic group were refused entry into the United States. The 1900 U.S. census reported a drop in the Chinese population to less that 90,000; by 1910, to 71,531; and by 1920, to 61,639 (census.gov)- about one-half of the reported figure in 1882.Between 1901 and 1910, Chinese deportations averaged 560 per year (Island 12). During the early 1890s the government built a quarantine station on Angel Island. Yellow fever, cholera, and plague were rampant throughout the world. The threat of these diseases was brought forth by the increased shipping traffic across the Pacific and the ever-faster ships to make the crossings. The purpose of the quarantine station was to keep infectious disease out of the United States by inspecting and, if necessary, disinfecting ships arriving from contaminated foreign ports. By this time the Chinese were able to find loopholes in the Exclusion Act of 1882. Some Chinese immigrants adopted false identities, becoming “paper sons” or “paper daughters” and claiming to be the children of American citizens. The groups that acted as intermediaries in the paper son industry ran a thriving business. A paper son or daughter would cost around $1500 in U.S. Gold. (aiisf.org). Chinese who adopted these false identities would have to turn into the identity for life. At any given moment a Chinese person’s papers could be checked for verification. Passengers of Chinese ships arriving at San Francisco were detained in a two-story shed at the Pacific mail Steamship Company (Island13). As many as 500 people were crammed into the facility at one time. The United State Immigration Department found the current buildings on Angel Island were not sufficient or safe for the new influx of immigrants. In 1905 building of the Angel Island Immigration Station began. On January 21, 1910 the station was completed and was open for business. From 1910 to 1940 the station would process over one million people. Chinese men and women would again leave their homes and families for Gold Mountain. This time armed with knowledge, a “coaching book” and hopefully some cash. The coaching books were purchased and studied through out the long ocean voyage. These books contained vital information for the new arrivals to get past the interrogators. After all the information that was contained in the coaching book was memorized the book was destroyed. Anyone found with such a book would be immediately deported. The journey took about three weeks. Most ships were voyager liners carrying first class and second class passengers. Not only the Chinese were considered the no-class passenger but so were the Russians and Mexicans. These groups could just plan on going to the detention station. Those with satisfactory papers could go ashore, and the remainder were transferred to a small steamer and ferried to the island immigration station to await hearings on their applications for entry. As soon as the ferry docked at Angel Island, whites were separated from other races, and Chinese were dept apart from other Asians. Men and women, including husbands and wives, were separated and not allowed to see or communicate with each other again until they were admitted into the country. Children under the age of twelve were allowed to stay with their mothers. This is a message to those who live here not to worry excessively. Instead, you must cast your idle worries...