This\r\nis an old article (from 1924) about the history of the Chinese in\r\nCalifornia. It's somewhat racist (sometimes in a sympathetic way),\r\nbut if you can get past that, there's a wealth of knowledge about the\r\nnativist movement of the late 1800s that seems to have been uncannily\r\nreincarnted in the current anti-immigrant movement.<\/i><\/p>\r\n
\r\n<\/p>\r\n
THE\r\nCHINESE \r\n<\/p>\r\n
by\r\nHenry Kittredge Norton \r\n<\/p>\r\n
Like\r\nevery other nation in the world, the Chinese Empire was represented\r\nin the great rush for California which took place during the gold\r\nexcitement. At the beginning of the year 1849 there were in the state\r\nonly fifty-four Chinamen. At the news of the gold discovery a steady\r\nimmigration commenced which continued until 1876, at which time the\r\nChinese in the United States numbered 151,000 of whom 116,000 were in\r\nthe state of California. This increase in their numbers, rapid even\r\nin comparison with the general increase in population, was largely\r\ndue to the fact that previous to the year 1869 China was nearer to\r\nthe shores of California than was the eastern portion of the United\r\nStates. Another circumstance which contributed to the heavy influx\r\nof Chinese was the fact that news of the gold discovery found\r\nsoutheastern China in poverty and ruin caused by the Taiping\r\nrebellion. Masters of vessels made the most of this coincidence of\r\nfavorable circumstances.<\/b> They distributed in all the Chinese\r\nports, placards, maps and pamphlets with highly colored accounts of\r\nthe golden hills of California. The fever spread among the yellow men\r\nas it did among others, and the ship-men reaped a harvest from\r\npassage money. \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n
Probably\r\nthe most conspicuous characteristic of the Chinese is their passion\r\nfor work. The Chinaman seemingly must work. If he cannot secure work\r\nat a high wage he will take it at a low wage, but he is a good\r\nbargainer for his labor and only needs the opportunity to ask for\r\nmore pay. This is true of the whole nation, from the lowest to the\r\nhighest. They lack inventiveness and initiative but have an enormous\r\ncapacity for imitation. With proper instruction their industrial\r\nadaptability is very great. They learn what they are shown with\r\nalmost incredible facility, and soon become adept. \r\n<\/p>\r\n
If\r\nthe social conditions prevailing in California in the days of ’49\r\nare recalled, it is not difficult to realize how welcome were the\r\nChinese who first came to the country. Here were men who would do the\r\ndrudgery of life at a reasonable wage when every other man had but\r\none idea—to work at the mines for gold. Here were cooks,\r\nlaundrymen, and servants ready and willing. Just what early\r\nCalifornia civilization most wanted these men could and would supply.\r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n
The\r\nresult was that the Chinaman was welcomed; he was considered quite\r\nindispensable. He was in demand as a laborer, as a carpenter, as a\r\ncook; the restaurants which he established were well patronized; his\r\nagricultural endeavors in draining and tilling the rich tule lands\r\nwere praised. Governor McDougal referred to him as “one of the most\r\nworthy of our newly adopted citizens.” In public functions he was\r\ngiven a place of honor, for the Californians of those days\r\nappreciated the touch of color which he gave to the life of the\r\ncountry. The Chinese took a prominent part in the parades in\r\ncelebration of the admission of the state to the Union. The Alta\r\nCalifornia,<\/i> a San Francisco newspaper, went so far as to say,\r\n“The China Boys will yet vote at the same polls, study at the same\r\nschools, and bow at the same altar as our countrymen.” Their\r\ncleanliness, unobtrusiveness and industry were everywhere praised. \r\n<\/p>\r\n
The\r\nChinese were surely in a land of milk and honey. They had left a land\r\nof war and starvation where work could not be had and food must be\r\nbegged and here they found themselves in the midst of work and\r\nplenty. They were everywhere welcomed and their wages were such that\r\nthey could save a substantial part to send back to the families they\r\nhad left at home in China; or, if they did not wish to labor for\r\nmasters, they could go to the mines. Here they could take an old\r\nclaim which had been abandoned by the white miner and dig from it\r\ngold dust which to them represented wealth untold. They were careful\r\nnot to antagonise these whites by prospecting ahead of them, and in\r\nreturn they received the same treatment in the mining districts that\r\nthey had met with in San Francisco. \r\n<\/p>\r\n
The\r\nChinaman was welcomed as long as the surface gold was plentiful\r\nenough to make rich all who came. But that happy situation was not\r\nlong to continue. Thousands of Americans came flocking in to the\r\nmines. Rich surface claims soon became exhausted. These newcomers did\r\nnot find it so easy as their predecessors had done to amass large\r\nfortunes in a few days. California did not fulfil the promise of the\r\ngolden tales that had been told of her. These gold-seekers were\r\ndisappointed. In the bitterness of their disappointment they\r\nturned upon the men of other races who were working side by side with\r\nthem and accused them of stealing their wealth. They boldly asserted\r\nthat California’s gold belonged to them. The cry of “California\r\nfor the Americans” was raised and taken up on all sides.<\/b>\r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n
Within\r\na short time the Frenchman, the Mexican and the Chileño had\r\nbeen driven out and the full force of this anti-foreign persecution\r\nfell upon the unfortunate Chinaman. From the beginning, though well\r\nreceived, the Chinese had been a race apart. Their peculiar dress and\r\npigtail marked them off from the rest of the population. Their camps\r\nat the mines were always apart from the main camps of white miners.\r\nThis made it the easier to turn upon them this hatred of outsiders.\r\nWith the great inrush of gold-seekers the abandoned claims which the\r\nChinese had been working, again became desirable to the whites and\r\nthe Chinese were driven from them with small concern. Where might\r\nmade right the peaceable Chinaman had little chance. \r\n<\/p>\r\n
The\r\nstate legislature was wholly in sympathy with the anti-foreign\r\nmovement, <\/b>and as early as 1850 passed the Foreign Miners’\r\nLicense law. This imposed a tax of twenty dollars a month on all\r\nforeign miners. Instead of bringing into the state treasury the\r\nrevenue promised by its framers, this law had the effect of\r\ndepopulating some camps and of seriously injuring all of them. San\r\nFrancisco became overrun with penniless foreigners and their care\r\nbecame a serious problem. The law was conceded to be a failure and\r\nwas repealed the following year. \r\n<\/p>\r\n
By\r\nthe time this was done, however, the Chinese had become the most\r\nconspicuous body of foreigners in the country and therefore had to\r\nbear the brunt of the attacks upon the foreign element.<\/b> Governor\r\nBigler suddenly became inspired with the realization of the value of\r\nan attack upon them as a political asset. He sent a special message\r\nto the legislature in which he charged them with being contract\r\n“coolie” laborers, avaricious, ignorant of moral obligations,\r\nincapable of being assimilated, and dangerous to the public welfare.<\/b>\r\nThe result was a renewal of the foreign miners’ tax, but in a\r\nmilder form than its predecessor. \r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n
This\r\ndid not satisfy the miners, who were at that time the strongest body,\r\nin the community, and the next year the tax was again made\r\nprohibitive. \r\n<\/p>\r\n
But\r\nit was not only the miners who hated the Chinese. The yield of the\r\nplacers began to decline in 1853-4, and the discovery of gold in\r\nAustralia brought on a financial panic in the latter year. Prices,\r\nrents and values fell rapidly and many business houses failed. There\r\nwere strikes for higher wages among laborers and mechanics though the\r\nprevalent rate for skilled labor was ten dollars per day and for\r\nunskilled three dollars and a half. Investors became alarmed and,\r\nwithdrew their capital. Thousands of unsuccessful miners drifted\r\nback into San Francisco and began to look for work at their old time\r\noccupations. The labor market was glutted and an enormous number were\r\nout of work.<\/b> \r\n<\/p>\r\n
To\r\nthese unemployed men the presence of thousands of Chinese, thrifty,\r\nindustrious, cheap, and above all, un-American, was obviously the\r\ncause of their plight. The cry was raised that the large number of\r\nChinese in the country tended to injure the interests of the working\r\nclasses and to degrade labor. It was claimed that they, deprived\r\nwhite men of positions by taking lower wages and that they sent their\r\nsavings back to China; that thus they were human leeches sucking the\r\nvery life-blood of this country. Whoever came to their defense was\r\nimmediately accused of having mercenary motives or of being\r\nhalf-witted. <\/b>\r\n<\/p>\r\n
The\r\n“coolie” fiction of Governor Bigler was seized upon. In the first\r\nhalf of the nineteenth century a pseudo-slave trade had sprung up in\r\ntransporting Chinese laborers under contract to work at a certain\r\nwage for a certain period to Cuba, and parts of South America. Such\r\nlaborers were ignorantly called “coolies” by those who were not\r\nfamiliar with the Chinese language. The word itself comes from two\r\nChinese words, “koo” meaning to rent, and “lee” meaning\r\nmuscle. The coolies are those who rent out their muscles, that is,\r\nunskilled laborers. In the four classes of China they rank with the\r\nthird, being considered a higher class than the merchants but below\r\nthe scholars and farmers. The word in no way signifies any sort of\r\nbondage. The “coolies” are perfectly free just as our own\r\nlaborers are. \r\n<\/p>\r\n
The\r\nChinese who came to California were largely of this class and so\r\ndescribed themselves on their arrival. It did not take long for\r\nthe anti-Chinese agitators to define a “coolie” as a contract\r\nlaborer and to describe how he was bound to a master in China to work\r\na certain number of years at a small wage and how this terrible\r\nsystem was eating the very vitals out of American labor. This\r\nAmerican labor about which there was so much concern was almost\r\nwholly composed of Irish and other European aliens who were no more\r\nAmerican than the Chinese. But they had a vote in prospect. The\r\nChinese did not. <\/b>\r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n
While\r\nthe success of the coolie fiction was largely due to the fact that\r\nthere were so many who wanted to believe it<\/b>, a number of\r\ncircumstances combined to give it greater vitality. Most of the\r\nbusiness transactions of the Chinese were done through their\r\nbenevolent organizations which came to be locally known as the “Six\r\nCompanies.” The Companies often contracted for large bodies of\r\nlaborers and this fact led the unthinking to conclude that these\r\nlaborers were under contract with the Six Companies to work for them\r\nas they should direct. This was not the true situation. These\r\nCompanies simply acted as clearing-houses for all sorts of\r\ntransactions among the Chinese, as they had found that they could\r\nhandle things in a strange land more satisfactorily through such\r\nassociations than they could individually. \r\n<\/p>\r\n
Another\r\nthing which strengthened the coolie fiction was the manner in which\r\nthe Chinese were employed on the construction work. of the Central\r\nPacific Railroad. Because of the scarcity of labor the men in charge\r\nof this construction work had sent an agent to China to secure\r\nChinese laborers. In order to get these men over to this country, it\r\nwas necessary to advance their passage-money and other expenses. To\r\ncover this loan each Chinaman so employed signed a promissory note\r\nfor $75. This note provided for monthly instalment payments running\r\nover a period of seven months and was endorsed by friends in China.\r\nEach laborer was guaranteed a wage of $35 a month. This financial\r\narrangement was of course seized upon and made much of by the\r\nanti-Chinese agitators as the final proof of “coolieism.” \r\n<\/p>\r\n
The\r\nbelief that the Chinese were contract laborers was one of those\r\nunfortunate errors which sometimes became current in our civic life,\r\nand by frequent repetition receive almost universal acceptance. In\r\nthe present instance this phantom of Chinese slavery became so\r\nthoroughly a part of the political life of the Pacific Coast that no\r\nattempt was made to reach the truth of the matter. Every man in\r\npublic life was under so binding a necessity to accept the popular\r\nbelief in regard to the Chinese and to truckle to it at every turn,\r\nthat for one to seek the real truth of the matter was to end\r\nforthwith his political career. <\/b>\r\n<\/p>\r\n
In\r\nthe years following 1854 this unthinking, prejudiced, anti-Chinese\r\nmovement ran riot. Various schemes were proposed for ridding the\r\ncountry of the Chinese as if they were a pest.<\/b> It was seriously\r\nsuggested that they be all returned to China, but as this would have\r\ninvolved an expense of about seven millions of dollars and ten or a\r\ndozen ships for every vessel that was available, it was reluctantly\r\nlaid aside. This scheme failing, it was asserted that they could at\r\nleast be driven from the mines. But as this would have deprived the\r\nstate of a large revenue from licenses and would have crowded the\r\noutcasts in still greater numbers to the cities and agricultural\r\ndistricts, this too was abandoned. \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n
Various\r\nlocal authorities passed legislation intended to harass them.<\/b>\r\nMost of the Chinese were in San Francisco, so the principal efforts\r\nwere made in that city, The famous “pig-tail ordinance” required\r\nall convicted male prisoners to have their hair cut within one inch\r\nof their heads. This particular piece of idiocy was vetoed by the\r\nmayor but others almost as vicious were passed. \r\n<\/p>\r\n
Many\r\nof these were declared unconstitutional by the courts, but even the\r\ncourts were not at all times consistent friends of the Chinaman. The\r\nworst blow which they received was embodied in a decision given by\r\nthe Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court. There was a statute on\r\nthe books which prohibited “negroes and Indians” from testifying\r\nagainst a white man in the courts of the state. The court held, in a\r\nbrilliantly logical opinion, that this included the Chinese for the\r\nreason that in the days of Columbus all of the countries washed by\r\nChinese waters had been called “Indian.” \r\n<\/p>\r\n
During\r\nthe Civil War other issues overshadowed the Chinese question and the\r\nOrientals had a brief respite. But in 1868 the Burlingame treaty was\r\nentered into between the United States and China. It provided for\r\nreciprocal exemption from persecution on account of religious belief,\r\nthe privilege of schools and colleges, and in fact it agreed that\r\nevery Chinese citizen in the United States should have every\r\nprivilege which was expected by the American citizen in China. Though\r\nnaturalization was especially excepted, the provisions of this treaty\r\naroused a storm of antagonism on the Pacific Coast. The labor\r\nagitators decried the treaty as a betrayal of the American\r\nworkingman, and the whole Chinese question was up again in more\r\nviolent form than ever before. \r\n<\/p>\r\n
The\r\npanic of 1873 and its ill effects brought the matter sharply before\r\nthe public and especially that portion of it that was out of work.\r\nThe crisis was averted for the time, however, by the opening of the\r\nConsolidated Virginia\r\nmines in Nevada and the local wave of prosperity which followed. But\r\nin 1877 the bottom fell out of the whole western business world and\r\nbrought back the old agitation with tenfold violence.<\/b> It was made\r\nworse by the always apparent fact that the Chinese were the last to\r\njoin the unemployed. In fact they seldom joined at all. Gardening,\r\nfarming, laundering, cooking and housework<\/b> were almost\r\nmonopolized by them. The railroads employed thousands of them and\r\nthey were engaged to some extent in manufacturing. \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n
This\r\nwas more than could be borne by the much-oppressed laboring man, who\r\nclaimed that the Chinese, were robbing him of his bread and, which\r\nwas worse, the only one who benefitted by their labor was that other\r\narch-enemy of the laboring man, the capitalist.<\/b> Something must be\r\ndone. The courts had annulled the efforts of their municipal\r\nauthorities and legislatures when these had tried to help them;\r\nCongress had thrown them but a stone; the treaty-making power had\r\nbetrayed them; they must take matters into their own hands. And this\r\nthey proceeded to do. \r\n<\/p>\r\n
Their\r\nmethod of procedure was in most cases to sack and burn the Chinese\r\nlaundries and other commercial establishments operated by the\r\nOrientals.<\/b> It was left for Los Angeles to furnish the most\r\nterrible example of all. Here nineteen Chinamen were hanged and shot\r\nin one evening. The massacre was accompanied by the theft of over\r\n$40,000 worth of their goods. \r\n<\/p>\r\n
It\r\nwas in the south in fact that the violent opposition to the Chinese\r\nhad first found strong supporters. Here were many who were accustomed\r\nto assert the “superiority” of their race and to attach the idea\r\nof servitude to all inferior races. To work at all was well-nigh\r\nintolerable, but to work beside a “pig-tail” upon whose wearer\r\neven the wild Indian looked down, was to abasing to be borne. From\r\nthese southerners this feeling rapidly spread among the immigrants\r\nfrom the poorer countries of Europe, who at home were in a position\r\nalmost of servitude. Arrived in this country and endowed with the\r\nrights of citizenship, for which they are utterly unfitted, they\r\nimmediately seek to raise themselves higher in their own estimation\r\nby trampling underfoot the rights of others. \r\n<\/p>\r\n
But,\r\nbeside these prejudices due to race-feeling and ignorance, there were\r\nreal causes of discontent against the Chinese. They were not given to\r\nsexual immorality themselves but some of them engaged in the business\r\nof importing women whom they would prostitute to others for gain.\r\nGambling was an all-prevalent vice. These two features of the Chinese\r\nsituation received far more emphasis even among thoughtful people\r\nthan should have been given to them. This came about because of the\r\npractice of “seeing Chinatown,” which like “seeing the world”\r\ntoo often meant seeing the worst possible side of it. The proportion\r\nof prostitutes among the Chinese was little if any higher than among\r\nthe other races in California at the time but much publicity spread\r\nthe idea of great numbers. Gambling, too, while very generally\r\nindulged in by the Chinese, was never among themselves the vice which\r\nwas made of it by the Americans who frequented the Chinese houses.\r\nThe Chinaman gambled for small stakes as an amusement and never to\r\nhis own destruction. But while gambling and immorality have been\r\nover-emphasized, one charge remains against them in all its original\r\nstrength. The Chinese quarter was very unclean. Their cleanly persons\r\nand spotless linen were in strange contrast to their filthy homes,\r\noverrun as they were with rats and other vermin. \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n
Evil\r\nas were these characteristics of the Chinese, they were never a\r\nsufficient excuse for the outrages that were perpetrated upon them.\r\nThese bore no relation to the real grievances, but were in a large\r\nmeasure the unreasoning acts of irresponsible men who were for the\r\nmost part aliens themselves.<\/b> Calmly handled, the Chinese question\r\nnever would have caused a disturbance in California. In connection\r\nwith a violent race hatred, it kept the state in turmoil for the\r\nfirst thirty years of its existence. Even today it occasionally\r\nrecurs to furnish capital for politicians who are unable to find any\r\nother issue. Of late years, however, it has been very largely\r\nsuperseded in this role by <\/span>the\r\nJapanese question.<\/span> <\/span>\r\n<\/p>\r\n In:\r\nThe Story of California From the Earliest Days to the Present,
\r\n
<\/i>by\r\nHenry K. Norton. 7th ed. Chicago, A.C. McClurg & Co., 1924.\r\nChapter XXIV, pp. 283-296.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"This is a marked up version of the document at http:\/\/www.sfmuseum.org\/hist6\/chinhate.html","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2005\/12\/140659.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}