| Introduction xiv Immigration meant a difficult journey, but immigration laws did not hamper ar- rival at first. In fact, there were few restrictions on those arriving, and there was no one who was an illegal immigrant. Quotas and limits on the total number who could be admitted were for future times. Immigrants could even include convicts and debtors. Entry was easy, unless a colony or state quarantined a ship due to disease. Restrictive laws did not appear until well into the 19th century. The tribulations of the passage over were also very different in the initial years. Coming by sail and later steamship, traveling in cargo or passenger ships, immigrants had rough jour- neys to the New World. They were routinely placed in the steerage areas, below the water line and where the steering mechanisms had once been housed. Jammed together with little light and air, immigrants sometimes faced disease, particularly typhus and smallpox, as they crossed the ocean to America. Arrival locations for cargo ships were based on where they dropped off European manufactured goods and picked up American raw material. Later in the century, steamships had regular service and stopped at numerous ports. By the end of the 19th century, travel time could be from a few days to two weeks (Kraut 1982). This is a different experience from immigrants arriving by airplane or through overland routes in contemporary times. The laws governing immigration became increasingly severe as the country ex- perienced more immigrants and more diversity. While naturalization laws dealing with securing citizenship became an issue as early as the beginning of the 19th cen- tury, the first federal immigration law did not appear until 1882, after the Supreme Court deemed that immigration was a federal, not a state matter. The Chinese were the first ethnic group to be singled out for restriction and exclusion. While nativists feared Irish Catholics becoming citizens, it was the Chinese who were banned from even coming to America. Ostensibly directed only at Chinese laborers and initially passed for a ten-year period, it had the effect of barring most Chinese and was even- tually extended indefinitely. Chinese already in America but China-born could not become citizens, a situation that was evident after 1870 (Daniels 1990 2004). The entry of a racial/ethnic factor in immigration was new but indicated a sense of the countryƊs prejudices and a precursor to what was to be legislated later. Further legislation in the 1880s and 1890s prevented the entry of such categories of people as contract laborers, the insane, diseased individuals, criminals, polyga- mists, and those who might become charity cases. A few years later came restric- tions against anarchists or others who would support the overthrow of the U.S. government. Within these years of individual-based restrictions, the second attempt to bar an Asian group was secured. The GentlemenƊs Agreement with Japan of 1907ă1908 prevented Japanese laborers from entering the United States Through this pact, Japan also would not allow laborers to leave their country. As a result of this agreement, only a very small number of Japanese would be able to enter the United States (Daniels 1990).
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