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Immigration
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My Mother's Illness
When I was only 15 years old, my mother became extremely sick. Its been a year later and she has only gotten worse. I realized recently that we were running out of money to keep my mother alvie, fast. The only way to keep her up, would be to travel to America and find work to pay for her health and support my family. A few years later, I hope to be back with my family and out of poverty. -
Angel's Island
After I left my home in Ghaungzhou, China, I boarded a rather large ship to immigrate to Angels Island in America. People stared at me as if i was an unfamiliar creature, like they had never seen someone who wasn't white before. It took 2 weeks just to get across the Atlantic Ocean. And when I arrived in America, they held me at Angels Island for almost two weeks, only because of my race. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
My father had planned, for years, to come to America and join me and my work. He would become a railroad builder, just like me, and we would work together to earn more money for my ill mother. A few days before he would leave, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed and he could not board any ships to come to the United States, because of his race. -
Finding Family
I found my uncle Hehow, over two years after moving to America. We met in Rock Springs, Wyoming when I was searching for a job in that area. A few months after living there I had an idea of where I wanted to live and work. -
A Chinese Killing
At the peek of my life, I had just found an idea for a job in Washington. When a group of whites stormed through my town of Rocksprings, Wyoming and killed 28 Chinese. One of these chinese happened to be my uncle. That was when I realized I had to leave Wyoming and start working again, to save my mother. -
Plan To Move West
Racism was growing rapidly and my want to move west was getting bigger everyday.After hearing about how many Chinese people, like me, were working in Washington as railroader builders. I knew it was where I needed to be. -
The Trip West
It was finally time for me to move west. I had bought myself a horse and a small carriage to hold all of my belongings. Although it wasn't much, I had brought rice, tea, pictures, and many clothes I could easily work in, to eastern Washington. It took me almost 2 weeks to arrive in here. There I would become a railroad builder just like I had planned. -
Severe Discrimination
I had only been working as a railroad builder for a few weeks and it was going fine. Until, unexpectedly the wages for Chinese workers were sufficiantly lowered. Even though we were doing the same amount of work, if not more, as whites, they got paid more. I started to think that I would be better off finding work back home, in Guangzhou, China. -
Diseases Spread
The amount of workers on railroads were increasing rapidly. Almost two thirds of them were Chinese, the others white. Because there was so much overcrowding in that area, disease spread to one fifth of the workers, killing many, including 3 of my closest friends. -
Coming Home
In attempt to not catch a disease from other workers, I decided I would go back to my home. It had been 5 long and dreadful years here in western America and I needed to see my family again. My mother had been getting much better with the money I had sent her. Therefor I would go back to Angels Island and ship back to Guangzhou, China.
