David Kute

History 154

11/20/05

Professor Lytle

This work is original and unpublished by David Kute

 

      The incorporation of California as a state in 1850 coincided with the much publicized discovery of gold in 1848 along the American River. A great influx of immigrants was to follow, and amongst the many English, Germans, Scots, and Irish were ethnic Chinese. Since 1820, a small Chinese presence existed within California’s population. These numbers would increase by the 1850’s, when Chinese would represent over nine percent of the state’s population. As cheap labor was the only commodity the Chinese could offer, “Most Chinese immigrants were laborers. The majority reaching California in the early fifties had joined the rush to the foothills.”[1] Simultaneously, the presence of Chinese in California was looked upon with increasing fear by the white population, and the California legislature passed separate acts in 1855, 1858, and 1862 dealing with Chinese immigration. But rather than alleviate anti- Chinese sentiment, this was only the beginning. In the decades that were to follow, a massive anti- Chinese movement was to take hold and pave the way for a series of discriminatory acts that were not to be repealed until the Second World War. In this paper I will trace the Chinese experience in California, from the end of Mexican governance until World War II. Furthermore, it is my contention that anti- Chinese sentiment was based on a set of circumstances peculiar to the western United States during the latter half of the nineteenth century.

      The incorporation of California as a state in 1850 coincided with the much publicized discovery of gold in 1848 along the American River. A great influx of immigrants was to follow, and amongst the many English, Germans, Scots, and Irish were ethnic Chinese. Since 1820, a small Chinese presence existed within California’s population. These numbers would increase by the 1850’s, when Chinese would represent over nine percent of the state’s population. As cheap labor was the only commodity the Chinese could offer, “Most Chinese immigrants were laborers. The majority reaching California in the early fifties had joined the rush to the foothills.”[2] Simultaneously, the presence of Chinese in California was looked upon with increasing fear by the white population, and the California legislature passed separate acts in 1855, 1858, and 1862 dealing with Chinese immigration. But rather than alleviate anti- Chinese sentiment, this was only the beginning. In the decades that were to follow, a massive anti- Chinese movement was to take hold and pave the way for a series of discriminatory acts that were not to be repealed until the Second World War. In this paper I will trace the Chinese experience in California, from the end of Mexican governance until World War II. Furthermore, it is my contention that anti- Chinese sentiment was based on a set of circumstances peculiar to the western United States during the latter half of the nineteenth century.

      The Chinese who first came to California could for the most part be described as sojourners.[3] Different than many of the other immigrants, they had come with the express purpose of obtaining wealth and eventual return to their homeland. California was merely a means to an end, an opportunity for the disadvantaged to earn, save and return home with a large and plentiful bounty. The communities many Chinese entered in California were, like San Francisco Chinatown, isolated and closed off. A group called the Six Companies controlled all aspects of the immigrants’ lives, providing services from handling disputes and policing to banking and women. Meanwhile, the Chinese took employment in an array of fields. Mining soon gave way to railroad construction, and other Chinese also took up other forms of work like agriculture, construction, cooking, washing clothes, and household work. Thus, the Chinese were an exclusive community with a different perspective and mindset, and this was to be a source of problems in the 1860’s and 70’s.

      The appearance of Chinese laborers in California was to stir emotions of hatred amongst white laborers, and was to result in a wave of anti- Chinese sentiment culminating in the riots of 1877. There were many reasons for this dislike of the Chinese. Principal among them was the competition and problems that non- Chinese laborers felt were induced by the Chinese integration in the workforce. Since Chinese were willing to work for lower wages and demanded less from employers, the position of white workers was undermined. Sienkiewicz described the “Chinese… as workers who are not fellow citizens but half slaves, quiet, obedient, and docile….”[4] The efficiency and servile resilience also alarmed non- Chinese workers, to the point that some, like Californian Bret Harte, questioned white capabilities: “Do I sleep, do I dream; do I wander in doubt? Are things what they seem or are visions about? Is our civilization a failure and is the Caucasian played out?”[5] Also, a lack of communication because of language and culture was partly responsible for the divide between Chinese and non- Chinese workers.[6] And finally, the insular Chinese community was also an obstacle to Chinese friendship with the white Californians. As the Chinese community was a source of fear and anxiety for non- Chinese workers and California’s population as a whole, tensions boiled over with the riots of 1877 and the birth of the Workingmen’s Party.

      As the Chinese threatened workers the most, it is not a surprise that organized labor was to be the ultimate advocate of anti- Chinese sentiment, in the guise of the Workingmen’s Party. Anti- Chinese politics had been demonstrated to be successful in the late 1860’s, and by 1876 “both major parties had adopted anti- Chinese clauses in their national platforms.”[7] A group calling itself the Workingmen’s Party became a major political force by early 1878, on the tail end of the San Francisco riots less than a year earlier. The party was an offshoot of the same titled Workingmen’s Party of the United States, which itself emerged after the Marxist International dissolved. Headed by Denis Kearney, a demagogue, the party won substantially at the election polls. At the Constitutional Convention of 1878 “they took the lead in writing a set of bristling anti- Chinese clauses.”[8] The support of a majority of Californians was behind these measures, and the Workingmen’s Party would fade into obscurity, but it had already done its damage and had taken the lead in passage of anti- Chinese legislation.

         The effects of the initial exclusion legislation were to be reaffirmed in the coming decades by the passage of more laws aimed at curbing Chinese immigration. The Constitution itself was the start of it all. “The 1879 Constitution of the State of California contained many discriminatory provisions against the Chinese, such as the prohibition of further immigration of Chinese laborers, their removal outside the limits of certain cities and towns, and their relocation within prescribed portions of those limits.”[9] Congress adopted the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, the Scott Act in 1888, and the Geary Act in 1892, all of which restricted Chinese immigration and made it all but impossible for Chinese who visited China to return to the United States. In 1904, after the ten year extension granted by the Geary Act expired, more legislation was passed to enable the Chinese exclusion laws to last indefinitely. During the period of 1890-1900 the number of Chinese decreased by fifteen thousand. In 1924 tighter restrictions were passed for Chinese entry into the United States. All of this legislation did have its consequences though. The Chinese government had noted with alarm the exclusion legislation. As Chen notes:

 

“The representatives of the Chinese government recognized that major difficulties existed in the settlement of these disputes. They were aware of 1) the limitation of the power of the President to undo the legislation of the Chinese Exclusion Acts; 2) the structure of a two party political system, which used anti- Chinese legislation for an election platform to promote party interests; and 3) the bitter opposition to the Chinese immigrants on the part of the laboring classes of the West Coast rather than the people in general.”[10]

 

         However, Chinese boycott of American goods followed the 1904 passage of the exclusion legislation, so Chinese back in the homeland were not always so understanding of the popular sentiments. The effects of the legislation were ultimately to limit the Chinese American population throughout the end of the nineteenth century and right up until the Great Depression.

          In 1943 the anti- Chinese laws were finally to be dissolved. Between 1908 and 1943, the Chinese population had declined by 37, 738. A factor in the decline was undoubtedly a shortage of females, as well as the difficulties of re-entry. The stimulus for an end to the laws was Chinese cooperation in the war against Japan, and later that year Congress repealed the Chinese Exclusion Acts. The era of exclusion was finally over.

            The causes of anti- Chinese sentiment have already been discussed above, but I would like to argue further that a special set of circumstances created the tension between Chinese immigrants and Americans. First of all, Chinese culture, with the influence of Confucianism and other religions had given the Chinese a particular character trait that Americans could not understand and thought was slave- like and meek. Second, many of the Chinese laborers were coming from a feudal society and abject poverty, and thus were willing to endure more and take less than the average white worker. Third, the rise of the labor union movement had coincided with the Chinese immigration. Finally, economic conditions had worsened prior to the Constitutional Convention, and it is in difficult times that people are more prone to take extreme actions and measures to solve perceived problems. This indeed was the case when the Workingmen’s Party won a substantial number of seats in the California State legislature. This convergence of factors, the cultural disposition and recent background of the Chinese on the one hand, and the beginnings of organized labor and the appearance of a mild economic depression on the other, was ultimately responsible for the ferocity of the anti- Chinese backlash leading up to the drafting of the new Constitution. Neither the Chinese nor the white Americans could be wholly blamed for the antagonism. Racism, though certainly in existence, was not the impetus behind the anti- Chinese movement, as instead it was a special set of circumstances that created the conflict.

            The arrival of the Chinese in California was primarily motivated by economic concerns. Chinese immigrants were a largely exclusive group, and this coupled with their cultural background and competitive drive soon alienated them from the rest of non- Chinese society, especially the white working class. An anti- Chinese movement soon emerged and gained strength, and by the economic downturn of the 1870’s its power had grown so strong that an otherwise unknown group, the Workingmen’s Party, gained many state government seats. Starting with the California Constitution, a series of exclusion acts were passed denying Chinese immigration into the United States. These acts exerted influence on the population of the U.S. Chinese community until their repeal during the Second World War. As I have argued, the source of this conflict was a particular set of circumstances, namely that the Chinese, by no fault of their own, inevitably came to challenge white American labor and ignorantly played into stereotypes and perceptions held by American society.

 

 

Footnotes

 

[1] Wen Hsien Chen, Chinese Under Both Exclusion and Immigration Laws, (University of Chicago Press, June 1940) 38.

 

[2] Alexander Saxton, The Indispensable Enemy, (University of California Press, 1971) 3.

 

[3] Gunther Barth, Bitter Strength: A History of the Chinese in the United States, 1850-1870(Cambridge, Mass. 1964) 1-4.

 

[4] “Henryk Sienkiewicz Appraises Chinese Labor in California, 1880” in Major Problems in California History eds. Sucheng Chan, Spencer Olin, (Houghton Mifflin, 1997) 174.

 

[5] Elliot Grinnell Mears, Resident Orientals on the American Pacific Coast(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1928), p.195

 

[6] Saxton, 17

 

[7] Saxton, 104-105

 

[8] Saxton, 128

 

[9] Eds. Paul K.T. Sih, Leonard B. Allen, The Chinese in America, (St. John’s University, New York, 1976) 6.

 

[10] Wen Hsien Chen, Chinese Under Both Exclusion and Immigration Laws, (University of Chicago Press, June 1940) 38.