Chinese Immigrants

Gold Mountain Pulled by Mining Gold:1849: 45 Chinese in CA 1852: 20,000-25,000 Chinese in US By 1870: 63,000 Chinese in the US 1876: 151,000 Chinese in US (116,000) in CA 77% were in California, mainly working in the mines

First taste of political and economic discrimination: TAXATION Specifically targeting the “foreign miner’s”.

Foreign Miner’s Tax 1850: $20/month

Demonstrations lead to violence, tax repealed in 1851 Reinstated in 1852 at $4/month

Chinese were earning anywhere from $5-$15/month By 1870, tax represented 25-50% of all state revenue Railroads Race to the Middle

Transcontinental Railroad construction begins in 1862 Budget of $136 million

Central Pacific Railroad (CPR) from the West Union Pacific Railroad (UP) from the East

Faced a labor shortage, and an unreliable workforce Turn to the Chinese Central Pacific Railroad Initially, did not want to hire the Chinese: did not trust them

Shortage of American labor, turn to the plentiful (unemployed) Chinese Feb 1865: CPR hired 50 Chinese Fall 1865: 3,000 Chinese on payroll Railroad cont. By 1867, Chinese comprised 90% of the railroad workforce (12,000 out of the 13,500) Worked for 1/3 less than white counterparts

Dual wage system: Equal work for unequal pay (based on any means of differentiating groups) What type of work did they do on the railroad? Railroad Construction  Lay tracks

 Clear land/trees  Bore tunnels

 Dynamite/Explosives  Dangerous work

 Long days, weeks, and harsh weather conditions Working Conditions  Gangs of 12-20 (with a gang leader)  Sunrise to sunset six days per week

 Starting wage, $1/day or average of $28/month

 Eventually raised to $30/month (after expenses, $15-20/month)  Worked through all seasons, all terrains Winter of 1866  Buried under snow, created underground living spaces

 Dug chimney spaces, air shafts and lived by lantern light

 Snow slides, accidents, avalanches, and explosions buried people alive  About 1200 Chinese workers died  Spring melts ice, leaves frozen bodies  Chinese must strike Strike  June 25, 1867  Power in numbers  5,000 people walk off  Demands:  $40/month

 No more than 10 hour workdays (outside)  Eight hours in cramped spaces (tunnels) Unsuccessful  CPR executives do not succumb to demands  Cut off food supply

 Threaten to replace their labor  Sent a posse to intimidate

 Knows that the laborer needs work and food, and will give in

 After a week of striking, Chinese get back to work (Wage changed to $35/month) After the Railroads? agriculture How/why would they contribute to American landscape of agriculture? What would they contribute?

Pivotal for other immigrants to come, and prosper off of Chinese farm work Impacts on the Land  Toil land  Dig ditches  Create levees

 Construct irrigation systems to drain out land, as well as turn arid land into fertile soil Increasing Value  In 1875, the value of land was $25 per acre  By 1879, the value became $100 per acre

 In 1870, 18% of all farm laborers were Chinese

 By 1880, 45%-86% of the Sacramento Valley Farmers were Chinese

Other than working in agriculture, where else would you find Chinese working (before entering into Chinatown?) Factories: The US was in the midst of an industrial revolution, and the Chinese would be another contributing labor source for the various machines: Breaking Strikes/Wedge work  Sampson Shoe Factory

 North Adams Massachusetts

 1870, Secret Order of the Knights of St. Crispin

 Organizing against labor-eliminating machinery and low wages Migration of Chinese  Brought in to break strikes from West to East Coast  Lowered wages by 10%  Started migration trend:

 NJ: break Irish Laundry workers strike  Wyoming: break Coal Miners strike

 South: Replace slaves in the plantation systems

After Mines, Railroads, Agriculture, and Wedge working, where did the Chinese end up? Chinatown, and Ethnic Enclave

From the 1882 exclusion act, which population would come with the intention to settle? Merchants Various businesses that they would operate:  Restaurants  Groceries  Herbal shops  Meat markets

 General merchandise Vices What were the three main vices that operated in Chinatown, that then would become stigmatized as being stereotypically Chinese?  Prostitution houses  Gambling dens  Opium dens

These stereotypes would be carried on for decades to reinforce the “mystical and exotic Chinatown”. What business would they enter that would give them the stereotype of doing “women’s work”? Laundry Business

Reasons why Chinese would enter into the Laundry business Chinese Laundryman:

 Affordable: $75-$200 to open up a shop  Could live and work in the same space  Little English needed

 Unlike the other businesses, did not cater to their own ethnicity  Self-employed Chinese Laundryman By 10, 70% of all laundry workers in San Francisco were Chinese In 1900, 1 out of 4 employed Chinese males were laundrymen Success was not grand, but sustainable-enough to get noticed

How would the Chinese transport laundry from their business to their customers? Poles on their shoulders, with baskets hanging off from both sides.

 Sidewalk Ordinance (1870) Prohibited carrying loads on poles on sidewalks

 Laundry Ordinance (1873) Required laundries employing horse-drawn vehicles to pay $1 tax per

quarter; those without vehicles paid $15

 Queue Ordinance (1873) Imprisoned Chinese must cut off hair to 1 inch from scalp

 Bingham Ordinance (10) Chinese people, including citizens, must not live or work in San

Francisco, except in the Chinese quarter Protection in Chinatown  Tongs: Run the vices (Houses: Gambling, Prostitution, Opium). Offer “protection”

 Fongs: Family Association. Maintains clubhouses, social centers (Churches, temples). Maintains

letter transmission back home.

 Huigan: District Association. Newcomer assistance: Housing, employment, credit-ticket system. Anti-Asian Sentiment  Political: Laws/acts

 Social: Burnouts/run outs

-Seattle: Residents of Chinatown were boarded onto a boat, sent to SF -1870, Chinatowns in Antioch, Truckee, and Chino were burned down.

-Wyoming: 28 men were killed in a camp where they were brought to break strikes.  Economical: Dual wages

Why is the greater society so threatened by Chinese labor?  Modernization

 High National Unemployment Rates

 Class conflict between White labor and White capital

 By 1870, 2 whites for every 1 Chinese per job in San Francisco  Easy target as an enemy The Chinese:  Lower wages  Take jobs  Procreate

 Form communities  Miscegenate

 Cannot fully assimilate Exclusion Act 1882  Excludes laborers.  Still allows the  entry of merchants,  students, teachers,  And diplomats. Policing residents  1884: could not leave the US and return

 12 (Geary Act): all Chinese residents must carry ID, punishable by deportation or hard labor. allowed to bear witness or receive bail.  1902 Set indefinitely Exclusion Period  1875: Page Law  1882: Exclusion Act  1884: No re-entry

 12: Geary act: carry ID  1902: Set indefinitely  1906: Small door opens  1943: Repeal of exclusion

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