Overview

In the mid-1800s, when news of gold discoveries in California spread, immigrants from around the world rushed in. Among them was Sam Wong from China, a young farmer lured by the rumor that in America there was ""gold, gold, gold everywhere on the streets."" Although the rumor was exaggerated, Sam found gold in the streams of California-and other riches on the railroad. The demand for labor to build the first transcontinental railroad was so great that workers were recruited from China in large numbers. Once dismissed as too small and, with their pigtails, too feminine, for heavy labor, Chinese workers became a dominant force in uniting the country by rail. Sam thrived on the opportunities America offered, but he also encountered its darker side. While the hardships of frontier life affected workers of every stripe, Chinese immigrants were singled out for discrimination. The greatest injustice was the law that denied them the right to become citizens. Without the vote--and without political power--they became easy scapegoats. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first U.S. law to restrict immigration based on nationality. Sam Wong struggled and persevered. Like the silkworm raised on his family's farm in China, he passed through many stages of metamorphosis and was ultimately transformed.

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Reviews

""This book is just right for the 250th anniversary of our nation's founding. It celebrates the contribution of immigrants to the development of the United States. The author takes you on a journey of one immigrant, a Chinese railroad worker. He overcomes the obstacles placed in his path, adapts, and changes. From a Chinese in America, he becomes a Chinese American.""-Sue Lee, executive director (2003-2017), the Chinese Historical Society of America ""1882 vividly brings to life the journey of a Chinese immigrant drawn by the romantic promise of the California gold rush, only to endure backbreaking railroad labor and a struggle to belong in an unwelcoming land. Worse still, he must face the discrimination of the Chinese Exclusion Act-the unjust and ironic demonization of those who have suffered the harshest conditions to help unite the nation by rail. This inspiring story of courage and resilience reveals how arduous the road to freedom is, and how elusive true belonging-privileges that should never be taken for granted.""-Claire Chao, author of Remembering Shanghai, winner of the Writer's Digest Grand Prize and the Rubery Book Award Book of the Year

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