Chinese Exclusion Act
The 1882 federal law that shut the door on Chinese labourers.
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882. It prohibited all immigration of Chinese labourers for ten years, with exceptions for travellers and diplomats, denied Chinese residents already in the country the ability to become citizens, and required Chinese people travelling in or out of the country to carry a certificate of their status or risk deportation.
Quick Facts
- Enacted by
- 47th
- Effective date
- May 6, 1882
- Cite public law
- 47, 126
- Cite statutes at large
- 22, 58, Chap. 126
- Sections created
- 8, 7
- Committees
- House Foreign Relations
- Amendments
- Repealed by Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act; on December 17, 1943
Lore & Background
It was the first major U.S. law to bar every member of a specific national group from immigrating, and it shaped twentieth-century immigration policy. The act followed growing anti-Chinese sentiment and violence and the Angell Treaty of 1880, which allowed the U.S. to suspend Chinese immigration. It was renewed and strengthened in 1892 by the Geary Act, made permanent in 1902, and remained in force until the Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act of 1943.
Reader's Guide
The act post-dates the series, which is set in 1876-77, but it is the end point of the anti-Chinese pressure that Deadwood's Chinatown already faced in the 1870s.
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