...During the colonial and Civil War time period, America was not truly free. Many people suffered from unequal pay, no representation and being treated like animals. Three of these groups are the slaves, Chinese Immigrants and women. All three of these groups were treated unfairly and were not truly free. Slaves were treated as animals, Chinese immigrants were harassed and women had unequal rights and no representation. If America had truly been free and believed that all men are created equal, then all minorities would have the same rights as wealthy, white, landowning Americans. Slaves were never free during the time period. Slaves were owned by white plantation owners and worked long hours with little to no compensation. Whippings occurred during long work hours when slaves would start to lag. To get the slaves, they were auctioned off like animals. One former slave said, “…we were slaves. We belonged to people. They’d sell us like they sell horses and cows and hogs and all like that”. No one can be free when they have no control over their lives. To top it...
Words: 713 - Pages: 3
...Why did Chinese immigrate to the United States? After civil war had settled down, many immigrants came to America to live from many countries such as Germany, Ireland, and England. There are as many as 12 million immigrants at this time. Regarding Chinese immigration, they immigrated to the United States from 1849 to 1882. Between this period, America had California Gold Rush, which is one of the reasons Chinese people immigrated. Because the Chinese Exclusion Act was taken into practice, no more Chinese people could immigrate to the United States after 1882. Chinese immigration is the divergent point for Chinese’ lives who lived in America. The main reason Chinese immigrants came to America after Civil War was for work. As a consequence, most of the Chinese immigrants were single men. Especially in California, Chinese people arrived. There is the promise of gold in California during 1850s. It was called California gold rush. After they gained money in America, they usually went back to their country. Chinese immigrants began doing their own business such as running restaurant and laundries. In addition, they started their agricultural laborers. Even though the hard work such as transcontinental railroad construction that connects the coast to coast did not give them good pay, they just work for money. There were two large rail road companies in the United States at this time: Central Pacific and Union Pacific. They began competing as soon as congress took the Pacific Railroad...
Words: 1053 - Pages: 5
...affected the way that immigrants from Asia were treated. One attitude twords them was the disaimful people in the US, especisally the officers at Angle Island. The interrogation twords the immigrants was constant, which would make them feel violated and uncomfortable. Also, within the US they were very poorly treated, native US citizens did not like them because they thought they might steal their jobs, and they wanted them gone, so they would constantly be very rude and disrespectful to them, just because of their ethnicity. The text states, "Some Americans expressed concern that immigrants would take jobs from native-born citizens; others harbored prejudices against people from other countries." The text also states, "Island officials did not make the immigrants feel welcome...They were subjected to medical exams and...
Words: 489 - Pages: 2
...The Chinese Exclusion Act There has been many intrusive stereotypes about many cultures, mainly because they were immigrants and so new to Americans. Theses stereotypes didn’t seem to validate them, but instead it invalidated them, in multiple ways. Many people still perceive different cultures with unfairness. The Chinese one of many cultures, were immigrating to America because of the gold rush. Most moved to American to boosted to financial status. There were many job opportunities for the Chinese so many more immigrants came into America, Eventually taking more and more jobs. Because they were coming to America for jobs and ultimately money, they were put into the stereotype of being greedy or selfish. Americans now felt that there weren’t enough jobs for the locals. The Chinese exclusion act was an act in order to band immigration from America. Because so many Chinese immigrants...
Words: 550 - Pages: 3
...“America was founded on immigrants. The immigrant experience is common to us all.” (Nia Vardalos) It is true that America was founded on immigrants. Most Americans have relatives that immigrated here to the U.S. Each had their own reason, whether that be in search of wealth, freedom, a fresh start and more. Life for the immigrants in the late 1800’s was extremely difficult. Immigrants either arrived through Ellis Island or Angel Island. Ellis Island was located in the East coast while Angel Island was located in the west coast. The U.S. received a huge amount of immigrants in the 1860s and the 1890s (Cayton, et. al., 299). Steam powered ships played a huge role in the 1800s. These ships could cross the Atlantic Ocean in two to three weeks....
Words: 1063 - Pages: 5
...Ancestors in the Americas As compare to ancient times, I feel lucky today for being Asian. As we know, Asian American populations make up one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the United States, contributing to an increasing racial and ethnic plurality in communities across the nation. History has been told us that Asian Americans suffered too much inequality in the past and the landmark of them. Although racial discrimination still exists somehow in America, as a new immigrant, I feel such situation has been improved a lot. Language barriers, cultural disparity and other issues still become the problems for the connection between Asian Americans and the Americans, but most of us are trying to break out the barrier. By looking back to the history of Asian American, the documentary “Ancestors in the Americas: Chinese in the Frontier West” which directed by Loni Ding, reveals the arrival and harsh experiences of the large-scale Chinese immigrants on the West Coast of the United States during the 1850’s Gold Rush in California. Also, it portrays their role in developing the American West, and their battles to overcome racial discrimination. In order to have a better life for the family, the Chinese men determined to leave their families and sailed to the Gam Sann (Gold Mountain) with the “American dream”. Far from home, they always send money home without any hesitation. They separate for decades, sometimes forever. However, it is so hard to maintain life in America. They didn’t...
Words: 800 - Pages: 4
...approximately 180 thousand immigrants and over 87 thousand American soldiers. Angel Island is a 640 acre island located in the center of the San Francisco bay, California. Because of the location, it served as a US military base and immigration center. The island was in US use from 1863 to 1946, processing soldiers and immigrants. Although seen as a place of hopelessness and frustration by the thousands of immigrants, Angel Island’s military roles and events positively contributed to American history. Angel Island managed the Chinese population of the West Coast poorly. The immigration center deported thousands of skilled Chinese for the fear that they would take all the jobs, however many of the Chinese were also willing to worked as laborers or other low skill jobs. Sam McMannis reports, “ How they [the Chinese] first arrived after the Goldrush, later were put to work building the railroads… were seen as taking jobs away from the native born citizens.”(www.scbee.com) The increasing amount of Chinese took some skilled jobs from citizens, which angered the citizens....
Words: 738 - Pages: 3
...issue in America, even today. Whether it is the color of your skin, what religion you practice, or whether you were born a male or female, many people are discriminated. I have been discriminated a lot. Whether they say something about my race or say I cannot do something because I am a girl, it happens very often. I remember being discriminated for my sex. The simple fact that I was born a female, and not a male. I have had someone tell me I was not going to work when I was older, and I was just going to marry someone rich that would take care of me. "Because I am pretty so I do not have to do anything." When I told him I wanted to get a job and provide for myself because I do not need someone to take care...
Words: 935 - Pages: 4
...impoverished Europeans began coming to North America to encounter opportunities and to make a new life for themselves and families. At the same time, Chinese people were crossing the Pacific to come to the United States and improve their quality of life as well. The major incline in Chinese immigration came when the gold rush kicked off in 1848. By 1880 more than 200,000 Chinese had settled in the United States. They were first met with hospitality from white Americans, but soon after the opinions turned into animosity. The Chinese had come to a country and garnered great success so many whites saw them as great rivals. Even though the Chines faced fierce discrimination during the second half of the nineteenth century, they remained in America and managed to support themselves....
Words: 621 - Pages: 3
...Inequality was extremely prevalent from the 1870’s to the and 1920’s, leaving any race, but whites unprivileged socially and economically. This created a major problem for every other race of people living in the United States at that time. All people of color were treated unfairly receiving what they did not deserve and not receiving what they did deserve. This varied from minuscule things to enormous ones like murder. This problem effected contemporaries of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era immensely by leaving the African Americans still restricted from doing many things a white man could do and being treated unlawfully in court, forcing the Indians out of their place of comfort and throwing them to assimilate to American’s civilization, and trying...
Words: 1280 - Pages: 6
...Natalie Ngoc Nguyen 05.09.2011 English 410 Essay 2 – Final Draft America for longs has been known as “Promised Land”, “Home of the brave” or “Land of free”. It is the dreamland in which nothing goes wrong. It make people from all around the world boldly leave their country to make a new living in the United State. For instance, from 1851 to 1860, about 40,000 Chinese immigrants have come to the U.S (Holland, 2007). But, how much truth is actually found in these widely used phrased? Sui Sin Far has proven through her story “In the land of free” that America is not the magical place everyone expects it to be. In the story, Hom Hing and Lae Choo were immigrants from China who also were attempting to build a family here in the United State. Hom Hing were running a grocery store in San Francisco while his wife Lae Choo was giving birth to the little one in China as well as taking care of her in laws until they passed away. Hom Hing and Lae Choo were supposed to reunite afterward. However, US government decided to make the life of Chinese immigrants difficult by taking away little one when the couples could not provide any official documents to prove the identity of their baby. Hence, little one was being sent into the missionary school. Lae Choo had fall into depression being apart from her son. In addition, in order to get back little one, the couples had to go through difficulties, to be ignored for months from the government, and to be taken advantaged by the lawyer who took...
Words: 929 - Pages: 4
...Because the strong restriction on Chinese people and less resources to support the immigration of Peter's family, Peter was the only one who migrated to America for work. According to Peter said, he migrated to America through the boat and the inside condition of the boat was really bad. For instance, many rats existed and ran around inside the boat. Also, immigrants usually made bowel movement inside the boat. Therefore, it was very dirty and smelly inside the boat. Most importantly, some immigrants got sick or even died by the bad condition because they needed to stay with the boat for a long trip to America. When Peter arrived in America, he was relocated to Angle Island first. Angle Island was the largest island in the San Francisco Bay and used as a quarantine station for boats or...
Words: 447 - Pages: 2
...Yale University and author of the book called Barbarian virtues: the United States encounters foreign peoples at home and abroad, 1876-1917, Matthew Frye Jacobson, wrote about how Americans in the last part of the 19th century have actually formulated the values of being barbaric against immigrants and foreigners that are both found inside and outside the country. It is from this book that wide and open reflections can be done as to how America have been influenced enough to its formation of the immigration laws in the ways that they applied racial discriminations and superiority against other races. These attitudes of the 19th century America is considered to be the primary factors that led to the formation of the American laws regarding immigration and its country’s history. In fact, this can be the considered turning point of the American society as to how they have actually regarded themselves more powerful than the rest of the other races. This should hold true in the ways that America allowed immigrants to work in the country and thus leading to the economic boom of the country. This, in turn, allowed the creation of the Centennial Exhibition and political stability through immigrant children. Outside interaction of the Americans would apply the same concepts of the American superiority. In the discussion that follows, we consider the particular relations of the Americans to foreigners and how this has actually affected the formations of laws that would, in some ways...
Words: 2685 - Pages: 11
...2) great wall represents china and hoover dam america All countries have symbols or unique history that set them apart. Constructed during the Qin Dynasty, the Great Wall of China’s significance stems from its unique history; the architecture was incredible for its time. Similarly, a powerful symbol in The United States of America represents American ingenuity and is also a amazing architectural feat, the Hoover Dam. Consequently, the Hoover Dam of the United States of America and the Great Wall of China are comparable. Similarly, they are both considered wonders of the world; therefore, they are obviously incredible. Because the Great Wall of China and the Hoover Dam of America were such large projects, they both required lots of manpower....
Words: 588 - Pages: 3
...America in the early 1800s, specifically 1800 to 1850, was beginning to move towards an industrialized society, with the factory system in the North, the cotton gin in the South, and more people moving out West. People came from all over to come to the US to find a new life, and because of this the US became a diverse country. Yet with all these improvements, the US didn't improve for everyone. Slavery was still practiced in a horrible amount in the South, especially because cotton was money, women had little say in anything, the US government was forcing Native Americans from their land to make room for new white settlers, immigrants into the country faced prejudice, and so many other groups lacked the rights that America is known...
Words: 942 - Pages: 4
