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Mini-lecture:

During Civil War, the North passed laws that helped industry (because the Southern representatives couldn’t block them).
Congress passed the Pacific Railway Act of 1863: the government would give RR companies free land and loan them money to build the transcontinental railroad (afterwards, the RR companies were supposed to sell the land on both sides of the track and pay back the government, but they never ended up doing that).
Two companies competed to get the most land and money: Union Pacific (built tracks from East to West) and Central Pacific (built tracks from West to East).
On May 10, 1869, the Central Pacific Railway met the Union Pacific Railway in Promontory Point, Utah, marking the completion of the transcontinental railroad.

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The building of the railroad depended on the labor of hundreds of thousands of workers. In the West, most of the people who built the railroad were Chinese.

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Hip Huges Frontloading

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Timeline

Use the timeline to generate hypotheses in response to this question: What happened between the 1860s, when Chinese were welcomed, and 1882, when they were excluded?

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Use the following documents A-D to complete Graphic Organizer.

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Document A

If This document was your ONLY piece of evidence, how would you answer the question: “Why did Americans pass the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act?”

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Document B

If this document were your ONLY piece of evidence, how would you answer the questions: “Why did Americans pass the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act?”

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Document C

If This document was your ONLY piece of evidence, how would you answer the question: “Why did Americans pass the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act?”

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Document D

If This document was your ONLY piece of evidence, how would you answer the question: “Why did Americans pass the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act?”

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Class Work / Homework

Write 1-page: What factors contributed to the Chinese Exclusion Act? Use evidence to support your answer.