United States law banning Chinese women immigrants
Page Act of 1875
Long title
An Act supplementary to the acts in relation to immigration.
Nicknames
Oriental Exclusion Act of 1875
Enacted by
the 43rd United States Congress
Effective
March 3, 1875
Citations
Public law
Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 43–141
Statutes at Large
18 Stat. 477, Chap. 141
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 4747 by Horace F. Page (R–CA) on February 18, 1875
Committee consideration by House Foreign Relations, Senate Committee of the Whole
Passed the House on February 22, 1875 (Passed)
Passed the Senate on March 3, 1875 (Passed)
Signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 3, 1875
The Page Act of 1875 (Sect. 141, 18 Stat. 477, 3 March 1875) was the first restrictive federal immigration law in the United States, which effectively prohibited the entry of Chinese women, marking the end of open borders.[1][2] Seven years later, the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act banned immigration by Chinese men as well.
The law was named after its sponsor, Representative Horace F. Page, a Republican representing California who introduced it to "end the danger of cheap Chinese labor and immoral Chinese women."[3] The law technically barred immigrants considered "undesirable"[4] and defined that as a person from East Asia who was coming to the United States to be a forced laborer, any East Asian woman who would engage in prostitution, and all people considered to be convicts in their own country. 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 East Asian country to the United States "without their free and voluntary consent, for the purpose of holding them to a term of service."[5]
Only the ban on female East Asian immigrants was effectively and heavily enforced and proved to be a barrier for all East Asian women trying to immigrate, especially Chinese women.[6] Moreover, the Page Act created the policing of immigrants around sexuality, which "gradually became extended to every immigrant who sought to enter America" and has remained a central feature of immigration restriction, according to some scholars.[7]
In 1875, President Ulysses Grant delivered a Seventh Annual Message to the United States Senate and House of Representatives. President Grant reaffirmed the United States bearing regarding the immigration of women originating from the Far East.[8]
While this is being done I invite the attention of Congress to another, though perhaps no less an evil--the importation of Chinese women, but few of whom are brought to our shores to pursue honorable or useful occupations.
Ulysses S. Grant
December 7, 1875
^Waxman 2018.
^Marinari, Maddalena (2022). "The 1921 and 1924 Immigration Acts a Century Later: Roots and Long Shadows". Journal of American History.
^Peffer 1986, p. 28.
^Abrams 2005, pp. 641–716.
^An Act Supplementary to the Acts in Relation to Immigration (Page Law) sect. 141, 18 Stat. 477 (1873-March 1875).
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