Forbidden Friendship
Finding the Facts Behind the Historical
Fiction
Ms. Austin's Fourth Grade Class
Gabriel Abbott Memorial School
Florida, Massachusetts 01247
WHEN
did all this happen?
We decided we needed a timeline
to show others what was happening in the rest of the world while this event
was taking place in North Adams. Just click on the date of each event to learn more.
Below the timeline we've included links to some other timelines dealing with
immigration.
 1749
- The township that would someday become North Adams, Massachusetts was
explored and surveyed.
1795--Naturalization
Act restricts citizenship to "free white persons" who reside in the United
States for five years and renounce their allegiance to their former country.
1848
--The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill starts
the California gold rush. This brings many people from all over the world
including Chinese.
1849--California Gold Rush spurs
immigration from China.
1864--Thousands of Chinese men, the
vast majority from Kwangtung Province in southeastern China, are Recruited
by Central Pacific Railroad Co. for work on the western portion of the first
transcontinental railroad.
1867--2,000 Chinese
railroad workers stage a one week strike.
1868--Burlingame-Seward
Treaty is enacted.
1870--California
passes a law against the importation of Chinese, Japanese, and "Mongolian"
women for the purpose of prostitution.
1870 --Chinese
immigrants arrive in North Adams, MA to replace striking show factory
workers.
1880--US and China
sign treaty giving the US the right to
limit but "not absolutely prohibit" Chinese immigration.
California's Civil Code passes anti-miscegenation law.
1882--The
Chinese Exclusion Act is passed by Congress. Further immigration of Chinese laborers is suspended.
Chinese residents are denied of rights to become naturalized U.S. Citizens.
1885--Alien Contract
Labor Law bars prohibited any company or individual from bringing foreigners
into the United States under contract to perform labor here. The only
exceptions are those who were brought to do domestic service and skilled
workmen who should be needed here to help establish some new trade or
industry.
 1892--Ellis
Island opens; serves as processing center for 12 million immigrants over the
next 30 years.
1900--San
Francisco Chinatown quarantined during bubonic plague scare.
1902--Chinese
exclusion extended for another 10 years.
1943--The
Chinese Exclusion Act is repealed. By the end of the 1940s, all restrictions
on Asians acquiring U.S. citizenship are abolished. 
1957--Immigration
and Nationality Act of 1957.
1965--Immigration
Act of 1965.
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