Everyone loves cartoons. Cartoons! Yay!
Legislative efforts to keep the Chinese out of the
country spanned several decades before President Chester A. Arthur in 1882 signed
the Chinese Exclusion Act banning Chinese immigrants. After several revisions, the only law to specifically target an ethnic group became permanent in 1902
and was not repealed until 1943.
Cartoonist Thomas Nast often focused his work on the issue,
including this piece published in 1882.
To showcase the protectionist effort, illustrator F. Graetz, in the same year, inked this line
of laborers of varied ethnicities with Uncle Sam on the trowel. Ah, walls.
Nast also used the simple imagery of a wall, as Irish and
German immigrants, who once faced much discrimination themselves, man the
defenses against the Chinese.
By the way, Mexico welcomed the expelled Chinese into its labor
force, which forced the US to beef up policing along its southern border. Kind
of rich, isn’t it.
No comments:
Post a Comment