DOCSLIB.ORG

Western and Eastern Knights of Labor View the Chinese Question

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Western and Eastern Knights of Labor View the Chinese Question LaborHistory, Vol. 41, No. 4, 2000 Blindin One Eye Only: Westernand Eastern Knights of Labor Viewthe ChineseQuestion* ROB WEIR Historians have beenquick topoint outthe ease with which theKnights ofLabor absorbedGilded Age prejudicesregarding theChinese. In praising theOrder ’s embrace ofuniversal brotherhood with regard toothers, Alexander Saxton writes,ª Only at accepting Chinesedid the Knights generally drawthe line.º 1 Clark Halker notes, ªMuchas the Knights pressedthe limits ofthemeaning ofrepublicanism ¼they could neverentirely escapenotions of racial inferiority ¼[N]on -WesternEuropean immi - grants remained second -classcitizens even amongst theKnights. Chinese workers remained beyondthe pale ¼º 2 Bryan Palmer andGreg Kealey claim that anti -Chinese hysteria wasso pervasive that it ªironically contributedtoward working -class soli- darity.º 3 Philip Foner bluntly wrote,ª The chiefblot ontheK ofL ’srecordon the issue oflabor solidarity wasin thecase of Chinese workers.º 4 Gerald Grobopined that the organization ªneverreceded from its anti -Chineseattitude,º while Catharine Collomp sawChinese exclusion as ª theonly issueabout which theKnights ofLabor andthe American Federation ofLabor constantlylobbied theFederal government.º 5 Since1986, mosthistorians have beenquick toadopt theformulation ofGwendolyn Minkwho argues that ªold laborºdeveloped a ªjobconscious unionism ¼ suffused with ethnicand race consciousness.ºFor mostof the period from 1875 through 1920, sheargues, new immigrant groups werethe targets ofracist andnativist hatredson the part of more-entrenchedworking -classgroups. 6 Leaving asideMink ’sbackdoor redux *Thiswork derives from a paper deliveredat the 1996Southwest Labor Studies conference.I wish to thank all ofthe participants fortheir comments, especiallyJudy Yung, RebeccaMead, Rudy Higgens-Evenson, and Dana Frank. As always, thanks to BruceLaurie, who readan earlierdraft and is everhelpful with his suggestions.A specialthanks toAndrewGyory, whose workon the Chinesequestion surpassesall othersin its nuanceand subtlety. Hisadvice and friendship wereinvaluable in revisingthis work. 1AlexanderSaxton, The Indispensable Enemy: Laborand the Anti -Chinese Movement in California (Berkeley,CA: Universityof California Press,1971), 40. 2Clark Halker, ForDemocracy, Workers,and God: Labor Song -Poemsand Labor Protest, 1865±95 (Urbana: Universityof Illinois Press,1991), 130. 3GregoryKealey and Bryan Palmer, Dreaming ofWhat Might Be: The Knights ofLabor in Ontario, 1880± 1900 (Toronto: NewHogtown Press, 1987), 150± 151. 4Philip S.Foner, History ofthe LaborMovement in America,Volume II:From the Founding ofthe American Federation ofLabor to the Emergence ofAmerican Imperialism (NewYork: International, 1955),58. 5GeraldGrob, Workersand Utopia: A Study ofIdeological Con¯ict in the American LaborMovement, 1856± 1900 (New York: Quadrangle, 1961),58; Catherine Collomp, ªUnions, Civics, and National Identity: OrganizedLabor ’sReactionto Immigration, 1881±1897,º LaborHistory 29(1988), 458. 6GwendolynMink, OldLabor and New Immigrantsin American Political Development: Union, Party,and State, 1875±1920 (Ithaca, NY: CornellUniversity Press, 1986). ISSN 0023-656Xprint/ ISSN1469 -9702online/ 00/040421±16 Ó 2000Taylor & Francis Ltd on behalfof The Tamiment Institute DOI:10.1080/ 00236560020007072 422 R. Weir ofa Commons/Perlman jobconsciousness thesis long repudiatedby social historians, Iwouldargue that her view andothers critical ofGilded Age labor ’sresponseto the Chineseis more neatthan accurate.Applying ablanket anti -Chineselabel tothe Knights lacks nuance,and ignores context.The further eastone traveled from the Rocky Mountains,the less anti -Chinesecampaigns mattered toKnights asmore than amere rhetorical ploy. Asa recentwork by AndrewGyory reveals, from the1870s onwardseastern workers showed considerably lessinterest in therabid anti -Chinese hysteria that soconsumed laborers in theWest. 7 The Knights ofLabor respondedto Gilded Age popular anti -Chinesenativism in various ways.These serve as another reminder that GildedAge ideology andorganiza - tionswere far tooelusive, complex, andelastic tobe neatly labeled. Manya commen - tator has misinterpreted theKnights ofLabor byassuming that its national leadership spokefor therank and® le.That wasseldom the case. To grasp what members felt,one mustusually look tothe local level. There,how the KOL viewed Chinese workers was oftena functionof the composition of one ’slocal assembly,political ideology, and regional identity. TheKnights and Denis Kearney By1877, California wasawash in aseaof anti -Chinesehysteria. Indeed,tensions had beenbuilding for quitesome time. The ®rstrecorded incident of Caucasian/ Chinesecon ¯ict datesto 1849 when Chineseminers wereforbidden to toil in theGold Rush region ofTuolumneCounty. 8 Asearly asthe mid -1850s, physical andrhetorical attacks against theChinese were common.By the1870s, theso -called Six Companieswere rumored to import thou - sandsof ª coolieºlaborers into theUnited States despite near -universal condemnation ofthe practice from everyoneoutside the business community. 9 Eighteenseventy -sevenwas the year ofDenis Kearney. In themidst of a San Francisco meeting oftheWorkingmen ’sParty ofthe United States devoted to the great railway strike,an unruly group insistedon linking labor unrestto the ª Chinese question.ºRebuffed by Party leaders,they quit thehall for three daysof looting, assault,arson and mayhem in thecity ’sburgeoning Chinatowndistrict. Kearney assumedthe demagogue ’smantle, andrallied workersto the cry ªThe ChineseMust Go!ºKearney thumbed his noseat theWorkingmen ’sParty USA,and formed the Workingmen’sParty ofCalifornia. Asthe year closed,he was undoubtedly one of the mostpowerful men in thestate. 10 Kearneybrought his vitriol Eastin July, 1878. But,as Gyory has shown,although 7AndrewGyory, Closing the Gate: Race, Politics andthe Chinese Exclusion Act (Chapel Hill: University ofNorth Carolina Press,1998). 8LorenW. Fessler,ed., Chinese in America:Stereotyped Past,Changing Present (New York: Vantage, 1983). 9GildedAge laborers often indiscriminately usedthe termª coolieºin theirremarks. Technically, the cooliesystem was longpast by the time ofthe anti -Chineseagitations in which most Knightsof Labor participated and they ought to have properly usedthe termª contractlaborer.º In truth, most Knightssaw any formof non -freelabor as debasedand usedboth termsinterchangeably and contemptuously. 10For moredetails see Philip Foner, History ofthe LaborMovement in America,Volume I:FromColonial Timesto the Founding ofthe American Federation ofLabor (New York: InternationalPublishers, 1982), 490±492. See also Gyory, Closing the Gate, passim [Note:Variant spellings of Workingmen ’spartiesappear in both primary and secondarysources. Sometimes it is renderedas asingleword, at othersas two words. For the sakeof editorial consistency I have chosento combine them as one.] Knightsof Labor and theChinese Question 423 workersshowed initial enthusiasm,they quickly tired ofKearney ’sboorish antics. Socialists suchas Justus Schwab, who had blockedKearney ’sattempts toenter the Workingmen’sParty USA,dutifully denouncedthe coolie system,but refused to accept theracist premise that underlay Kearney ’srhetoric. Amonthbefore Kearney arrived in theEast, trade unionistGeorge McNeill notedthat labor neededto organize ªwithout distinctionof race, color, nationality, politics, or religion,ºand the LaborStandard insistedthat class,not ethnicity, bethe centerpiece of the labor program for which Kearneyostensibly stumped. 11 Kearneysaid nothing that madeeastern workers repudiate McNeill. By all accounts,the East should have beenripe toembrace Kearnyite nativism. In 1870, 75 Chinesehad beenimported tobreak ashoemakers ’ strike in North Adams, MA,and several other importations ofChinese scabs had raised thefear of¯ oodsof cheap labor washing away East -coastwage structures.Nonetheless, in theeight -year interim betweenNorth Adamsand Kearney ’svisit, easternworkers had largely ignored therising tideof anti -Chineseagitation fomenting westof the Rockies. Kearneycaught theattention of the Knights ofLabor ashe toured. KOL Grand MasterUriah Stephenspraised Kearney.And Stephens ’ soon-to-bereplacement Ter - encePowderly wassimilarly impressed.During aSeptemberspeech in NewYork City, Kearneywas greeted with huzzahs,even if Schwaband company cringed.But the more Kearneyspoke, the less charitable theKnights felt.Even before Kearney ’sappearance in NewYork, Powderly con®ded to Grand Secretary Charles Litchman that hewas ªdisgustedºwith Kearneyand thought his shrill one -note anti-Chineseravings were ªinjuriousºto the cause of labor. Both thelabor andmainstream pressbegan toattack Kearney,and an October speechwas booed in Boston.By thetime Benjamin Butler, Massachusetts ’ Greenback-Labor candidatefor governor, spokein North Adams,he failed toevenmention the Chinese. The reaction against Kearneygrew sostrong that by thetime heleft theEast, he had droppedChinese references from his speeches. 12 TheMaking ofAnti -ChineseHysteria Easternreactions to Kearney reveal theextent to which negative sentimentswere manufacturedrather than intrinsic toworking -classideology. The Chinesewere orig - inally viewedthrough alensof exoticism, themesexploited in exhibits displayed by P. T.Barnum, andby theproprietors ofBoston ’sChineseMuseum. Overall silenceon the Chineseissue, however, suggests that mostantebellum workersgave theChinese little thought whatsoever.Occasionally, aprogressive voice
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Involuntary Servitude: Modern Conditions Addressed in United States V
    Catholic University Law Review Volume 34 Issue 1 Fall 1984 Article 9 1984 Involuntary Servitude: Modern Conditions Addressed in United States v. Mussry John M. Cook Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.edu/lawreview Recommended Citation John M. Cook, Involuntary Servitude: Modern Conditions Addressed in United States v. Mussry, 34 Cath. U. L. Rev. 153 (1985). Available at: https://scholarship.law.edu/lawreview/vol34/iss1/9 This Notes is brought to you for free and open access by CUA Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Catholic University Law Review by an authorized editor of CUA Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NOTES INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE: MODERN CONDITIONS ADDRESSED IN UNITED STATES V. MUSSRY To abolish all conditions of involuntary servitude that resembled African slavery,' the nation adopted the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution in 1865.2 Although the amendment was self-executing,3 Congress was empow- ered to enact laws to enforce the prohibition.4 A number of criminal statutes were passed subsequently, each addressing a particular condition or aspect of involuntary servitude.5 In 1948, Congress enacted a more broadly worded law, 18 U.S.C. § 1584, which forbade holding any person in involun- 6 tary servitude. 1. See infra note 6. 2. Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
    [Show full text]
  • Slaves, Coolies, and Shareholders: Corporations Claim the Fourteenth Amendment
    Slaves, Coolies, and Shareholders: Corporations Claim the Fourteenth Amendment Evelyn Atkinson The Journal of the Civil War Era, Volume 10, Number 1, March 2020, pp. 54-80 (Article) Published by The University of North Carolina Press For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/750249 Access provided at 5 Mar 2020 05:04 GMT from University of Chicago evelyn atkinson Slaves, Coolies, and Shareholders Corporations Claim the Fourteenth Amendment This article examines the little-known case In re Tiburcio Parrott (1880), in which the federal court extended Fourteenth Amendment rights to corporations for the frst time. It reveals that an analogy between Chinese immigrants and corporate share- holders was the basis for the court’s reasoning. This article explores the social and political context of the movements for Chinese exclusion and corporate regulation in 1870s California to explain this analogy, revealing that Chinese immigrants and corporations were seen as intertwined threats that challenged free white labor and threatened popular democracy. The article focuses on the dueling interpretations of “equal treatment” and “free labor” at play in this confict. It shows how arguments by corporate lawyers, who represented both corporate clients and Chinese immi- grants, and the support of sympathetic judges, lay the foundation for an expansive interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment that eventually was endorsed by the US Supreme Court. On a drizzly day in February 1880, in an empty sandlot next to San Francisco’s city hall, Denis Kearney called for the erection of a gallows.1 An Irish immigrant who helped found the Workingmen’s Party of California, Kearney declared that “incorporated men” who “refused to discharge their Chinese help” should be “hung ‘higher than a kite.’”2 These “thieves” needed to comply with the provision of the newly enacted California constitution that prohibited any corporation from employing Chinese labor.
    [Show full text]
  • Race, Migration, and Chinese and Irish Domestic Servants in the United States, 1850-1920
    An Intimate World: Race, Migration, and Chinese and Irish Domestic Servants in the United States, 1850-1920 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Andrew Theodore Urban IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Advised by Donna Gabaccia and Erika Lee June 2009 © Andrew Urban, 2009 Acknowledgements While I rarely discussed the specifics of my dissertation with my fellow graduate students and friends at the University of Minnesota – I talked about basically everything else with them. No question or topic was too large or small for conversations that often carried on into the wee hours of the morning. Caley Horan, Eric Richtmyer, Tim Smit, and Aaron Windel will undoubtedly be lifelong friends, mahjong and euchre partners, fantasy football opponents, kindred spirits at the CC Club and Mortimer’s, and so on. I am especially grateful for the hospitality that Eric and Tim (and Tank the cat) offered during the fall of 2008, as I moved back and forth between Syracuse and Minneapolis. Aaron and I had the fortune of living in New York City at the same time in our graduate careers, and I have fond memories of our walks around Stuyvesant Park in the East Village and Prospect Park in Brooklyn, and our time spent with the folks of Tuesday night. Although we did not solve all of the world’s problems, we certainly tried. Living in Brooklyn, I also had the opportunity to participate in the short-lived yet productive “Brooklyn Scholars of Domestic Service” (AKA the BSDS crew) reading group with Vanessa May and Lara Vapnek.
    [Show full text]
  • Italian Immigrants in Portland, Maine, 1880-1920
    © COPYRIGHT by Robin Rae Svendsen 2017 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this work to Rudolph “Rudy” DiPietro, who passed away just one week after our meeting of round-table storytelling in the Cantina at the Italian Heritage Center. Rudy was a unique character, a stalwart of the past, and his lively storytelling will be missed by this researcher. Also, to my father, Joseph DiDominicus “Chessi,” whose tales of stickball, lobster and strong women in this Italian enclave kept my imagination full of curiosity as a child, and my feminist backbone strong. He was a loving father who survived the early death of his father, childhood poverty, three wars, and four teenagers to instill his old-world lessons of la famiglia in his children which are woven through many of the tales in this research. MIGRATORY RESISTANCE COMMUNITIES ITALIAN IMMIGRANTS IN PORTLAND, MAINE, 1880-1920 BY Robin Rae Svendsen ABSTRACT This thesis seeks to illuminate the resistance communities that existed in the rural southern villages of the Mezzogiorno region of Italy, specifically Lettomanoppello, before and after Italian Unification and removed to Portland, Maine in the United States to re-establish their matrilineal subsistence culture. Through multiple lines of evidence, including previous scholarship, documents, past interviews with immigrants and current personal communication with descendants of immigrants, this research contextualizes the presence of resistance in the immigrant’s initial interaction with capitalism. The research follows the immigrant’s continued resistance to capitalism including the concept of individualism that attacked their familial organization and sacredly held joy of communal time.
    [Show full text]
  • The Global Irish and Chinese: Migration, Exclusion, and Foreign Relations Among Empires, 1784-1904
    THE GLOBAL IRISH AND CHINESE: MIGRATION, EXCLUSION, AND FOREIGN RELATIONS AMONG EMPIRES, 1784-1904 A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History By Barry Patrick McCarron, M.A. Washington, DC April 6, 2016 Copyright 2016 by Barry Patrick McCarron All Rights Reserved ii THE GLOBAL IRISH AND CHINESE: MIGRATION, EXCLUSION, AND FOREIGN RELATIONS AMONG EMPIRES, 1784-1904 Barry Patrick McCarron, M.A. Thesis Advisor: Carol A. Benedict, Ph.D. ABSTRACT This dissertation is the first study to examine the Irish and Chinese interethnic and interracial dynamic in the United States and the British Empire in Australia and Canada during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Utilizing comparative and transnational perspectives and drawing on multinational and multilingual archival research including Chinese language sources, “The Global Irish and Chinese” argues that Irish immigrants were at the forefront of anti-Chinese movements in Australia, Canada, and the United States during the second half of the nineteenth century. Their rhetoric and actions gave rise to Chinese immigration restriction legislation and caused major friction in the Qing Empire’s foreign relations with the United States and the British Empire. Moreover, Irish immigrants east and west of the Rocky Mountains and on both sides of the Canada-United States border were central to the formation of a transnational white working-class alliance aimed at restricting the flow of Chinese labor into North America. Looking at the intersections of race, class, ethnicity, and gender, this project reveals a complicated history of relations between the Irish and Chinese in Australia, Canada, and the United States, which began in earnest with the mid-nineteenth century gold rushes in California, New South Wales, Victoria, and British Columbia.
    [Show full text]
  • Assoggettamento Da Juju? Decostruire Le Categorie Della Dipendenza Tra Le Giovani Migranti Dalla Nigeria
    2021 | ANUAC. VOL. 10, N° 1, GIUGNO 2021: 161-185 Assoggettamento da juju? Decostruire le categorie della dipendenza tra le giovani migranti dalla Nigeria Alessandra BRIVIO Università di Milano Bicocca Juju subjugation? Deconstructing the categories of dependence among young migrants from Nigeria ABSTRACT: The article aims to discuss the role of the magical-religious dimension in the subjection and sexual exploitation of the women Nigerian migrants in Italy, and the resonance that this dimension has in public discourse. Drawing on my involvement in a court case against a woman accused of trafficking and enslavement, the article aims to provide an Africanist perspective to the discussion on Nigerian women migration. It develops on two main issues. First, I reconstruct the frame that produced what is commonly called juju; then I analyze the correlation between dependence and debt in the frame of the Atlantic and colonial history. The purpose of the article is to give a historical and political dignity to migrants and to question the juju as a device that in Italy contributes to strengthening gender discriminations, individual suffering and to produce racist discourses. KEYWORDS: DEBT; JUJU; PROSTITUTION; REFUGEES; NIGERIA. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons © Alessandra Brivio Assoggettamento da juju? Decostruire le categorie della dipendenza tra le giovani migranti dalla Nigeria 2021 | ANUAC. VOL. 10, N° 1, GIUGNO 2021: 161-185. ISSN: 2239-625X – DOI: 10.7340/anuac2239-625X-4893 162 ALESSANDRA BRIVIO Lo sfruttamento sessuale delle migranti, che da Edo State, nel sud della Nigeria, si muovono verso l’Europa, è un fenomeno che coinvolge l’Italia da più di due decenni1.
    [Show full text]
  • UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ Rightful And
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ Rightful and Moral Work: Rethinking Free Labor and Sex Work at the California Borderlands, 1877-1937 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in HISTORY with an emphasis in LATIN AMERICAN AND LATINO STUDIES by Erik Bernardino June 2021 The Dissertation of Erik Bernardino is approved: Professor Grace Peña Delgado, chair Professor Matt O’Hara Professor Gabriela Arredondo Professor Veronica Terríquez Quentin William Acting Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright © by Erik Bernardino 2021 Table of Contents TABLE OF FIGURES iv ABSTRACT v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS viii CHAPTER ONE 1 CHAPTER TWO 46 CHAPTER THREE 98 CHAPTER FOUR 141 CHAPTER FIVE 191 EPILOGUE 243 APPENDIX ONE 262 APPENDIX TWO 263 BIBLIOGRAPHY 264 iii Table of Figures 1 CARLOS PACHECO C. 1870 69 2 1926 PASS-BOOK 151 3 CONTRACT LABORER RECRUITMENT ADVERTISEMENT 201 iv ABSTRACT Rightful and Moral Work: Rethinking Free Labor and Sex Work at the California Borderlands, 1877-1937 Erik Bernardino “Rightful and Moral Work: Rethinking Free Labor and Sex Work at the California-Baja California Borderlands, 1877-1937” explores Mexican working-class identities from a transnational perspective. I argue that Mexican workers, specifically agricultural workers and sex workers, leveraged their crossings between the United States and Mexico to assert rights favorable to themselves and their families. Migrants’ proximity to the US-Mexico border was a critical factor in defying the most exploitative elements of free and semi-free labor systems in which agricultural and sex workers toiled. At the California-Baja California borderlands, mobility disrupted some of the most visible forms of labor exploitation, including contract labor and poverty wages.
    [Show full text]
  • Annotated Bibliography Primary Sources Documents and Articles "Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)." in American History, ABC-CLIO, 2018
    Annotated Bibliography Primary Sources Documents and Articles "Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)." In American History, ABC-CLIO, 2018. https://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/254030. The original text of the Chinese Exclusion Act was included in this document, which was helpful because we were able to see what exactly the act did and what effects it had on Chinese immigration. The act’s clauses all directly targeted Chinese immigrants and took away many opportunities for them (for example, not being able to become a citizen). It was the first act to target an ethnic group’s immigration. “Chinese Laborers on a Strike.” Daily Alta California, July 1, 1867. “Chinese Laborer on a Strike,” an article featured in the Daily Alta California, showed the American reaction to the Chinese labor strike, which was mostly indifferent and not too concerned. It also gave details of the strike, including the actions of the Chinese and what they were demanding. "Denis Kearney: 'Appeal from California' (1878)." In American History, ABC-CLIO, 2019. https://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/1814627. Denis Kearney’s speech is an intimate look at his beliefs and his resentment of the Chinese. It provided some key quotes that again illustrated the general perspective of the white working class at the time: that the Chinese were threatening their livelihood by taking away jobs and making the upper class less considerate of the working class, since they had cheap labor available. Dorland, C.P. "Chinese Massacre at Los Angeles in 1871." Annual Publication of the Historical Society of Southern California, Los Angeles 3, no.
    [Show full text]
  • How California Was Won: Race, Citizenship, and the Colonial Roots of California, 1846 – 1879
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2019 How California Was Won: Race, Citizenship, And The Colonial Roots Of California, 1846 – 1879 Camille Alexandrite Suárez University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Suárez, Camille Alexandrite, "How California Was Won: Race, Citizenship, And The Colonial Roots Of California, 1846 – 1879" (2019). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 3491. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3491 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3491 For more information, please contact [email protected]. How California Was Won: Race, Citizenship, And The Colonial Roots Of California, 1846 – 1879 Abstract The construction of California as an American state was a colonial project premised upon Indigenous removal, state-supported land dispossession, the perpetuation of unfree labor systems and legal, race- based discrimination alongside successful Anglo-American settlement. This dissertation, entitled “How the West was Won: Race, Citizenship, and the Colonial Roots of California, 1849 - 1879” argues that the incorporation of California and its diverse peoples into the U.S. depended on processes of colonization that produced and justified an adaptable acialr hierarchy that protected white privilege and supported a racially-exclusive conception of citizenship. In the first section, I trace how the California Constitution and federal and state legislation violated the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This legal system empowered Anglo-American migrants seeking territorial, political, and economic control of the region by allowing for the dispossession of Californio and Indigenous communities and legal discrimination against Californio, Indigenous, Black, and Chinese persons.
    [Show full text]
  • The Chinese in 19Th Century California Quick Facts for Docents and Visitors
    The Chinese in 19th Century California Quick Facts for Docents and Visitors Why talk about the Chinese? Chinese immigrants of the 19th century played an important role in making California what it became. It's a story that is not widely known. The Point San Luis Light Station, whether one walks up or rides the trolley, provides much directly viewable evidence of that story. It's a real teaching opportunity and we should not miss out on it. Talk about what you can see: • Along the road to Port Harford one can see the cut away hillsides and a roadbed – the cuts were begun and the first tracks were laid by Chinese workers with picks and shovels. Chinese labor built Port Harford and the Pacific Coast Railway which connected Port Harford with towns as far away as Los Olivos. • Most of the bricks making up the foundation of the light station were hand made at Ah Louis' brickyard in San Luis Obispo. There are a few other, special-purpose bricks in other locations, such as fireboxes of the fireplaces - these were not made by Ah Louis. • The "blessing" in the basement offers a tantalizing hint that at least some Chinese labor might have been used a some point during the construction of the lighthouse. Where did they come from? During the Gold Rush, a very large number of Chinese came to California. They were fleeing war and poverty in their homeland. By the time the light station was built, they were California's largest and most conspicuous minority. Chinese immigrants comprised at least 10% of California's population in 1890.
    [Show full text]
  • Irish and Chinese Under the San Francisco Ethic
    tAwo Ethnicity and Troubled Ethnic Relations lthough the Irish had experienced bigotry and prejudice at first hand in the Irish homeland A and in New York, Boston, and other East Coast cities, the relative freedom from such atti - tudes, and certainly from institutionalized discrimination, in California did not necessarily translate into Irish-American tolerance for other ethnic communities. The notorious anti-Chinese movement in San Francisco, led by the flamboyant Irish immigrant and popular demagogue Denis Kearney, provides ample evidence that Irish racial and ethnic attitudes were no better than those of other Americans during the nineteenth century. Daniel Meissner, in the first essay, traces the parallel pat - terns of immigration and settlement of the two groups, Irish and Chinese, in San Francisco and ana - lyzes the shifts in community relations following the swings of the economic pendulum. In the second essay, Jeffrey Burns examines the career of the quintessential Irish parish of San Francisco, St. Peter’s in the Mission District. The parish’s “national” identity, drawn from the Irish ethnicity of the surrounding neighborhood, was reinforced by its dynamic and outspoken Irish pastor, Father Peter C. Yorke. With the demographic change of the Mission in the mid-twentieth century, and the arrival of new Catholic immigrants from Mexico and Central America, the Irish character of St. Peter’s would be challenged and ultimately overwhelmed by the new ethnicities. The relations between the dominant but declining Irish community and the Latino newcomers presented a new, if less dra - matic form of ethnic contention between the Irish and a rival ethnic community.
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese Immigrants
    From ABC-CLIO's American History website https://americanhistory-abc-clio-pnw.orc.scoolaid.net/ CHINESE IMMIGRANTS Chinese immigrants played a crucial role in the westward expansion of the United States, particularly in the building of the transcontinental railroad in the second half of the 19th century. Despite the fact that the Chinese lled an important labor need and proved to be extremely hard workers, white laborers resented their presence, and anti-Chinese riots took place in such western cities as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. Bowing to heavy political pressure, the federal government stepped into the fray with the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), and the U.S. Supreme Court supported the government's stance in subsequent rulings. Immigration during the Gold Rush For most of the rst half of the 19th century, Chinese immigration to the United States was next to nonexistent. However, in the 1820s and 1830s, China's prosperous economy took a turn for the worse, in large part because its trade balance was disrupted by the massive importation of opium into the country by Great Britain. After China's crushing defeat in the Opium War during 1839–1842, the devastated economy—combined with a series of natural disasters like drought, famine, and oods—prompted many Chinese to look abroad for work. The welcoming shores of the United States intrigued the Chinese, and the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in California in 1848 proved to be too much of a temptation for thousands of Chinese to resist. The California gold rush of the mid-19th century led to a tremendous inux of people into California, and many of them were from China.
    [Show full text]