Waubonsee Community College

The Chinese must go, violence, exclusion, and the making of the alien in America, Beth Lew-Williams

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

mapsillustrations

index present

non fiction

The Chinese must go

bibliography

1000526851

Beth Lew-Williams

violence, exclusion, and the making of the alien in America

In 1882, the United States launched an unprecedented experiment in federal border control--which promptly failed. The Chinese Must Go examines this formative moment when America's lackluster attempt to bar Chinese workers provoked a wave of anti-Chinese violence across the U.S. West. In 1885 and 1886, white vigilantes in over 150 communities used intimidation, harassment, bombs, arson, assault, and murder to drive out their Chinese neighbors. This little-known outbreak of racial violence had profound consequences. Displacing tens of thousands of Chinese immigrants, the expulsions reshaped America's racial geography. In response, the federal government not only overhauled U.S. immigration law, but also transformed its diplomatic relations with China. The Chinese Must Go recasts the history of Chinese exclusion and its importance for modern America. During a period better known for the invention of the modern citizen, the Chinese in America defined what it meant to be an alien. The significance of the "heathen Chinaman" on American law and society far outlived him.--, Provided by publisher

Introduction: The violence of exclusion -- Part I. Restriction. The Chinese question ; Experiments in restriction -- Part II. Violence. The banished ; The people ; The loyal -- Part III. Exclusion. The exclusion consensus ; Afterlives under exclusion -- Epilogue: The modern American alien -- Appendix A Sites of anti-Chinese expulsions and attempted expulsions, 1885-1887 -- Appendix B Chinese immigration to the United States, 1850-1904