Contract Labor Law

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An act passed in 1864 to encourage immigration

Since 1869, industries of the United States had been advertising that there were great wages and jobs in America, causing a great immigration of people into the country. This caused wage rates to go down, and employers would often import cheap labor from Europe to end strikes. The Knights of Labor urged the United States Congress to pass the Contract Labor Law in 1885, which would further restrict the number of immigrants into America. But this law along with the Chinese Exclusion Act would not stop the mass number of immigrants into America in the 1880s and 1890s.

Companies and industries in America just after the Civil War offered contracts to immigrants. These would allow them a free passage to America, in exchange for work. These industries were eventually shut down, and contract labor was ended only a few years after starting. Contract Labor was never able to recruit more than a few thousand people because many immigrants broke their contracts.