In the 1880s, the United States began to intentionally and legally close their borders to non-Anglo immigrants through laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred Chinese laborers from immigrating to the United States. At that same time, there was a group of South Asian men who found a way to migrate and thrive in the United States, coming into ports on the East Coast. Some were laborers on British ships, who would then jump ship at U.S. ports. Others were Muslim peddlers from the Bengali region of South Asia who sold “exotic” products popular in the U.S. at that time. One of the earliest of those migrations consisted of Muslim men from the region of Hooghly, in the Indian state of Bengal, who were silk traders. And one of those men was named Moksad Ali.