Chinese Immigration and Labor in the 19th century America
Takaki Chapter 3Forced to become “strangers” by economic interests and white society
Professor Estella Habal
Chinese Immigration and Labor in the 19th century
Pull - Demands of capitalists for a colonized labor forcePush – English imperialismWhite worker - economic competition resulting in ethnic antagonismRacial ideology of America - homogenous white society Pattern of discriminatory treatment set as racialized group, unassimilability, “aliens ineligible for citizenship”
Chinese Labor in Gold
First major wave Asians to come to America, 1849
Called themselves “Gam Saan Haak” travelers to Gold Mountain
Independent gold prospectors, placer mining, low tech
20,026 in 1852
2/3 Chinese in California mines
Chinese Labor in Gold
Chinese Labor in railroads
1865 Central Pacific Railroad, 1869 completed employed
15,000 Chinese; 90% of entire workforce
Cheaper labor than white workers
Hard labor, clear trees, handle explosives for boring tunnels, lay track
Struck for higher wages, e.g. 8hr/day
Lost strike; Starved into submission
Chinese Labor in railroads
Chinese Labor in cities
1860s-1870s moved to cities like San Francisco, refuge, segregation46% in S.F. labor force Chinese worked in manufacturing, boots and shoes, cigars and garment, wool mills during civil warEthnic enclaves (served in own communities): retail (food), service and vice (laundries, gambling and prostitution)By 1900, 45% of all Chinese lived in S.F. Bay Area
Chinese Labor in agriculture
Settled in rural areas
Cultivated, planting, harvesting in vineyards, orchards, fruits and vegetables
Substitute for freed slaves
Chinese fought backClaims of civil rights
Chan Yong (1855 SF federal district court), applied for citizenship on basis of his whiteness in appearance. (1790 Naturalization law restricted to “whites.”) Denied based on classification Mongoloid.
Ling Sing v. Washburn (1862) ruled that Chinese could not be taxed as special subjects – violated US Constitution
1885: Tape v. Hurley, school discrimination, but results in separate schools for Asians
1886: Yick Wo v. Hopkins, San Francisco laundry-licensing board engaged in discrimination
Chinese fought backClaims of civil rights
1868 Burlingame Treaty, Chinese Six Companies “free migration and emigration” of the Chinese as visitors, traders, and rights of Chinese to “enjoy same privileges…in respect to travel or residence..”1870 Civil rights acts extended to Chinese “all persons“ same right to enforce, make contracts, sue, be parties, give evidence and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for security of person and property as is enjoyed by white citizens.
Chinese community organizations (forms of agency)
Chinatowns “ethnic enclaves” cities SF and rural towns of Sacramento, StocktonSecret societies – TongsDistrict Associations based on regions helped migrants, housing, employmentChinese Six companies (6) settled differences, dealt with white world, gave health and education servicesChinese stores catered to community. Post office, foods, books, herb, etc.
Gender and Chinese women
Chinese men trapped in womanless world. Anti-miscegenation laws.
Few Chinese families, fishing industry in Monterey
1870 census, 61% of 3,536 women listed as prostitutes, debt peonage, 1880-24% Page Act of 1875.
1882 Chinese Exclusion Act