History of Asian Americans
The History of Asian Americans is a vast and varied field that has been studied for over a century. It was therefore difficult to find the right scope for our project. In the end, we decided to focus our research on the so called exclusion era, as it is the period in which anti-Asian sentiments in the American population climaxed and the term “Yellow Peril” was coined. To capture those sentiments we chose to look at legislation during that period as well as violent incidents against Asian Americans.
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US legislation in the era of Asian American Exclusion
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Asian American immigration, which has its origins in the 16th century and saw the first foundation of an Asian American settlement in 1763, continued throughout its early history without major restrictions. In the second half of the 19th century, however, hostile attitudes towards Asian American immigrants grew and resulted in a series of laws that were passed not only to restrict Asian immigration, but also to strip these immigrants of essential rights. This period, starting at the end of the 19th century and lasting until the end of the Second World War, is nowadays known as the exclusion era. This contribution aims at examining the cause and effects of the most important state and federal legislation, such as the Asian Barred Zone Act and the Immigration Act of 1924.
The first law that restricted the immigration of Asian Americans to the US was simultaneously the first restrictive federal immigration law, which marked the end of an era of open boarders that the US were famous for. The so called Page Act of 1975 was introduced by the Californian Horace F. Page to reduce the risk of Chinese women entering the country as they were suspected to mainly work as prostitutes. To further understand the origin of this law it has to be noted that the majority of Asian American immigrants consisted of Chinese workers that immigrated in the course of the California Gold Rush in 1848 and other major building projects such as the first transcontinental railroad. The majority of those workers came without their family, and since they were not able so to send for their wives due to extremely low wages, a thriving prostitution industry developed in their communities. In the years following the Page Act, Chinese women were technically allowed to apply for immigration, but only a few hundred were able to prove that they are the first wives of Chinese workers that had already entered the country.
While the number of Chinese women decreased following the Page act, the number of Chinese male workers actually increased from 1875 onwards. Subsequently anti Chinese sentiments grew out of fear that they would steal jobs and a new restrictive law was imposed, which, according to various scholars such as Erika Lee marks the beginning of the Asian American Exclusion era. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first law to prohibit any Chinese people from immigrating to the United States. It was the first law that excluded people from a single ethnicity. Remarkable is also that it didn´t even matter which profession the applicant was belonging to, which meant that even diplomats were forbidden to travel to the US. The laws passed this year also gave rise to a the so-called “Driving-Out” era, a period in which anti-Asian and especially anti-Chinese Americans physically forced Chinese settlers to flee to other territories. Two notable incidents of this era are Rocks Springs Massacre of 1885 and the Hells Canyon Massacre of 1886. Two violent uprisings, in the course of which almost a hundred Chinese settlers were killed. These events and similar others will be discussed further in the upcoming contribution.
The Immigration Act of 1917, also known as the Asian Barred Zone Act, was the next step in restricting Asian American immigration. It was especially aimed at creating new categories of inadmissible people on the basis of their profession and especially literacy. It demanded that no one above the age of 16 who is illiterate is allowed to enter the country. This categorization was viable for all groups of immigrants. The act furthermore restricted the immigration from all Asian countries though, with the exception of Japan and the Philippines. Although it was possible for some professions such as diplomats or lawyers to enter the country, it virtually halted any immigration from the Asian continent, as the vast majority of people seeking to immigrate to the US consisted of poor laborers.
The culmination of decades of policies aimed to restrict the immigration of Asian Americans happened with the Immigration Act of 1924, also known as the Asian Exclusion Act. This law introduced immigration quotas for all countries, including those from the Western Hemisphere, but also stated that no immigration from any Asian country can happen, including Japan and the Philippines. Especially in Japan this act was received badly, resulting in various resignations and protests. According to some scholars such as David C. Atkinson this Act can even be seen as a turning point of US - Japanese relations, which subsequently worsened and culminated in the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the dropping of atomic bombs on Japanese soil. The Act also introduced the Border Patrol, an institution that is still established and well known today, and thus can be seen as the Act that ended the transformation of the United States from a country welcoming immigrants from all over the world to a country that protects its borders with extreme measures.
In addition to laws that restricted the immigration from the Asian continent the exclusion era was also defined by a series of discriminatory laws that stripped Asian Americans of vital rights. One key piece of legislation was for example the Naturalization Act of 1870, which made it impossible for Chinese immigrants to become full citizens, thus prohibiting them from voting or becoming jury members. In addition, various states imposed laws that made it impossible for any non-citizens to buy land. The rulings of Takao Ozawa v. The United States in 1922 and United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind in 1923 also prohibited the naturalization of Japanese and Indian people. Furthermore, Chinese immigrants were imposed with higher tax rates (Anti-Coolie Act 1862), were segregated in the school system (Lum v. Rice 1927) and were not allowed to testify in court for a homicide committed by a white man (People v. Hall 1954).
In the course of roughly fifty years the United States passed a series of laws that became more and more restrictive towards Asian immigration. Especially the federal immigration laws of the early 19th century brought immigration from the Asian continent almost to a complete halt. These laws point out the Asian American ethnic group as the first immigrant group that was discriminated against on a legislative level. Consequently, the effects of these laws could not only be observed in the numbers of immigrants declining, but also had a propelling effect on negative attitudes towards Asian Americans. This can be seen in various instances such as the massacres of Rock Springs and Hells Canyon, which will be discussed further in the following.
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The violence, riots and massacres against Chinese-American workers during the 1880s
The history of Asian-Americans is vast and rich; given the group’s status as a “model minority” today, however, its dismal parts often go unnoticed. It is difficult to go through five centuries of history concisely, so this piece will be focused on some of the most prominent instances of violence of the time.
Briefly, the first records of what we call today “Asian-American history” date back to the 16th century, with the mass arrivals of Filipino people under the command of Spanish captains. However, the extensive records begin in the 19th century, and it is around 1850 when it becomes clear that Asian presence in the USA has been solidified. That same time period, however, also marks the origins of the term “yellow peril”, which is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “the political [...] threat regarded as being posed by certain peoples of East and South-East Asia, especially the Chinese”. This started because, during the second half of the 19th century, Chinese workers were blamed for allegedly “stealing” jobs from white people. The 1880s, on which the text will focus from now on, were especially marked by anti-Chinese movements that were pushed by white workers and unions.
Not only has this period not been particularly well-documented (which is itself an interesting observation, given the alarming number of targeted massacres that occurred during those years), but it also highlights the stark difference between how Asian-Americans were viewed then versus now, and is worthy of a more thorough look. The examples focused on here were chosen mostly due to them being more extensively recorded than most other events, but also because of their importance as junctures in the history of Asian-Americans.
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ROCK SPRINGS MASSACRE (1885)
One of the most notorious anti-Chinese crimes of the period was the Rock Springs Massacre (or Riot) of 1885. Out of all the tragedies examined here, this appears to be the most well-documented one.
Tension against Chinese people increased notably during the years leading up to the massacre. In “Blind in One Eye Only: Western and Eastern Knights of Labor View the Chinese Question”, Rob Weir names Denis Kearney as the enabler of many anti-Chinese movements of the time, and points out that the leaders of the Knights of Labor (the first, and most important at the time, labour organisation in the United States, often abbreviated as KOL) were impressed and affected by his notions. Kearney (and later the KOL) insisted that the Chinese workers tolerated lower wages, shoddy working conditions and longer work days that abetted bad working conditions for white workers as well. These beliefs were embraced by many workers and unions, and lay the foundations for many of the tragedies that followed. At the same time (as mentioned in more detail here) the American law disqualified Chinese workers from naturalised citizenship in 1878, and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 banned labourers from immigrating to the US entirely. It is evident by these events alone that the aforementioned efforts for the condemnation of Chinese workers were working and steadily becoming worse.
The situation reached a sharp peak on September 2, 1885, with the Rocks Springs Massacre (also known as the Rock Springs Riot) in the Wyoming territory. As described the following year by Isaac H. Bromley, around a hundred (if not more) white coal miners at Rock Springs, despite reassurances by their employers that all their problems with their Chinese co-workers would be taken care of in due time, ousted the latter out of the mines and the town in an armed riot. The white workers burned down more than fifty houses where Chinese employees were staying, chased them away, and threatened to kill them if they came back. As far as numbers are concerned, Weir provides that at least 22 Chinese were murdered, 26 were reported missing and many others were injured.
According to Weir, the numbers of workers in the mines counted around 150 white ones and 331 Chinese ones; it is not, therefore, surprising that the main pretext behind the massacre was that the Chinese labourers were “stealing” jobs from the “natives”.
The Rock Springs Massacre is one of the most prominent instances of anti-Chinese violence by workers from the time period. It is also noteworthy to mention that on September 7th, 1885, just five days after the massacre, another tragedy occurred in Squak Valley in the Washington Territory, where a group of men opened fire on sleeping Chinese labourers and killed at least three of them. While not necessarily the most horrifying incident of the time, the events occurring so shockingly soon after one another shows the intensity of the situation.
On February 8th, 1911, George Kinnear (Captain of the Home Guard, an organisation dedicated to and successful in forestalling the Chinese residents of Seattle from being driven out of town) published an article in which he went through and clarified the events of the Seattle Riots of 1886, 25 years after they happened. Kinnear confirms that, this time too, the reason behind the riots was that “it was believed that if the Mongolians could be driven out of the country, more employment would be given to white labour” (3). The article was described by Clarence B. Bagley as a “correct account of the whole anti-Chinese trouble”.
In short, according to Kinnear, the events leading up to the riots began back in the fall of 1885. During the previous years, mobs had managed to chase Chinese people out of towns, especially on the East Coast; now, the workers of Seattle started holding meetings with the intention of organising something similar yet again. Following the killing of three Chinese men while they were asleep, an Anti-Chinese congress was formed in Seattle, and it ordered that all Chinese leave Seattle, Tacoma and other areas by November 1st. In Tacoma, where this did not happen, the Chinese were forcibly expelled from the town and their houses were burned; in Seattle, the Anti-Chinese mobs began organising how they would succeed. The plan went as follows: the mob would be armed and would use their guns for “self-defence and enforcement of the law”; they would both expel the Chinese and burn their houses down; the mob would claim everything that belonged to them, including money from the banks and products from their stores; and they would also expel anyone who opposed.
In the morning of February 7th, 1886, “committees” (as they called themselves) broke into houses and ordered the Chinese residents to pack up and leave by the SS Queen of the Pacific once it arrived at the port. Governor Watson C. Squire, who was in the city, ordered the Chinese to return to their homes, but with the mob having control of the town by that time, he was met with strong discord. The Home Guard intervened, and it was decided that only those who could afford it would board the ship; the rest would be informed of their legal rights, and funds would be raised for anyone still wanting to leave the next day on another steamship. For the following two days,, the Guards made sure to protect and defend the remaining Chinese from the mobs, yet since word of the agreements had not reached all parts of the city, more mobs formed, and riots were incited in various locations until Gov. Squire issued martial law in the area.
While not necessarily the most violent, this incident highlights the chasm between white and Chinese workers that had, at this point, traversed past the East Coast and deeper into the country. It also shows, however, that the Chinese were not alone in their struggle to survive; at the very least, there was an effective number of white Americans willing to defend them and their rights.
CHINESE MASSACRE COVE (1887)
Characterised by Greg Nokes in the Oregon Encyclopaedia as “what may have been the most brutal” of the crimes against Chinese-Americans, the massacre at Deep Creek, Oregon in May 1887 is yet another poorly documented tragedy of the time. The place has since been renamed Chinese Massacre Cove to commemorate the men that lost their lives there. There are few sources and little discrepancy regarding this event, but it is worth mentioning for its importance in Asian-American history.
According to Nokes, in May 1887, bodies were recovered from the Snake River in Idaho Territory; the initial number of dead was believed to be ten, but rose to “as many as thirty-four”. Despite one man, Frank Vaughan, confessing to the crime in March 1888, and six men and boys being indicted for the massacre, no one was punished.
What is known of it is that, in May 1887, about thirty-four Chinese gold miners were tortured (as proven by the state of the bodies found) and killed by a group of men consisting of horse thieves and school boys. The lack of information is largely due to the fact that legal paperwork on the crime was only unearthed randomly in 1995 by a Wallowa County clerk; Nokes writes here that the papers were “misplaced—or, perhaps, hidden”.
Despite the unanimous opinion that this massacre was one of the worst atrocities committed against Asian-Americans, it is difficult to find verifiable information on it.
CONCLUSION
If there is one notable pattern in the series of aforementioned events, it is that no one was punished for any of the crimes committed. And this is not limited just to the incidents included here; for most of the crimes committed against Asian-Americans at the time, there was little care from the authorities to protect those people. Conditions were significantly harder for the Chinese workers specifically, who were treated as illegal, repeatedly ostracised from their communities, and punished for work-related problems of the time that were majorly (if not entirely) out of their control.
Yet there is a glaring question yet to be answered: how did Asian-Americans become, in hardly more than a century, the “model minority” instead of the “yellow peril”?
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LIST OF SOURCES
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“Anti-Chinese riots in Seattle, 1886.” Museum of History & Industry, Seattle, 6 March 1886, https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/imlsmohai/id/7160. Accessed 10 February 2023.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Knights of Labor". Encyclopedia Britannica. www.britannica.com/topic/Knights-of-Labor. Accessed 22 December 2022.
Bromley, Isaac H. The Chinese massacre at Rock Springs, Wyoming Territory, September 2, 1885. Franklin Press, Rand, Avery & Co., 1886.
Garlock, Jonathan. Structural Analysis of the Knights of Labor. University of Rochester, 1974, pp. 222-231.
Kinnear, George. “Anti Chinese Riots At Seattle, WN, February 8th 1886”. Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 8 February 1911.
Nokes, Greg. “Chinese Massacre at Deep Creek.” The Oregon Encyclopedia.
Okihiro, Gary Y. American history unbound: Asians and Pacific Islanders. University of California Press, 2015.
Weir, Rob. “Blind in One Eye Only: Western and Eastern Knights of Labor View the Chinese Question.” Labor History. Vol. 41, no. 4, 2000
Atkinson, David C. “What History Can Tell Us About the Fallout From Restricting Immigration.” Time, 3/2/2017, https://time.com/4659392/history-fallout-restricting-immigration/
Lee, Erika. The Making of Asian America: A History. Simon & Schuster, 2015.
Lee, Erika. “A Part and Apart: Asian American and Immigration History.” Journal of American Ethnic History, vol. 34, no. 4, 2015, pp.
Lee, Erika. “‘Yellow Peril’ and Asian Exclusion in the Americas.” Pacific Historical Review, vol. 76, no. 4, 2007, pp. 537–62.
Lee, Erika. At Americas Gates: Chinese immigration during the exclusion era, 1882-1943. The University of North Carolina Press, 2013.