Description
Each certificate has a photograph of the resident with his or her name, age, place of residence, occupation, eye color, height, complexion, birth marks and signature of each Chinese immigrant. These certificates are of nineteen year old mother Chang Hoo Shee and seven month old daughter Chang Sum.
After signing the Hawaii Organic act on the 30th April 1900, American laws now applied to the islands of Hawaii. As a result, the American Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 applied to Chinese immigrants in the territory of Hawaii. These certificates of residence would enabled Chinese citizens to work during the harvest of sugar. Hawaii’s export economy was reliant on immigrant labor throughout much of the 19th and 20th centuries. Therefore, free movement of immigrant labor was crucial to sustaining Hawaii’s biggest export, sugar.