Angel Island
Angel IslandCapitalist's Exploitation of Immigrants
"The two societies can be rather simply characterized: on the American side, as one that stresses individual enterprise, which is expansive; and on the Chinese side, as a society that stresses the collective social order, which is resistant."1 America is said to have been founded by the white settlers and capitalists. In truth, these presumed pioneers used immigrants to fulfill their needs and desires. Capitalists and businesses created deceptive propaganda in order to exploit the Asian and European immigrants to the American Dream.
The American Dream portrayed the Constitution's promise of equal opportunity to all immigrants. To the Chinese, America and most notably California, was known as the "Mountain of Gold or Gold Mountain." Gold Mountain was more of a myth than a fact the American advertisements proclaimed it to be. Advertisements spoke in propaganda of untold riches and stories: great pay, good food, large houses, and most of all, that the Chinamen were welcome. Unfortunately, the Chinese immigrant's dream was shattered when he went searched for Gold Mountain, but found himself washing someone else's dirty clothes.
The initial Chinese to arrive on U.S. soil were treated favorably the American government and were welcomed in California. The Chinese conception then was to immigrate temporarily and return home after reaping the rewards of the American Dream. Most Chinese came from the province called Kwangtung and possessed similar interests and ideas. Immigrants originally traveled to Hong Kong and then to America by way of a ticket-credit system. This was the only way families could afford the expensive journey and essentially the Chinese were becoming indentured servants to buy their passage. A trip to America could cost fifty dollars, but at the pinnacle of the Gold Rush frenzy, captains and agents would price the trip at two-hundred dollars or more. There were less than a hundred people from China by 1853; however, the large influxes began in 1854, where thirteen-thousand immigrants traveled by ship in search of gold. It was not until these great influxes that Americans started to notice their Far East counterparts.
While a mere thousand Chinese immigrated annually, which irritated American workers because of the competition for jobs, eight-hundred-thousand Europeans came to the U.S. per year and nobody gave it a
second thought. Shortly, with all the problems the Chinese were said to have caused, new laws, such as the Exclusion Acts and various taxes, came into being. The Chinese were taken advantage of by the capitalists, the people who stood to benefit the most from the Chinese movement to America. By inventing stories of the land of gold, they captured the hearts of young entrepreneurs to traveled to America. They were then signed on as indentured servants. During American colonial times, indentured servants were used to assist farmers, until the farmers realized the servants would soon become competitors once they...
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