Brizendine 1
Jamison Brizendine
Chuck Yates
Asian American History
5 October 2005
The Chinese and Western America
The "Wild West" has its own mythology in the United States. When someone
mentions the "Wild West", we think of train robbers stealing purses, cowboys,
prospectors panning for gold, and sheriffs with their silver badges on their chests. The
railroads have always been a means to transport goods, human or otherwise, from one
place to another. Mines have produced an abundant amount of resources including,
copper, silver, gold, aluminum, and iron, to fulfill the idea of "manifest destiny".
Manifest Destiny was the American idea to spread the people from sea to shining sea.
However, to many managers, the Chinese were thought of as the lowest of humans and
they thought they were expendable. Some Americans went as far as to believe that the
"yellow" race had replaced "black" slavery in some regards. In many cases after large
projects these workers had no place to migrate to find a living except the main cities.
White workers had many responses, to counter this movement, both violent, as in San
Francisco, and non-violent, as in Los Angeles.
There were many reasons for the Chinese to emigrate from China. The 1849 Gold
Rush in California had lured the Chinese, like other immigrants, to come to California
and find gold and become rich and lead a new life. In China, several areas had been
devastated by past wars, including the Opium War and the T'ai-p'ing Rebellion (18501864), which shattered the Chinese as a world power. Kil Young Zo describes the
predicament that the Chinese were in. "The disrepair and subsequent breakdown of vital
water control systems decreased agricultural production. Numbers of people were ousted
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and fled to California. Credit tickets provided the emigration and made the trip to the new
world possible for impoverished peasants" (Zo 191). Peasants felt that going to California
was a possibility to help their families and become better off. By 1852 about fourteen
thousand Chinese lived in America (Zo 192).
With the growing population of California and its admission into statehood, new
opportunities for work also grew. Agriculture, mining, and construction were all jobs that
needed more people to help build the state. The Central Pacific Railroad was one of the
many companies struggling to reach the East and needed workers to lay the Union Pacific
Railroad tracks faster. One of the railroad’s main objectives was to lay more track than its
eastern rival that it was going to meet. The Central Pacific Railroad first used the Chinese
as scabs. During a strike on the railroad, the company decided to experiment hiring
Chinese scabs:
"When no other recourse appeared in sight, Strobridge dubiously decided to try
the experiment and fifty Chinese were hired...By sunrise they were at work with picks,
shovels and wheelbarrows. At the end of their first twelve hours of plodding industry,
Crocker and his engineers viewed the results with gratified astonishment" (Lewis 71).
The Central Pacific saw the hiring the Chinese as an instant success. The railroad
began hiring many more Chinese. By 1865 the railroad had hired three thousand Chinese
workers to build tracks (Ping 44).
The Central Pacific decided it would need many more workers to reach its goal of
gaining as much ground as possible. Many white Americans did not want to work on the
railroad, because of pay rates, and were more attracted to agrarian jobs. The railroad took
the task of going to China to find the workers it needed. Several circulars were issued in
China, including these:
"'Come over help us! We have money to spend, but no one to earn it.' and another
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circular stated ' Great pay, come to the writer of this circular for a ticket to America" (Zo
26). Many Chinese decided work in America, would help benefit their families and
became immersed into the "Coolie" system of labor. The system usually involved
employers to find Chinese peasant and have them sign contracts to send them to America.
California State Senator George Tingley introduced the coolie bill in 1852. This bill was,
"...to legalize contract labor for periods of ten years or less" (Lyman 59). This bill was
not uniformily popular, especially to Senator Philip Roach. Roach believed that this bill
was essentially going to enserf Chinese workers. Roach preached that:
"...to enact a law by which the surplus and inferior population of Asia may be
brought into competition with the labor of our own people. There is ample room for its
employment in draining swamplands, in cultivating rice, raising silk, or planting tea. Our
state is supposed to have great natural advantages for those objects; but if these present
not field enough for their labor, then sugar, cotton, and tobacco invite their attention. For
these special objects I have no objection to the introduction of contract laborers, provided
they are excluded from citizenship; for those staples cannot be cultivated without 'cheap
labor'; but from all other branches I would recommend exclusion" (Lyman 71).
American sentiment pretty much matched the same thing as what Roach preached.
The Chinese, if they should come, were to be treated like Africans and Native Americans.
That they would be denied citizenship and be barred from taking up jobs that would
require skilled labor. Roach went on to say that, "I do not want to see Chinese carpenters,
masons, or blacksmiths brought here under swarms under contracts. To compete with our
mechanics whose labor is honorable and well entitled to social and political rights..."
(Lyman 59). Essentially the Chinese were welcome if they would come to work on the
lowest jobs and then go back to China.
To the employer the coolie system provided the means in hiring its laborers
without having to directly look after them. "...Whereas he had the right of exploiting the
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coolie labor to the fullest extent, the employer was under no legal obligation to look after
his men except for paying minimum wages and supplying basic provisions" (Daniels 55).
The American employers were also the main and largest contractors in hiring the Chinese
to come to the country. Reports came that the Chinese were, "...satisfactory in every
respect. The labor pool was plentiful, cheap, for the most part reliable, and moreover the
Chinese proved to be durable and dependable laborers even under tropical conditions"
(Zo 36). The coolie system in effect had now given America a new form of slavery which
would be called "yellow slavery". The employers could treat the workers however the
employers wished just as long the Chinese had done their jobs quickly and efficiently. By
1855 there were about thirty seven thousand Chinese living in America and most were
brought over by the coolie system. As the Chinese started to filter into California, most
workers knew that they were at the bottom of the social ladder. "The Chinese were
willing to undertake hard labor on a long-term basis, and unlike white men, did not
consider un-skilled, menial labor as a mere stepping stone to quick advancement" (Wittke
459). It was generally understood that the Chinese would save money through their hard
work and then enjoy old age comfortably.
With the popularity of hiring Chinese workers the state decided to appeal to
Congress to allow unrestricted immigration. In July of 1868 Congress passed the
Burlingame Treaty with China to allow for this immigration. This was the first of these
immigrant treaties for the Chinese.
While the railroads were hiring Chinese, there were still many Chinese working in
mines. About twenty one percent worked on the railroads and about fifty percent worked
in mines. Until about 1865, mining had dominated the Chinese economy in California,
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and provided the majority of Chinese jobs. Anti-Chinese sentiment was also quickly
growing in California and the Chinese were driven off in mines in Douglas Flat,
Sacramento Bar, Coyote Flat, Sand Flat, Rock Creek, and Buckeye (Wittke 460). In
California, white miners also planned anti-Chinese laws. For example in the Columbia
mining districts they decided that, "...no Chinaman was to be thenceforth allowed to mine
in this district either for themselves or for others" (Lyman 60). The Chinese were always
suspected of being thieves and were kept under surveillance by whites. When the mining
yields started to dwindle many Chinese sought new jobs elsewhere.
When the Central Pacific Railroad opened up with new jobs, the Chinese eagerly
took them. By 1870, the mining had reached its peak for the Chinese, and layoffs started
to happen. The opening of construction jobs was a godsend for these workers. For the
Central Pacific Railroad in particular, "...the ex-miners were ideal workers because they
could speak English, and were familiar with American work patterns. They were also
familiar with drilling tools and handling dynamite" (Zo 162). This proved to be beneficial
when the railroad started to work with the high grades, a percent increase in elevation, in
the Rocky Mountains. The railroad started using the Chinese purely as tracklayers but as
1868 came to a close the railroad started using the Chinese for more tasks.
"At first the Chinese worked as graders, but they were later employed as masons
and other forms of skilled labor. Once the value of Chinese labor was established, the
Chinese were eagerly sought by the company. Over ten thousand Chinese were working
hard on railroad construction." (Daniels 140).
The conditions on the railway were sub par at best, compared to mining jobs. The
average pay on the railroad was higher than the pay of mining and mining typically was
the more dangerous of the two jobs. The Chinese were making about thirty five to forty
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dollars a month, which was pretty high. However the working conditions were not very
good. "Although he lived in miserable facilities and worked under hazardous conditions,
he was thoroughly dedicated to his arduous work" (Zo 167). By the time of the Central
Pacific Railroads completion in 1868, Americans concluded that American capitalists
considered the Chinese in California “yellow slaves” who were owned and exploited by
their countrymen. All of the Chinese that lived in America had low living standards and
were in filthy and often crowded quarters.
In 1868 the railroad boom started trickling to an end, but the completion had
many effects. One of which was where would the Chinese suppose to work now? By
1870 the great railroad projects were completed. Some still worked on railroads, but
mostly on branch lines like the Northern Pacific Railroad and the Southern Pacific
Railroad used. Some Chinese opened up laundries and shopkeepers. Many Chinese also
went back to mining and some went to become cooks for the wealthy. The Chinese
however quickly got the feeling they were not welcome there:
"At first only the Chinese miner encountered hostility because of the allegation
that he was robbing the state of it's mineral wealth and shipping gold to China. The gold
mines of California and the other western states were never in fact dominated by the
Chinese. Indeed, Chinese mineworkers often confined their labors to claims already
abandoned by Whites. Nevertheless, they were attacked vigorously and viciously for
more than thirty years by both public laws and popular uprising." (Lyman 58).
The intense hatred towards the Chinese heightened as the nation went into a
depression in 1873. When the depression hit, several Chinese and white workers were
fired from their jobs and white workers viciously attacked the Chinese laborers as the
cause of the economic downturn. They saw the Chinese as gamblers and opium addicts.
"Although the Chinese considered the wage scale in America adequate. They were hardly
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well off even in material terms. Living costs were much higher in California, and many
indulged in opium smoking and gambling to ease the pain of loneliness" (Zo 189). To
make matters worse when the Chinese were then used in several strikes occurring in the
1870s and 1880s. In 1877 a cutlery plant in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania used Chinese
scabs to break a strike that was forming there (Zo 122). In North Adams, Massachusetts,
the Chinese were used as scabs to break a strike among the shoemakers.
The most famous of an anti-Chinese riot occurred in Rock Springs, Wyoming.
The Union Pacific Coal Company hired both white workers and Chinese workers to work
in their coal mines. The laborers were frustrated by the abominable working conditions
and went on strike against the company with the help of the Knights of Labor. The
Chinese workers, however, refused to participate, and on September 2, 1885, twenty-five
Chinese laborers were shot dead and another fifteen were wounded (Daniels 47). White
workers chased the Chinese and destroyed their property. The damage from the riots
came to about $147,000 and the workers obliterated the Chinatown. "As shots were fired,
the Chinese fled to the hills. 'The Chinamen were fleeing like a herd of hunted antelopes,
making no resistance. Volley upon volley was fired upon the fugitives. In a few minutes
the hill east of the town was literally blue with hunted Chinamen'” (Daniels 48). The
rioters also threatened the foremen. They were to leave for the first train east, for which
they promptly did.
The news of the Rock Spring riots spread like wildfire. Governor Warren of
Wyoming issued this telegraph to President Grover Cleveland:
"Referring to my several late telegrams. I respectfully submit that the unlawful
organized mob in possession coal-mines at Almy, near here, will not permit Chinamen to
approach their home, property, or employment. From the nature of the outbreak, sheriff
of county cannot rally sufficient posse, and territorial government cannot sufficiently aid
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him. Insurrectionists know, through newspapers and dispatches, that troops will not
interfere under present orders; and moral effect of presence of troops is destroyed. If
troops were known to have orders to assist the sheriff’s posse in case driven back. I am
quite sure civil authorities could restore order without actual use of soldiers. But unless
United States Government can find to relieve us immediately, I believe worse scenes than
those at Rock Springs will follow and all Chinamen driven from the territory. I beg an
early reply and information regarding the attitude of the United States" (Daniels 50).
Federal troops did finally arrive from Camp Murray nearby. The troops escorted
the Chinese back to Rock Springs. Many white workers and the Knights of Labor
objected strenuously to the Chinese going back to Rock Springs. When the Chinese
workers returned to Rock Springs, the local newspaper, The Rock Springs Independent,
sent this message to the Union Pacific:
"The action of the company in bringing back the Chinese means that they are to
be set to work in the mines and that the American soldiers are to prevent them from being
driven out again.
It means that all white miners at Rock Springs, except those absolutely required,
are to be replaced by Chinese labor.
It means that the company intend to make a "Chinatown" out of Rock Springs, as
they proposed to the Almy miners last Monday.
It means that Rock Springs is killed, as far as white men are concerned, if such a
programme is carried out.
How do our miners and how do our business men like the situation, and what are
they going to do about it?
There is but one thing: miners, merchants, and railway employees must unite as
one man against such a high-handed proceeding. It is a matter in which every business
man and every working man along the line of the Union Pacific is concerned.
If the labor organizations of Colorado and Wyoming, backed up by the business
interest and public sentiment and public press of the county, cannot enforce their demand
that the Chinese must go, we are much mistaken as to their strength.
Neither the labor organizations nor public sentiment will uphold the brutal murder
of the Chinese last week. The punishment of these crimes is within the province of the
civil authorities, and they will not be molested in the prosecution of their duties. But
innocent men with their families, and the business interest of Rock Springs, must not be
allowed to suffer through the avenging spirit of the Union Pacific Railway. Let the
demand go up from one end of the Union Pacific to the other, THE CHINESE MUST
GO" (Daniels 51).
The article was spearheaded by the Knights of Labor, which was growing in
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popularity ten years after its creation. In 1878, there were about 9,287 members in the
organization. By 1883 the membership rose to about 51, 914 members. Three years late
membership in the Knights of Labor had risen to 700,000 (Daniels 52). The organization
also was the first to the set a Chinese Exclusion Law, which failed. The federal
government was frustrated with these incursions and signed a modification to the
Burlingame Treaty in 1880. This modification gave the United States the right to limit,
suspend, or regulate Chinese immigration.
Not only did the Chinese deal with racism among white people, so did the Union
Pacific. When white workers went on strike near Cheyenne, they had demanded a pay
raise of twenty-five cents. When the workers went on strike the Union Pacific brought
over Chinese workers so that production would not halt. Mr. Glafeke, an editor to the
company wrote, "...But if the white mean will not dig the company's coal for pay, who
will blame the company for hiring yellow, black, or red men, who are ready and willing
to do what white men will not do?" (Daniels 53). The Chinese consul to America had
reported that the Chinese miners had always been law-abiding and peaceful. He also
reported that the one offense was that the Chinese had refused to join the Knights of
Labor. This was one of the likely reasons that the white workers decided to riot against
the Chinese. The white workers were also outnumbered about one to seven. The white
workers were uncomfortable sharing that much space with Chinese workers.
Pit bosses tended to favor the Chinese workers, because they were not in the
Knights of Labor. It should be noted that the company store benefited from the Chinese
who shopped there. Roger Daniels reports that:
"On September 19, 1885, soon after the massacre. Thomas Neasham, chairman of
the Knights of Labor Executive committee of Employees of the Union Pacific Railway,
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asked the removal of Chinese from the system. In behalf of the Knights of Labor
Neasham submitted a report charging that the white miners at Rock Springs had been
replaced by Chinese who paid mine bosses as much as one hundred dollars for their
places, had been made to work where Chinese would not work, had been robbed by the
use of false weights, had been discharged because they refused to vote for Mrs. Tisdel for
school superintendent, and had been compelled to buy their goods from the store of
Beckwith, Quinn and Company. Besides asking the abandonment of Chinese labor, the
Knights of Labor ask the removal of Beckwith, Quinn and Company, and D.O. Clark,
general superintendent of the Coal Department" (Daniels 55).
After this message was sent out to Union Pacific, The Union Pacific was more
determined than ever to keep the Chinese in Rock Springs. They refused to listen to the
white workers complain anymore. While there were other mines with race riots, the most
famous was Rock Springs. Riots did not just end in the workplace.
San Francisco was not the only city in California that had difficulty with
accepting Chinese, Los Angeles had its problems with accepting Chinese immigrants as
well. One event in 1871 was a massacre of Chinese in Los Angeles. The Chinese miners
living in Los Angeles were called the "Celestials", because of their strange culture that
they had introduced to California.
"California's resentment to the "Celestials" was first manifested among the miners
of Northern California when the Chinese became numerically onerous in 1852. As large
Chinese populations congregated in northern cities agitation spread among the urban
laborers, who feared the results of competing with them. Over the years, sympathetic and
ambitious officeholders produced a mass of state and local legislation designed to stem
the tide of immigration and to drive the Chinese away, but the courts had declared most
of the acts unconstitutional. The pulse of this agitation seems to have quickened during
depression years or years in which immigration was particularly high, and it subsided to
dormancy only when relief from "evil" was obtained" (Daniels 239).
Agitation of the Chinese coming into Los Angeles was voiced very loudly. Los
Angeles, unlike San Francisco, did not eject the Chinese with force. The white laborers
were not interested in the Chinese coming in the first place, because the railroad
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companies were interested in hiring them. The Chinese emigrated from San Francisco
hoping to find work in the mines, but the white workers in Los Angeles were not thrilled
with their city having Chinatowns. They, like the San Franciscans, saw the Chinese as,
"...merely a slave of another color" (Daniels 240). A literature pamphlet was passed
around Los Angeles called, “A Short and Truthful History of the Taking of California
and Oregon by the Chinese, in the year A. D. 1899” (Daniels 240). By 1870, about three
percent of the people were Chinese in Los Angeles and San Francisco had about 12,000
in 1870.
Five years later, it was said that, “…carloads of Chinese came into the area and
set the stage of local agitation” (Daniels 241). One of the main reasons for the Chinese
not immigrating into Los Angeles was that Southern California was better known for
having cattle and ranches. The town itself was more developed for local businesses and
for the ranchers, not for gold or mining in that area. Los Angeles just did not have the
economic opportunity that was needed to attract settlers and immigrants, especially the
Chinese. San Francisco was also the port the Chinese had to sail into anyway, not Los
Angeles. The law enforcement was also a joke in Los Angeles:
“In 1870 the city marshal and one of his officers shot it out with each other in
front of the court house, arguing over which one deserved a particular award for the
return of a Chinese prostitute. The marshal died of his wounds” (Daniels 241).
It should also be noted that the mayor of Los Angeles had even resigned his office
to lead a riot (Daniels 241). These factors would certainly limit immigration into the city.
However, severe droughts in 1860 struck and crippled Los Angeles. The large
herds of cattle were killed off when the water was scarce. The Chinese that left for the
city were going because of the prejudices and pressures in San Francisco, and not to Los
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Angeles, which held its reputation. Most of the early Chinese who came to Los Angeles
were employed as domestics and replaced Native Americans and Hispanics living in the
city. Most of the so-called “Celestials” did not need to build their own Chinatown. This
was because most of the Hispanic and early African Americans had already built a slum
in the city. When the Chinese came, they virtually took over this area and it became a
Chinese nucleus. While there was a large anti-Chinese movement in 1870 in San
Francisco, there was no large anti-Chinese movement in Los Angeles. Only one incident
occurred, in the so-called Negro Alley. “…October 24 a mob of 500 ’Angels,’ enraged
over the killing of a white by some ’Celestials’, stormed through Negro Alley leaving 18
Chinese dead in its wake”(244). Roger Daniels points out that this incident was not an
anti-Chinese movement, because it did not try to drive out the Chinese inhibit the
immigration into the city. The city during this time had jobs for both whites and Chinese,
so there was very little competition for jobs.
This state lasted for only about six years. In 1876 the Southern Pacific Railroad
decided to expand its business to include Los Angeles. To accomplish this task it needed
workers, and they desired Chinese workers for their past reputation of hard work and
loyalty to their jobs. When the connection was complete the labor remained, filling in
more domestic jobs in the city. Los Angeles population was quickly becoming more and
more agitated with threat of violence that printed in the local papers:
“The workingmen have no grievances that can be remedied by a demonstration.
Public opinion in Los Angeles is a unit of the Chinese problem. Both political parties
have declared against the policy of the unrestricted immigration, and the men who favor
their introduction are very few. The Chinese who are here now, are here lawfully. To fan
the flame of prejudice against these people by tumultuous meetings can only lead to
violence. We cannot forget that scenes were witnessed in this city six years ago which
called forth the condemnation of the civilized world. These must not be reenacted, and if
any movement is on the tapes which may render it possible that Chinamen will be seen
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hang on our gate-posts, it must be nipped in the bud. We shall go as far as any newspaper
in a rational and lawful effort to remedy the Chinese evil, but we shall discountenance
with all our power and influence any movement that may lead to violence. The Chinese
problem is now in the hands of Congress, the only constitutional power which can deal
with it. Whatever influence we can bring to bear upon that body to remedy the evil will
do good; but violence at the present time would only react upon the question and set it
back for years” (247).
Even with these verbal assaults upon the Chinese, there was still no movement to
expel them. Frustrated, the anti-Chinese movement formed its own political party. This
new Workingmen’s party concentrated on the “Chinese question” the malpractices and
monopolies of the railroads, and the corruption in the government. Boldly this party made
a statement that it would not support any public structure or improvement if the Chinese
were employed to build it. They also encouraged a boycott of the Chinese.
The statement did not make a large impact. Most of the city relied on the Chinese
as a source of fresh fruits and vegetables and the Chinese owned about nine out of ten of
the laundromats in the city (Daniels 247). The Workingmen’s party tried a new tactic
when they saw that the boycott wouldn’t work. They decided it would be easier just to
overtax the population. If the resident’s could not pay the tax, then they would be forced
to leave Los Angeles (248). The party aimed its heaviest taxation at Negro Alley where
the main population of the Chinese lived. The peddlers had a six hundred percent tax
increase; they now had to pay twenty dollars a month. The laundries had a tax increase
of five hundred percent; they now had to pay twenty-five dollars a month. A general
residence tax was increased by five dollars a month to “all aliens ineligible to the
privilege of becoming citizens of the United States, who were employed in any capacity
in the city of Los Angeles” (249). The tax proved to be an unpopular measure. It would
leave the city in a mountain of debt trying to clear the parts where the Chinese would
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leave additionally the party promised to give tax reductions to other businesses. This
promise would not be kept, in order to pay off the expenses.
The laundromats in the city decided not to challenge this law, but to make matters
worse for white laborers, the Chinese vegetable peddlers in the city challenged this law
and its constitutionality and threatened to go on strike. While some did it wasn’t
economically feasible for the Chinese workers to do this for a prolonged period of time. It
was a period of time in which the city council became nervous of the Chinese challenging
these laws.
“…the Council reduced the fees to six dollars and twelve dollars per month on
laundries and vegetable wagons, respectively, and withdrew the tax on employed person
not eligible for citizenship. Although the laundrymen quietly accepted the new tax, which
was merely a twenty percent increase over the former, the vegetable vendors pushed a
test case before the courts and won. A county court justice found the tax “oppressive,
partial, unfair and in restraint in trade and therefore void”. Encouraged by this success the
vendors refused to pay even the revised fee of five dollars and went on strike again in
May.”(249)
The strike was not as effective as the peddlers had hoped, but they continued to
push their limits on the unfair taxation. After the five-dollar reduction failure, the Chinese
try to create a two-dollar break and hoped to enlist the sympathy of their customers, since
most of the customers directly bought their produce through the Chinese. That event also
ended up in failure for the Chinese.
The Workingmen’s party was relentless to try to pass anti-Chinese laws. Even
though the boycott and taxation were unsuccessful, they tried to destroy, or as they put it,
improve their city. “The Chinese themselves owned no real estate in Los Angeles, and
their landlords had regularly refused to cooperate with earlier efforts to eliminate the eye
sore” (250). The Council decided that by changing the street name they could make their
improvements. When they changed Negro Alley to Los Angeles Street, the Council
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passed a bill to enlarge the street, and by enlarging the street they destroyed the offending
buildings. However this only prompted the Chinese to build their homes outside of the
city’s limits, so it made no real impact whatsoever.
The Workingmen’s party tried yet another tactic to drive the Chinese out. This
time they passed a law in 1876 called the “Lodging House Law of 1876”. This law
required that all buildings have at least five hundred cubic feet of air. The “Cubic Air” act,
as it was called by citizens, was a joke and an embarrassment for the party. “In January of
1879, ten Chinese were arrested for violation of the law. But the city was unable to get a
conviction” (251). The outcome of the trial was that the prosecution had clearly won, but
the judge dismissed the case, because the city could not take another huge financial loss,
after they enlarged Los Angeles Street. Before 1879, even though the citizens knew about
the law, there was a tremendous amount of public apathy to enforce it.
It should be no surprise that the Workingmen’s party was soundly defeated in the
next election and the party fizzled out. In 1880 many Chinese left the city to work for the
railroads in Arizona and an anti-Chinese law was passed in Congress to lift the
Burlingame Treaty. This new treaty failed with a veto from President Arthur. “In other
parts of the state the President was being hanged in effigy. However, no such reaction
found expression among Angelenos” (254). Another passage of an anti-Chinese
immigration law was successfully passed in 1882. It has been concluded that the antiChinese movement in Los Angeles did not end until 1879 with the defeat of the
Workingmen’s party. It should also be restated that the massacre in 1871 was not to drive
out the Chinese, but to gain revenge from the death of a white worker in the city.
The Chinese, however, had migrated also because of the lure of gold. When they
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arrived they found out very quickly that they were not welcomed. Miners blocked their
every move to acquire the gold and many were stuck in America, because they were on
wage contracts. Corporations used the Chinese vagrant workers originally to break strikes
and establish order in the mines. Sometimes the Chinese proved to be resistant as scabs,
as in Massachusetts, but other times they earned the hatred of white workers, such as the
Order of St. Crispin, a labor organization. When the Chinese refused to join the union or
participate in the strikes, they became the target of racial crimes.
As a mere experiment these same Chinese made an even larger impact, the impact
on the development of the railroads. With the railroads came another flux of immigration
from China and from the Eastern United States. The presidents of the railroad
corporations persuaded many Chinese single men to work on the building of railroads
because they were dependable, cheap, and hardworking. Because they were also a
minority they could be exploited without any of them pressing charges, since most were
too poor or under contract.
When the railroads were completed settled in cities like San Francisco and Los
Angeles. Although most of the white citizens were not happy to have these poor migrant
workers “polluting” their cities, they replaced them with Hispanics and Native Americans
for jobs they did not want to have. In San Francisco, the white worker made multiple
attempts to drive out the Chinese rather forcibly with fire and rioting. Los Angeles,
however, proved to be another story. It needed its Chinese population to sustain the city’s
economy, and while the Chinese were not desired, the citizenry realized it would become
an economic disaster to try and drive them out of town. The Chinese, however, were the
subject of many crimes and hardships. Violently, they were shot, raped, assaulted, hung,
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and sustained massive damage to personal property. Non-violently they were subjected
to heavy taxation that was solely aimed on them. However they were integral to the
building and developing of the United States.