The Page Act: How America Banned Chinese Women

In 1875, the United States passed the Page Act: the first federal law to restrict immigration. The Page Act marked a turning point in American immigration policy, introducing the use of moral and racial criteria to determine who could enter the country.

Join me as I examine the origins, language, and enforcement of the Page Act, how the law impacted immigration from China, and how it shaped future U.S. policies, including the Chinese Exclusion Act.

The Page Act is often overlooked in discussions of American immigration history, but it offers important insight into how race, gender, and morality became central to border control in the late 19th century.