ASAMST 20A Lecture Notes - John Bigler, Dried Shrimp, United States V. Wong Kim Ark
7 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Confronting Immigration Exclusion (1860-1920)
Causes for hostility and exclusion, division in America, and resistance
Indispensable Chinese labor
● West was undeveloped
● America lacked white labor → needed Chinese labor
● Families were discouraged from migrating
● Flexible, mobile workforce
● Gender imbalance
○ Page Law 1875 (prohibited Asian female prostitutes from entering America)
● Families existed
○ Intermarriage
○ Transnational level
Mining: small producers → laborers
● Placer
○ Small producers
○ Water-based mining, everything’s on the surface
○ Ease of entry
○ Fierce competition
● Hydraulic
○ Surface mining required heavy equipment (more expensive)
○ High overhead and capital
● Quartz mining
○ Tunneling and drilling
○ High overhead and capital
● Move to larger mines and industries
○ Racial antagonisms divided labor
○ Anti-Chinese agitation by politicians and labor leaders
Chinese role in mining
● 1848-3: California produced ⅔ of all U.S. gold
● 1860: 84% of Chinese worked in mines
● 1900: 12% of Chinese worked mining
● Foreign Miners Tax (1850-1870)
○ Monthly tax on foreign miners ($20)
○ Targeted Latinos → driven out
○ Chinese focus
○ 1852-1870: $5 million collected, 50% of CA state revenues
○ Encouraged hatred and violence (Charles De Long)
○ Led to Chinese miners leaving → decline in economy of mining areas
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Nativism
● John Bigler (CA governor from 1852-1856)
● Against immigrants, foreigners
● Believed Chinese were coolies, immoral, unassimilable, dangerous to states’ welfare
● Propagated white supremacist ideologies
○ Believed Chinese should not have the same rights as others because they
were sojourners
○ European immigrants weren’t considered sojourners because they
1790 Naturalization Act
● Pre-determined who could be a settler or sojourner
● Passed by Congress under George Washington
● Established racial criteria limiting citizenship to free white persons wives
attached to husband’s status
● Legal basis for Foreign Miners Tax
Chinese as tools of monopolists
● Mining and water was monopolized
● Chinese labor employed in water companies
● Heavy white miner resistance and sabotage
Transcontinental Railroad
● 1865: 12,000-14,000 Chinese completed Western half
● Result: Took California out of isolation from national economy
○ Transport produce and goods quickly from West → East
● Goal: Promontory Pt.
● Financing from public bonds, granting of public lands along the route
● Grants were dependent on mileage of tracks
● Difficult, needed to go from sea level to 7,000 feet within 100 miles
● Completed only 50 miles in two years
● UPRR easier route along flat plainland, winning race
● Chinese Labor
○ 800 men
○ (ired to move dirt with dump carts → run equipment
○ Initial success led to large scaled hiring
■ Mine work experience
■ ⅘ CPRR workers were Chinese
■ CPRR sent recruiters to China
Difficulties of Work
● Western half required carving granite ledges, drilling and blasting solid rock
● Many deaths due to dangerous work from falls, blasting and avalanches
Eastern Half
● Started in Omaha
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Causes for hostility and exclusion, division in america, and resistance. America lacked white labor needed chinese labor. Page law 1875 (prohibited asian female prostitutes from entering america) Surface mining required heavy equipment (more expensive) Anti-chinese agitation by politicians and labor leaders. 1848-(cid:883)(cid:890)(cid:890)3: california produced of all u. s. gold. 1852-1870: million collected, 50% of ca state revenues. Encouraged hatred and violence (charles de long) Led to chinese miners leaving decline in economy of mining areas. 1860: 84% of chinese worked in mines. Believed chinese were coolies, immoral, unassimilable, dangerous to states" welfare. Believed chinese should not have the same rights as others because they. European immigrants weren"t considered sojourners because they. Established racial criteria limiting citizenship to (cid:498)free white persons(cid:499) (cid:523)wives attached to husband"s status(cid:524) Pre-determined who could be a settler or sojourner. Result: took california out of isolation from national economy. Transport produce and goods quickly from west east.
