Page Act of 1875
Encyclopedia
The Page Act of 1875 was the first federal immigration law
and prohibited the entry of immigrants
considered "undesirable." The law classified as "undesirable" any individual from Asia
who was coming to America to be a contract laborer, any Asian woman who would engage in prostitution
, and all people considered to be convict
s in their own country.
The law was named after its sponsor, Representative
Horace F. Page
, a Republican
who introduced to "end the danger of cheap Chinese labor and immoral Chinese women". The Page Act was supposed to strengthen the ban against “coolie” laborers, by imposing a fine of up to $2,000 and maximum jail sentence
of one year upon anyone who tried to bring a person from China, Japan
, or any oriental country to the United States “without their free and voluntary consent, for the purpose of holding them to a term of service”. However, these provisions, as well as those regarding convicts “had little effect at the time”. On the other hand, the bar on female Asian immigrants was heavily enforced and proved to be a barrier for all Asian women trying to immigrate, especially Chinese.
to the United States were overwhelmingly males, the majority of whom began arriving in 1848 as a part of the California Gold Rush
. They intended to make money in the United States and then return to their country, so even though more than half had wives and families, they stayed in China. However, anti-Chinese sentiment
could already be found in discriminatory laws in 1852 that limited Chinese possibilities. The California State Legislature
assumed that Chinese men were forced to work under long-term service contracts, when in reality immigrants to America were not coolies, but borrowed money from brokers for their trip and paid the money back plus interest through work at their first job. Without enough money to send for their wives, a prostitution industry developed in the male Chinese immigrant community and became a serious issue to white Americans
living in San Francisco. Laws specifically directed at Chinese women immigrants were created even though prostitution was fairly common in the American West
among many nationalities. Many of those in favor of Chinese exclusion
were not worried about the experiences and needs of poor Chinese girls that were being sold or tricked into prostitution, but about “the fate of white men
, white families, and a nation constructed as white”. Chinese men hurt white men’s ability to earn money, “while Chinese women caused disease and immorality among white men”. Both Chinese male “coolies” and Chinese female prostitutes were linked to slavery, which added to the American animosity toward them since slavery and involuntary servitude
was abolished in 1865. Male-laborers were central to the anti-Chinese movement, so one might expect lawmakers to focus on excluding men from immigration, but instead they concentrated on women in order to protect the American system of monogamous marriages. Therefore, the number of immigrants (majority male) entering the U.S. from China during the Page Act’s enforcement “exceeded the total for any other seven year period, before passage of the Exclusion Act in 1882, by at least thirteen thousand,” but the female population dropped from 6.4 percent in 1870 to 4.6 percent in 1880.
Furthermore, the American Medical Association
seriously believed that Chinese immigrants “carried distinct germs to which they were immune, but from which whites would die if exposed”. This fear became concentrated on Chinese women, because some white Americans believed that germs and disease could most easily be transmitted to white men through sexual labor of Chinese prostitutes. Additionally, during difficult times in China, women and girls were sold into “domestic service, concubinage, or prostitution”. Some Chinese men had a wife as well as a concubine, usually a lower class
woman obtained through purchase and recognized as a legal member of the family. A woman’s status depended on her sexual relationship
with Chinese men; “first wives enjoyed the highest status, followed by second wives and concubines, followed in turn by several classes of prostitutes”. Since all Chinese women were held in extreme submission by Chinese men, some immigration officials did not accept the Chinese culture (which considered the ownership and sexual exploitation of women to be a norm) and they were unable to distinguish between free women and exploited women. Many believed that “virtually all immigrant Chinese women were enslaved prostitutes”. Furthermore, the polygamy, prostitution, and subjugation of women that the Chinese men practiced made Congress believe that they were unfit for self-governance
or assimilation. An additional concern was that the children of Chinese couples would become U.S. citizens under the Fourteenth Amendment
and their cultural practices would become a part of American democracy. As a result, the Page Law responded to “what were believed to be serious threats to white values, lives, and futures". California state laws could not exclude women for being Chinese, so they were crafted as regulations of public morals, yet the laws were still struck down as “impermissible encroachment on federal immigration power". However, the Page Law sailed through Congress without any expressed concerns of having a federal law that racially restricted immigration or violated the Burlingame Treaty
of 1868 (which allowed free migration
and emigration of Chinese) because Americans were focused on protecting the social ideals of marriage and morality.
from 1875–1877, David H. Bailey, was put in charge of regulating which Chinese women were actual wives of laborers, allowed to travel to the United States, as opposed to prostitutes. Bailey set up support for the process with the British colonial
authorities and the Tung Wah Hospital Committee, an “association of the most prominent Chinese businessmen in Hong Kong". Before a Chinese woman could immigrate to the United States she had to submit “an official declaration of purpose in emigration and personal morality statement, accompanied by an application for clearance and a fee to the American Consul". The declaration was then sent to the Tung Wah Hospital Committee who would do a careful examination and then report back to Bailey about the character of each woman. Also, a list of the potential emigrants was sent to the British Colonial government in Hong Kong for investigation. In addition, the day before a ship sailed to America, Chinese women reported to the American consul for a series of questioning which included the following questions:
The Chinese women who “passed” these questions according to the American consul were then sent to be interrogated by the harbor master of the British colonial government. He would ask the women the same questions in an effort to catch liars, but if the women were approved they were then allowed to board the steamer to America. Once on board the ship, the women were questioned again. The first year that Bailey was assigned to differentiate wives from prostitutes he did not yet have the assistance of the Tung Wah Hospital Committee, and 173 women were allowed to sail to California, he was disappointed with that figure and granted only 77 women passage in 1877. In 1878, under the authority of American consul Sheldon Loring, 354 women arrived in the U.S. which was a substantial amount compared to John S. Mosby’s grant of less than 200 women to be sent to the U.S. from 1879-1882. Upon their arrival in San Francisco, Colonel Bee, the American consul for the Chinese would observe the documents with photographs of each woman included and ask her the same questions she had heard in Hong Kong. If women changed their answers to the questions, did not match their pictures, or had incomplete paperwork, they could be detained, and sent back to Hong Kong. As a result, from 1875-1882 at least one hundred and possibly several hundred women were returned to China. The entire process was “shaped by the larger, explicitly racist assumption” that Chinese women, like Chinese men were dishonest.
Photographs were used as a means to identify the Chinese women through each stage of the examination process in order to ensure that unqualified women would not be substituted for a woman who was properly questioned at any point in time. Chinese women were subject to this method of identification prior to any other immigrant group because of the "threat of their sexuality to the United States." In addition to all the questioning that took place in regard to a woman’s character, there were also in depth questions about Chinese women’s fathers and husbands. Therefore, these women were subject not only to racism
but also to sexist and classist beliefs because officials “accepted that male intentions and actions were more likely to determine a woman’s sexual future than her own actions and intentions”. Chinese women had to demonstrate that they grew up in respectable families and that their husbands could afford to support them in the United States. Also, “the appearance of the body and clothing supposedly offered a range of possible clues about inner character, on which some officials drew when trying to differentiate prostitutes from real wives." Bodily clues used to examine Chinese women included bound feet
, “prettiness, youth, demeanor,” and how they walked. However, the task of differentiating "real" wives from prostitutes was virtually impossible. Men, on the other hand, faced more lenient restriction practices and were not required to "carry photographs, nor to match photographs that had been sent in advance to San Francisco Port authorities."
was an appropriate gender balance established, because between 1946 and 1952 almost 90 percent of all Chinese immigrants were women.
The sojourner mentality of the Chinese limited the number of wives that chose to immigrate as well as the financial cost of the trip; however, documents relating to the enforcement of the Page Act suggest that some women were able to overcome the barriers and join their husbands, but without this law the numbers might have been much higher. According to historian George Peffer, “all the evidence suggests that the women who survived this ordeal were most likely the wives of Chinese laborers” because they would have possessed the determination needed to endure the questioning, while importers of prostitutes “might have been reluctant to risk prosecution”. Yet, this fact is difficult to conclusively prove especially since Peffer himself noted that the cost of immigration as well as possible bribes paid to American consuls would have created a greater hardship for the “wives of immigrants who possessed limited resources, than for the wealthy tongs” who sent prostitutes to the U.S. Therefore, although the Chinese Exclusion Act was extremely important in transforming Chinese into a “declining immigrant group, it was the Page Law that exacerbated the problem of life without families in America’s Chinatowns”. Moreover, the Page Act created the policing of immigrants around sexuality which “gradually became extended to every immigrant who sought to enter America,” and today remains a central feature of immigration restriction.
Immigration law
Immigration law refers to national government policies which control the phenomenon of immigration to their country.Immigraton law, regarding foreign citizens, is related to nationality law, which governs the legal status of people, in matters such as citizenship...
and prohibited the entry of immigrants
Immigration to the United States
Immigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the history of the United States. The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding ethnicity, economic benefits, jobs for non-immigrants,...
considered "undesirable." The law classified as "undesirable" any individual from Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
who was coming to America to be a contract laborer, any Asian woman who would engage in prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
, and all people considered to be convict
Convict
A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison", sometimes referred to in slang as simply a "con". Convicts are often called prisoners or inmates. Persons convicted and sentenced to non-custodial sentences often are not termed...
s in their own country.
The law was named after its sponsor, Representative
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
Horace F. Page
Horace F. Page
Horace Francis Page was an American politician that represented a Californian district in the United States House of Representatives. He was born near Medina, Orleans County, New York. He attended public schools and Millville Academy and then taught school in La Porte County, Indiana until 1854...
, a Republican
History of the United States Republican Party
The United States Republican Party is the second oldest currently existing political party in the United States after its great rival, the Democratic Party. It emerged in 1854 to combat the Kansas Nebraska Act which threatened to extend slavery into the territories, and to promote more vigorous...
who introduced to "end the danger of cheap Chinese labor and immoral Chinese women". The Page Act was supposed to strengthen the ban against “coolie” laborers, by imposing a fine of up to $2,000 and maximum jail sentence
Sentence (law)
In law, a sentence forms the final explicit act of a judge-ruled process, and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function. The sentence can generally involve a decree of imprisonment, a fine and/or other punishments against a defendant convicted of a crime...
of one year upon anyone who tried to bring a person from China, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, or any oriental country to the United States “without their free and voluntary consent, for the purpose of holding them to a term of service”. However, these provisions, as well as those regarding convicts “had little effect at the time”. On the other hand, the bar on female Asian immigrants was heavily enforced and proved to be a barrier for all Asian women trying to immigrate, especially Chinese.
Factors that influenced the creation of the Page Act
The first Chinese immigrantsOverseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....
to the United States were overwhelmingly males, the majority of whom began arriving in 1848 as a part of the California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
. They intended to make money in the United States and then return to their country, so even though more than half had wives and families, they stayed in China. However, anti-Chinese sentiment
Sinophobia
Sinophobia or anti-Chinese sentiment is the fear of or dislike of China, its people, overseas Chinese, or Chinese Culture...
could already be found in discriminatory laws in 1852 that limited Chinese possibilities. The California State Legislature
California State Legislature
The California State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of California. It is a bicameral body consisting of the lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members, and the upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members...
assumed that Chinese men were forced to work under long-term service contracts, when in reality immigrants to America were not coolies, but borrowed money from brokers for their trip and paid the money back plus interest through work at their first job. Without enough money to send for their wives, a prostitution industry developed in the male Chinese immigrant community and became a serious issue to white Americans
European American
A European American is a citizen or resident of the United States who has origins in any of the original peoples of Europe...
living in San Francisco. Laws specifically directed at Chinese women immigrants were created even though prostitution was fairly common in the American West
Western United States
.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...
among many nationalities. Many of those in favor of Chinese exclusion
Chinese Exclusion
Chinese Exclusion refers to a body of racially discriminatory immigration policies first set up in the United States, but later imitated by Australia and Canada ....
were not worried about the experiences and needs of poor Chinese girls that were being sold or tricked into prostitution, but about “the fate of white men
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
, white families, and a nation constructed as white”. Chinese men hurt white men’s ability to earn money, “while Chinese women caused disease and immorality among white men”. Both Chinese male “coolies” and Chinese female prostitutes were linked to slavery, which added to the American animosity toward them since slavery and involuntary servitude
Involuntary servitude
Involuntary servitude is a United States legal and constitutional term for a person laboring against that person's will to benefit another, under some form of coercion other than the worker's financial needs...
was abolished in 1865. Male-laborers were central to the anti-Chinese movement, so one might expect lawmakers to focus on excluding men from immigration, but instead they concentrated on women in order to protect the American system of monogamous marriages. Therefore, the number of immigrants (majority male) entering the U.S. from China during the Page Act’s enforcement “exceeded the total for any other seven year period, before passage of the Exclusion Act in 1882, by at least thirteen thousand,” but the female population dropped from 6.4 percent in 1870 to 4.6 percent in 1880.
Furthermore, the American Medical Association
American Medical Association
The American Medical Association , founded in 1847 and incorporated in 1897, is the largest association of medical doctors and medical students in the United States.-Scope and operations:...
seriously believed that Chinese immigrants “carried distinct germs to which they were immune, but from which whites would die if exposed”. This fear became concentrated on Chinese women, because some white Americans believed that germs and disease could most easily be transmitted to white men through sexual labor of Chinese prostitutes. Additionally, during difficult times in China, women and girls were sold into “domestic service, concubinage, or prostitution”. Some Chinese men had a wife as well as a concubine, usually a lower class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
woman obtained through purchase and recognized as a legal member of the family. A woman’s status depended on her sexual relationship
Intimate relationship
An intimate relationship is a particularly close interpersonal relationship that involves physical or emotional intimacy. Physical intimacy is characterized by romantic or passionate love and attachment, or sexual activity. The term is also sometimes used euphemistically for a sexual...
with Chinese men; “first wives enjoyed the highest status, followed by second wives and concubines, followed in turn by several classes of prostitutes”. Since all Chinese women were held in extreme submission by Chinese men, some immigration officials did not accept the Chinese culture (which considered the ownership and sexual exploitation of women to be a norm) and they were unable to distinguish between free women and exploited women. Many believed that “virtually all immigrant Chinese women were enslaved prostitutes”. Furthermore, the polygamy, prostitution, and subjugation of women that the Chinese men practiced made Congress believe that they were unfit for self-governance
Self-governance
Self-governance is an abstract concept that refers to several scales of organization.It may refer to personal conduct or family units but more commonly refers to larger scale activities, i.e., professions, industry bodies, religions and political units , up to and including autonomous regions and...
or assimilation. An additional concern was that the children of Chinese couples would become U.S. citizens under the Fourteenth Amendment
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...
and their cultural practices would become a part of American democracy. As a result, the Page Law responded to “what were believed to be serious threats to white values, lives, and futures". California state laws could not exclude women for being Chinese, so they were crafted as regulations of public morals, yet the laws were still struck down as “impermissible encroachment on federal immigration power". However, the Page Law sailed through Congress without any expressed concerns of having a federal law that racially restricted immigration or violated the Burlingame Treaty
Burlingame Treaty
The Burlingame Treaty, also known as the Burlingame-Seward Treaty of 1868, between the United States and China, amended the Treaty of Tientsin of 1858 and established formal friendly relations between the two countries, with the United States granting China most favored nation status...
of 1868 (which allowed free migration
Free migration
Free migration or open immigration is the position that people should be able to migrate to whatever country they choose, free of substantial barriers...
and emigration of Chinese) because Americans were focused on protecting the social ideals of marriage and morality.
Implementation
The American consul in Hong KongHong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
from 1875–1877, David H. Bailey, was put in charge of regulating which Chinese women were actual wives of laborers, allowed to travel to the United States, as opposed to prostitutes. Bailey set up support for the process with the British colonial
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
authorities and the Tung Wah Hospital Committee, an “association of the most prominent Chinese businessmen in Hong Kong". Before a Chinese woman could immigrate to the United States she had to submit “an official declaration of purpose in emigration and personal morality statement, accompanied by an application for clearance and a fee to the American Consul". The declaration was then sent to the Tung Wah Hospital Committee who would do a careful examination and then report back to Bailey about the character of each woman. Also, a list of the potential emigrants was sent to the British Colonial government in Hong Kong for investigation. In addition, the day before a ship sailed to America, Chinese women reported to the American consul for a series of questioning which included the following questions:
Have you entered into contract or agreement with any person or persons whomsoever, for a term of service, within the United States for lewd and immoral purposes? Do you wish of your own free and voluntary will to go to the United States? Do you go to the United States for the purposes of prostitution? Are you married or single? What are you going to the United States for? What is to be your occupation there? Have you lived in a house of prostitution in Hong KongProstitution in Hong KongProstitution in Hong Kong is itself legal, but organized prostitution is illegal, as there are laws against keeping a vice establishment , causing or procuring another to be a prostitute, living on the prostitution of others, or public solicitation....
, Macao, or China? Have you engaged in prostitution in either of the above places? Are you a virtuous woman? Do you intend to live a virtuous life in the United States? Do you know that you are at liberty now to go to the United States, or remain in your own country, and that you cannot be forced to go away from your home?
The Chinese women who “passed” these questions according to the American consul were then sent to be interrogated by the harbor master of the British colonial government. He would ask the women the same questions in an effort to catch liars, but if the women were approved they were then allowed to board the steamer to America. Once on board the ship, the women were questioned again. The first year that Bailey was assigned to differentiate wives from prostitutes he did not yet have the assistance of the Tung Wah Hospital Committee, and 173 women were allowed to sail to California, he was disappointed with that figure and granted only 77 women passage in 1877. In 1878, under the authority of American consul Sheldon Loring, 354 women arrived in the U.S. which was a substantial amount compared to John S. Mosby’s grant of less than 200 women to be sent to the U.S. from 1879-1882. Upon their arrival in San Francisco, Colonel Bee, the American consul for the Chinese would observe the documents with photographs of each woman included and ask her the same questions she had heard in Hong Kong. If women changed their answers to the questions, did not match their pictures, or had incomplete paperwork, they could be detained, and sent back to Hong Kong. As a result, from 1875-1882 at least one hundred and possibly several hundred women were returned to China. The entire process was “shaped by the larger, explicitly racist assumption” that Chinese women, like Chinese men were dishonest.
Photographs were used as a means to identify the Chinese women through each stage of the examination process in order to ensure that unqualified women would not be substituted for a woman who was properly questioned at any point in time. Chinese women were subject to this method of identification prior to any other immigrant group because of the "threat of their sexuality to the United States." In addition to all the questioning that took place in regard to a woman’s character, there were also in depth questions about Chinese women’s fathers and husbands. Therefore, these women were subject not only to racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
but also to sexist and classist beliefs because officials “accepted that male intentions and actions were more likely to determine a woman’s sexual future than her own actions and intentions”. Chinese women had to demonstrate that they grew up in respectable families and that their husbands could afford to support them in the United States. Also, “the appearance of the body and clothing supposedly offered a range of possible clues about inner character, on which some officials drew when trying to differentiate prostitutes from real wives." Bodily clues used to examine Chinese women included bound feet
Foot binding
Foot binding was the custom of binding the feet of young girls painfully tight to prevent further growth. The practice probably originated among court dancers in the early Song dynasty, but spread to upper class families and eventually became common among all classes. The tiny narrow feet were...
, “prettiness, youth, demeanor,” and how they walked. However, the task of differentiating "real" wives from prostitutes was virtually impossible. Men, on the other hand, faced more lenient restriction practices and were not required to "carry photographs, nor to match photographs that had been sent in advance to San Francisco Port authorities."
Effects on Chinese families and future immigrants to the U.S.
Most Chinese women that immigrated to the U.S. in the 1860s and the 1870s were "second wives, concubines in polygamous marriages, or prostitutes," but Americans were wrong to believe that all Chinese women worked as prostitutes. Enforcement of the Page Act resulted not only in the reduction of prostitutes but also the “virtually complete exclusion of Chinese women from the United States”. In 1882 alone, during the few months before the enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the beginning of its enforcement, 39,579 Chinese entered the U.S., and only 136 of them were women. Therefore, Chinese were unable to create families within the U.S. The Page Act was so successful in preventing Chinese women from immigration and consequently keeping the ratio of females to males low that the law "paradoxically encouraged the very vice it purported to be fighting: prostitution." Not until after World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
was an appropriate gender balance established, because between 1946 and 1952 almost 90 percent of all Chinese immigrants were women.
The sojourner mentality of the Chinese limited the number of wives that chose to immigrate as well as the financial cost of the trip; however, documents relating to the enforcement of the Page Act suggest that some women were able to overcome the barriers and join their husbands, but without this law the numbers might have been much higher. According to historian George Peffer, “all the evidence suggests that the women who survived this ordeal were most likely the wives of Chinese laborers” because they would have possessed the determination needed to endure the questioning, while importers of prostitutes “might have been reluctant to risk prosecution”. Yet, this fact is difficult to conclusively prove especially since Peffer himself noted that the cost of immigration as well as possible bribes paid to American consuls would have created a greater hardship for the “wives of immigrants who possessed limited resources, than for the wealthy tongs” who sent prostitutes to the U.S. Therefore, although the Chinese Exclusion Act was extremely important in transforming Chinese into a “declining immigrant group, it was the Page Law that exacerbated the problem of life without families in America’s Chinatowns”. Moreover, the Page Act created the policing of immigrants around sexuality which “gradually became extended to every immigrant who sought to enter America,” and today remains a central feature of immigration restriction.