Nala An

Hist 152 Sec. 9

Professor Geoff Burrows
Friday 2/28/14 (Question 1)
Restrictions to Full Citizenships
Citizenship means opportunity, freedom, success, and
wealth. Gaining "full" citizenship means equality despite
one's race, gender, or class (rephrase). From the Civil War to
1900, many groups of people were prevented from obtaining
full citizenship. Specifically, Chinese workers and former
African Americans were politically, economically, and socially
stripped from their rights of citizenship in different ways. In
this paper, I will argue that Chinese workers who came to the
United States in order to financially provide for their families
were prevented from becoming citizens and former African
American slaves in the South, despite gaining citizenship
after the abolition of slavery were restricted from actively
pursing their rights by white southerners.
Chinese workers played a significant role during the
1860s as the United States started to develop its Western
territories. The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 granted land and
government bonds to railroad companies that were able to
construct railroad and telegraph lines expeditiously. As a
result, the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad
companies needed more workers to construct the
transcontinental railroad. With a million acres of land and $24
million dollars at stake, the six companies brought 12,000
Chinese workers into the United States, specifically to
California, offering free passage, food, and money. Chinese
workers anchored themselves to long term contracts and
debt because they needed a source of financial foundation in
order to provide for their families. The railroad companies
took advantage of this fact and prevented the Chinese
workers from actively accessing their rights.
Despite their hard work, Chinese laborers were paid
less while white immigrant workers were paid thirty-five
dollars a month but Chinese workers were paid only twenty-

seven dollars a month. Still, white workers began to fear the

economic competition from the Chinese because of the
scarcity of jobs. By 1880, the United States had over 200,000
Chinese workers. White laborers in the Eastern United
States feared the Chinese workers because they believed
that the textile factories would hire the Chinese
workers instead, since the Chinese workers were skilled and
willing to work for cheaper wages. However, in 1882, the
Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by the Congress. This act
prohibited Chinese workers from entering the United States.
Specifically, the Chinese Exclusion Act states, "...Government
of the United States the coming of Chinese laborers to this
country endangers the good order of certain localities with
the territory...," (fix quote) and by forbidding the entry of
Chinese workers, discriminated them even further.
Specifically, in the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Chinese
workers were stripped from privacy always having to
"proceed to examine" their certificate stating their, "name,
title, or official profession, and place of residence in China."
The United States set to prevent Chinese workers from
becoming citizens by ordering that "hereafter no State court
or court of the United States shall admit Chinese to
citizenship." Also, Chinese women were bound by four-year
contracts by the Six Companies and Central Pacific Railroad
whom brought them as sex slaves or prostitutes. The Page
Act of 1875 states, "women for the purposes of prostitution is
hereby forbidden," banning Chinese women into the United
States. By 1893, all Chinese workers who were noncitizens were forcibly removed and deported without trial. In
1892, the Chinese Exclusion Act was renewed and in 1902,
made permanent.
At the same time Chinese workers were suffering from
legal discrimination, African Americans were trying to attain
their rights as citizens. The American Civil War highlighted
the racism and foreshadowing corruption of African
Americans in the south. Even after the victory of the northern
states in the Civil War, the southern landowners refused to

abolish slavery and give equal opportunity to African

Americans in the south. Thus, during the period of
Reconstruction, the Republicans freed the African American
slaves in the south and tried to protect them with various
laws. In order to do this, the Republicans enacted three
amendments, which were the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and
Fifteenth amendments, abolishing slavery, granting
citizenship to all people born in the United States, and giving
the right to vote to all men despite one's
color or race, respectively. Although these laws were passed,
the protection of the African American slaves in the south to
receive full citizenship was limited and short. why?
In the late 1870s the end of the Reconstruction, also
withered away the power of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and
fifteenth amendments. The Southern whites supplanted new
laws that prevented the African Americans from receiving full
citizenship. The supremacy of the southern whites prevented
previous African American salves from voting. Although the
fourteenth amendment granted them the right to vote as
citizens, white southerners required African Americans to
pass the literacy test in order to vote. However, because the
African Americans were uneducated, they could not pass,
preventing them from voting. The grandfather clause was
another barrier. The southern white found ways to avoid the
laws enacted to protect the African Americans in the south
from gaining full citizenship. The emergence of a group called
Ku Klux Klan after the Civil War, abused and lynched African
Americans. Elias Hill, a former African American slave, "whose
freedom was purchased" was "struck," "beat," "pointing
pistols," "horse-shipped." Many former African American
salves encountered the KKK in devious ways leading them to
move to the north or stay in the south hoping that one day
the "whites that professed to be our friends then have since
cried out and rejoiced in our hearing over our injuries and
sufferings," will be united with them.
Nine southern states passed Jim Crow laws that segregated
African Americans in the south from sharing the same

facilities such as bathrooms, water fountains, and public

transportations. In 1896, the Plessy vs. Ferguson case
depicted the unjust discrimination of the African Americans.
Ferguson states, " slavery, as an institution tolerate by law,
would, it is true, have disappeared form our country; but
there would remain a power in the states, by sinister
legislation, to interfere with the full enjoyment of the
blessings of freedom, to regulate civil rights, common to all
citizens...," portraying the unequal treatment the African
Americans in the south underwent even though they were
granted citizenship and abolishment of slavery. This separate
but equal ruling restricted African Americans from fully being
able to use their rights as citizens. Steven Thaddeus, who
advocated for the racial equality of the African Americans
believed that, "every man, no matter what his race or color;
every earthly being who has an immortal soul, has an equal
right to justice, honesty, and fair play with every other man;
and the law should secure him these rights." He believed that
because the African Americans were citizens of the United
States, discriminating them against the whites did not give
them the full citizenship they deserve.
The inequality of rights given to citizens or immigrants
are demonstrated through the former African American
slaves and Chinese workers in the United States during the
Civil War to 1900. Based on race, gender, or class, Chinese
workers and former African American slaves in the south were
prevented from obtaining full citizenship. Chinese workers
who came to the United States for jobs were stripped from
becoming citizens due to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
and the white workers. As for the former African Americans
who received citizenship, could not actively participate in
applying their rights due their history of being slaves, various
laws, and social groups such as the southern whites. Each
and every person possess their own rights that should not be
restricted or ignored by political, economic, or social

problems but rather be given freedom to access their rights

despite their color, gender, or class.