Chinese Workers in Beaver Falls

Following labor disputes with local employees, the Beaver Falls Cutlery Company contracted with Chinese workers from San Francisco and New Orleans in 1872. Hired to work at the Harmonist-owned factory, they were among the first Chinese immigrants in Pa. In 1882, a wave of anti-Chinese sentiment led Congress to pass the highly restrictive Chinese Exclusion Act, which prohibited nearly all immigration from China until it was repealed in 1943.

Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania · United States