1600s | Spanish bring Chinese and Filipinos to Mexico. |
1763 | Filipinos desert Spanish ship in New Orleans, establish first Filipino community in U.S. in Louisiana bayou. |
1830s | Chinese laborers brought to work in Hawaiian sugar cane fields. Chinese peddlers recorded in New York City. |
1848 | California gold rush attracts Chinese prospectors. |
1850 | California imposes tax on foreign miners, targeting Chinese. |
1852 | Presbyterian mission begins working with Chinese in San Francisco. |
1854 | Chinese in Hawaii begin to organize. In The People v. Hall, California Supreme Court rules that a Chinese man could not give testimony in court since Chinese were "inferior, and . . . incapable of progress or intellectual development beyond a certain point . . ." Yung Wing graduates from Yale University, becomes first Chinese to graduate from a U.S. college. Commodore Perry signs first commercial treaty with Japan since 1638. |
