Transcripts For CSPAN3 19th Century Chinese Immigration 20170409

Based on nation of origin. Her classes about 45 minutes. As i mentioned before throughout the semester, chinese influence came in small numbers compared to those coming they wererope or it symbolically central to american anxieties related to immigration and who could and who cannot become a u. S. Citizen. Often chinese immigrants, the issue start at a started in california. From that moment in california 1860s,850s and becomes a National Phenomenon that will lead to our first legislation on the federal levels that targets a particular nation of origin. Of the chinese immigration, there are three major issues that people often focus on. That is racial attitude in the 19th century. There are notions of interfere youre 80 and superiority that affected chinese immigrants. People of european ancestry often sought chinese immigrants and asians in general as inferior. They are concerned about religious practices. Majority of chinese coming to notUnited States, although all were christian, they practiced a combination of and taoism. Many americans found it to be far too foreign for them. The issue of economic competition. Particularly in california, people were concerned that chinese immigrants were taking jobs from the White Working Classes. They also were worried that they were taking claims during the gold rush from the same individuals. The nation,protect both in terms of jobs, but also who is in american that something that needed to be done to stop them from coming to this country. I have added this particular political cartoon to the slide. We have seen thomas nass before. The is liberty protecting hardworking chinese immigrant from the rabble. Nasas verye, sympathetic to chinese immigrants. In the background, there is what colored school. In africanamerican school had been burned. Politicsout the racial of the late 19th century, and how both the experiences of African Americans and chinese immigrants during this time often overlap and complemented each other. As i mentioned earlier, chinese immigration and the anxieties of how chinese immigration started in the 1850s. It started in california. It plays out in three ways. Everyday life and Popular Culture, violence and of course local and state laws in the courts. In terms of everyday life and in Popular Culture, what we see in the 18 1850s is a language that emerges that denigrates chinese immigrants and their daytoday practices. These often focus on religious traditions. It is also tied to the types of jobs they have. When we talk about chinese immigration must we, a lot of chinese immigrants step into jobs that were traditionally womens work. Laundry and restaurants. People often question their masculinity by taking on such jobs. In gold dress california, there were not that many women to do these types of jobs. There were also ridiculed because of the way they dressed and their hair. People of european ancestry, men in particular war shorthair, not long hair in the early to mid 19th century. For men to wear long hair at that time was also seen as a as a feminine. And finally, food. I always find it to be ironic, since everybody eats chinese food today. In the 1850s, chinese food was used as another point of division amongst those who wanted to ban chinese immigrants from this country. There was also massive violence in the 1850s and 1860s. 1852, and itround starts in the diggings. We have what are called roundups and drive outs, pushing chinese immigrants out of the line. This becomes larger and larger throughout the late 19th century. One of the more famous moment happen inappen in the diggings, but happens in los angeles in 1871. It is known as the chinese massacre. In the chinese massacre, there was to tongs. Talked about tongs, these are Community Organizations that anyone, regardless of language or family could join. Price. Articipated in two tongues in los angeles were fighting over who would have in the city. Two Police Officers got caught in the fray and were killed. Local whites outraged by this event decided that they needed to clean up los angeles and drive the chinese out. As a result, we had hundreds of people attacked, shot and lynched. 24 of whom died. There will be other incidences by the way, like this throughout targeting chinese. Finally, we have state and local government. Many of the anxieties that we are seeing in terms of language, violence, will become codified in california. Both in terms of the lot and in terms of the court. What i have here, these are a couple examples. The full list, i cannot fit it on one slide and we dont have all day to do every single law that affected chinese immigrants in the 1850s and 1860s. I wanted to give you at least a flavor of the types of laws that were being passed, and how they were targeting chinese. Ofst is a foreign miners act 1852. This law is based upon an earlier law from 1850 that was targeting spanish and french speakers in the diggings. This law says that if you cannot, or did not intend to become a u. S. Citizen, you had to pay a monthly tax in order to be a minor. From monday, we talked about one group of people who, even if they wanted to become a u. S. Citizen, could not. Those were people of asian ancestry. Tied to the 1790 natural is a act. The 1790 naturalization act, which only allowed freed white persons to become naturalized u. S. Citizens. The california, Supreme Court also deals with this particular issue, in terms of chinese immigrants and their role in american society. It is people versus hall. George w hall, his first name is john just george, sometimes i forget and call him john, but it is george. He killed a chinese immigrant and there were four witnesses to the event. Three of whom are chinese immigrants, one was a white person. They all testified against hall and he was found guilty of more murder. He appealed to the california Supreme Court stating that a person of chinese ancestry testifyot be able to against a white person. In california, as elsewhere in the antebellum. Period, africanamericans and native americans could not testify against white people. The california Supreme Court agrees with paul and says chinese immigrants are also not white, therefore they too cannot testify against a white person. Rules allese types of throughout the american south. Here in virginia, for example, in slave people and freed wax could not testify against the white person, even if they committed murder like hall. We also have the tax of 18 65. Yes, because there was at least one white person who said the charges would stand, but the testimony from chinese immigrants would not. Good question. The capitation tax of 1865 1855. It is funny that california tried to do this because on monday we talked about the laws that the Supreme Court had states ruled on that cannot regulate managed immigration. Immigration is a federal issue, not a state one. 1850 five, california decided to pass the tax, which required pay 50 peruld chinese immigrant that they brought into the United States. 18 60, we have the California School law. Some jurisdictions were already segregating schools, but this is a state law that required all School Districts in the state of segregate schools. People of african, native american and asian ancestry could not go to school with white children. We are going to talk about that a little bit more later on. In and the implications of that. This is tied to the issue of hair. This is a San Francisco City Ordinance that allowed the is they arrested and jailed a chinese immigrant, to have the right to cut their hair off. For chinese immigrants, this is usually problematic because they are wearing their hair and a braid because the mandates under this shinning dynasty. It is also a recognize cultural practice. Its tied to their identity and to their citizenship in china. They cannot become u. S. Citizens with their hair cut. They also cannot go back to china. Issues for these chinese immigrants with this ordinance. Amendment that80 expanded californias antimiscegenation laws to include people of mongolian ancestry or it everybody knew that meant chinese, meaning that people of asian ancestry could not marry someone of european ancestry in the state of california. Practice weis is a see throughout the United States, but california is the first to target people of asian acestry, and will set precedent that will happen across the United States. Both in the west and in the u. S. South. I am going fast through some of this material, but do you have any questions . Retty straightforward you are giving me a yes. Ok. This is actually one of the images that emerges related to the politics. Yes, natalie. Is it only against white people . Yes, this isn tied to a long legal precedent that starts in the legal u. S. South with in slave to people and free blacks not being able to testify against white people. It is just an expansion of that expansionr it of that practice. Is that before . This is before eugenics becomes popular. That also has a long history that dates in the 17th century. This is a political cartoon, as i just try to say. This is george gore who is a ,nion Party Governor candidate basically a republican in the state of california who is promoting racial equality. This cartoon is a satire. He is holding the weight of nonwhite people on his shoulder as he is trying to promote the ballot box, which uncle sam has put his hand over and is wagging his finger at him. This is the one that is tied to your eugenics eugenics, who is this person . Is Charles Darwin with an upright monkey, again ridiculing radical republicans who are in support of racial equality. That in the future, monkeys will be voting to. Twoo. Most of what we have been talking about in terms of the movementese immigrant is in california in the 1850s and 1860s. That is going to change and become a National Phenomenon around 1870. And are both cultural economic reasons for why that is happening. First i am going to talk about the cultural ones. It is tied to that hearts poem called plain language. Im going to write that right here. That is the actual title that most americans but most americans knew it from this title. A palmlanguage was about two crooked gamblers in the west, one is chinese and one is of european ancestry who are cheating each other. The chinese immigrant gets caught, and the white gambler calls him a heathen chinese. Is sort of how it ends. For most americans, this poem sort of resonates with the issues and problems tied to chinese immigration. His intention was not necessarily to vilify chinese immigrants, but that is what it became. It became a national success, so popular people wrote songs based upon this poem. It became variety acts. It was published in newspapers. People used it to spin off other caricatures on the National Level of chinese immigrants. Many of the same language that we talked about before in terms of hair, food and clothing, now, thanks to this clothing, starts to circulate on the National Level and become hugely popular. The bigger component of the economic factors tied to chinese immigration that emerge in the late 18 60s and early 1870s. It really starts with the completion of the innscontinental railroad 1869. With the completion of the railroad, now people and goods can travel at rates that we have never seen before across the United States. Quickly, by 1870 as we talked about on monday, we see chinese immigrants being recruited out of the west to go and work in factories in the east. Asp strikebreakers. This creates a lot of animosity with white workers on the east coast. What also compounds the issue is that you have goods from the east coast in places like chicago going from going to San Francisco and competing on local markets. A market that was dominated by cities of San Francisco now have competition. You have a meaning recession on those western seaboard as a result of that. Of of a sudden, the prices goods go down because the market is getting flooded. There are not as many jobs. One additional issue happens in 1873. Because of manipulations with the stock market in the york, the United States goes into a massive depression that affects everybody in the country. This scenario tied to jobs, tied to goods, tied to this basically become solder for people looking for somebody to blame for the economic problems that the country is facing. Instead of looking at the , therys elite capitalists, the industrious, often times the White Working Class is what target the more marginalized. They would go after chinese immigrants. The person who of course takes that and brings language to it is a man named dennis harney. Innis kearney is actually immigrant himself. He is an irish immigrant and arrives in San Francisco in 1868. He has a small karting business that eventually goes belly up in the early to mid1870s. Because he has some free time, he ends up going to the sandlot. This is an image of what the family are. This is city hall in San Francisco in the background. In the sam lots you would have these massive rallies going on, like this one. If you notice the sign is basically about the chinese must go. Dennis kearney starts attending the sam lots, eventually he decides to start speaking out at the sandlot and particularly targeting chinese. He is known for the phrase that the chinese must go, which becomes a rallying cry for the working classes. Eventually he becomes the president of the working mans party of california, and goes on a National Speaking tour , visiting the country various workingmen, Party Members promoting the ban on chinese immigration. The only way to protect the White Working Classes is to stop chinese immigration. Any questions . They were already paid so low that you could pay them even less . The issue isn twofold that they are taking their jobs while they are on strike in the whole point is to hurt the owner. The factory owners prefer to hire chinese immigrants because , they felt they could pay them less. Chinese immigrants would love to make more money, but they were not able to. Questions any other questions . All right. It is the ideas that we see in Popular Culture that are being promoted type people like Dennis Kearney that ultimately lead to conversations within u. S. Andress and the white house saw a ban on chinese immigrations. It starts about the same time that you have people like ernie in the semi happening in washington dc kearney in the sandlot in washington dc. It starts by the california caucus in the house and the senate. They have some major problems, because by the 1870s, we pass the 14th and 15th amendment, which promotes this idea of equal protection under the law. Known asave what was the burlingame treaty, 1868. Man was promulgated by a named and send. I will write his name right here. Send anson. I will write his name right here. The Chinese Foreign office wanted to her renegotiate a history with the United States, particularly related to trade relation. He also had received a request from the chinese, to ask them to tied to thelanguage experience of chinese immigrants. You dont need to write this down, but i want to read you the language that ends up in the treaty. It says chinese subjects visiting or residing in the United States shall enjoy the same privileges, immunities and exemptions and respects to travel or residence. As many being enjoyed by the favored of the most nation. Basically, this station in the burlington treaty made it very clear that chinese immigrants equitably andated that United States. The idea of pursuing federal law to ban chinese immigration could potentially be a diplomatic nightmare for the United States. Nevertheless, the california federalstarts to pursue legislation. It starts with a man named morris page. Horris page with a republican member of the house of representatives from the state of california. Felt the time was right to submit a whole series of pieces of legislation, hoping one of them might be acceptable to his colleagues, and eventually pass. Somehow curtail chinese immigration. He chose this moment in part because of the then president Ulysses S Grant had been making comments in the last few years that were clearly direct did directed towards a ban of chinese immigrants. He was making comments about the problems tied to chinese immigration. Also what is left to known about Ulysses S Grant, he was a member of the know Nothing Party and held some antiimmigrant views in the past. He was very hopeful he might be able to get something through. For him, only one did. The law after him. The law is racially and nationally it basically bands the immigration of prostitutes and criminals. The issue was, and for the , immigration inspectors basically presumed with the passing of this law that every chinese immigrant woman was by default a prostitute and would be treated as such until they proved to the contrary. Chinese immigrant women started to be targeted. Nevertheless, despite the passing of that law, it would take another four years for the california delegation to try to put forth another legislation. That bill in5 passenger 1879. This basically limited the number of chinese that could be of 15 persons. The hope was that this law would be enough of a regulation to curb chinese immigration, but also conserve the 14th and 15th amendment and the burling game treaty. Unfortunately for the california caucus, the then president of the United States refused to sign it. He said, you have to change the burling game treaty before i will touch any sort of limitation on chinese immigration. That is what they did. In 1880, the then president sent james angel, hence the angel revise thechina to burling game treaty. The language about equal protection in terms of u. S. Law. Natalie. That is completely different. Angel is not able to get the chinese to agree to an outright ban, but they do agree to a temporary suspension of chinese immigration. What themmediately california members of congress pursue. In first starts with the u. S. Senate, with a senator named john miller. John miller. He wants to set up a ban a temporary band that would stop chinese immigration for 20 years. What is interesting is, during the debate, the senator, the ublican from massachusetts are will write his name for you. He was very vocal against any such ban. He noted that it was a clear infringement on the 14th and 15th amendment. He actually was a radical republican and had been fully invested in these ideas of that theuality, and federal governments role in and values. Is ideal needless to say, that thenpresident Chester Arthur imposed millers ideas think this one is too close to a complete and, we need to reevaluate and think of a different way of handling it. He creates an alternative law limiting chinese immigrants for 20,nure time as opposed to and creating a category for exemption. Those exemptions would include missionaries, students, some family members, and pretty much that is it. Everybody was willing to sign but in 1880 two we had the first piece of legislation in u. S. History that targets a particular Population Based on nation of origin. The chinese exclusion act. In 1892, it was revisited, it was not only but it was to include certificates of identity. These were documents that chinese immigrants were required to have on their persons at all times, and that any official could ask them to produce. If they did not produce it, they could be arrested and possibly deported. K as you might imagine, it was a bit controversial. 10 years after that we had the passage of the scott act, which renewed the chinese exclusion act and expanded it to you graphically. If you remember, we had the spanishamerican war in 1898, the United States acquired new territory. For our purposes here, the philippines and hawaii. Which at the time had large chinese populations. Now, those territories no longer can accept chinese. Result of aa decision by congress, it is silly for us to keep on renewing this, we are not worried about the diplomatic issues anymore, they decided to make the chinese exclusion act permanent. It was permanent for almost 40 years, it finally repealed in 1943. What is going on in 1943 in the United States . Louder. World war ii. Who is our ally in world war ii . China, right . The chinese exclusion act becomes a bit of a political problem for us and our ally. Also the theme of the war, which is this war for democracy and freedom overseas. As the chinese rightly point out, look at how you treat chinese immigrants. The act of 1943 repealed the chinese exclusion act, allowed chinese immigrants to become naturalized u. S. Citizens for the very first time, but creates a quota. Only 100 chinese can come into the United States per year. Is not much of a repeal at all, if you think about it. Not change any substantial way until the 1960s. I thought this might be appropriate, this is from 1882 with the chinese exclusion act. If you notice what is happening, and other uncle sam white immigrants with Building Blocks to build a wall to keep out chinese immigrants. There is one africanamerican who is assisting as well. Today, what i would like to end with is to talk about the courts. Also how chinese immigrants, these laws,of experiences, violence that they had to deal with in the 19th and early 20th century, that they embraced the u. S. Court system as a way to fight for their rights in the United States. Again andt again, again. In some places they were very, very successful. In some places they were not. Are our purposes today, i will not view all of the cases because there are hundreds and hundreds of them involving chinese immigrants touring this time. To the unitedss states, legal entry, demanding citizenship. Trying to marry someone. School segregation. We have numerous cases, but i will focus on these three issues. Segregated schools, equal protection, rights of people being treated equitably under the law and naturalization. In terms of segregated schools i want to talk about the case family. Joseph i am running out of space. Mary and joseph were chinese immigrants. Mary is very interesting because she was adopted by missionaries who had converted to christianity with englishspeaking. They met and married in San Francisco and had to children. Like most parents, they wanted their children to go the to the neighborhood school. Asever, in San Francisco, elsewhere in california, chinese immigrants and their children these are children who are american citizens. Toy were not allowed to go schools with white children, they had to go to a segregated school. Schoolfrancisco the would be known as oriental School Number one. Refused. They demanded that their children, based on the 14th amendment be allowed to attend the school closest to their home. This case would hurt by the california supreme death was heard by the california Supreme Court. Was heardin their by the california Supreme Court. They rule in their favorite. There were right, based on the 14th amendment their children should be able to go to the school closest to their home, regardless of their parents ancestry. Unfortunately for them, san then toldschool board them that the school was full, and there was no room for them. Them to go to a segregated school. What is amazing about that case is that, this is the legal precedent for brown versus ward in 1954. Know of people dont even about them and their story. Unfortunately for chinese immigrants and their children, u. S. Supreme court would also weigh in on this issue. There should be 1927. Dealts. Supreme court with a chinese immigrant who was living in mississippi. If you remember, we talked earlier last week about how ofre was a small subset chinese immigrants in the deep south, particularly in the delta region. I wanter, martha to see if i can squeeze martha in here. Martha wanted to go to high school. Up to the first day of school, she attended classes in the morning. Then the principal called her into the office and told her you cannot be here. Of course she asked why. It is because you are of chinese ancestry. They sued, it went to the u. S. Supreme court. Unfortunately for him and other chinese americans, the u. S. Supreme court stated that the separate but equal clause that merges from plessy versus ferguson also applies to public schools. Cannotlike mississippi can force chinese American Children to go to a segregated school. Ok. Any questions about those two cases . All right, lets move to the issue of equal protection. I am going toases talk about happen in the california Supreme Court. Just remember that. Some of these will be u. S. Court , federal court and some are state court. The equal protection ones are all from california Supreme Court. Is washburn first is washington. Basically, only then is suing washburn for forcing to pay a tax for wanting to be a minor in california for arbitrarily targeting chinese immigrants over other populations. Courtlifornia supreme and statess favor that yes, california legislator should not be taxing laws that target a particular group. What is amazing about this is that it is in 1862. This is five years prior to the 14th amendment, but already we start to see a change up in the court six to system, at least in california related to this issue. When you start to see major change is after the civil war and passage of the 14th and 15th amendment. Have this one in 1879. This case involved two City Ordinances in San Francisco. That, there was a City Ordinance in San Francisco that a legal had to have 500 cubic feet of living space. And their home did not. He were fees to pay that fine, which was 10. He was arrested and put in jail. I talked about the queue ordinance. The sheriff cut his hair. Because he was in jail. Now he has to particular issues going on. The california Supreme Court focused on the queue ordinance in the city of San Francisco. The judge is ruled that the queue ordinance unfairly targeted chinese immigrants. That there was no disciplinary some part oft was their punishment in terms of not paying the fine. There was no hygienics region. It was a Public Health reach reason that you needed to have short hair. It was basically targeting chinese immigrants because of their cultural practices. Him in 1880. Another california Supreme Court ruling. He was a fisherman. Iran out of space on the slide. Ran out of space in the slide. The state of california passed a law that taxed fisherman from fishing off the coast of california. That under demanded the 14th and 15th amendment, that he should be treated equitably like all other fisherman in california. He won. Again, what is fascinating is that in california in particular, equal protection seems to be resonating with the california Supreme Court. The last case, in terms of equal protection i want to talk about hopkins 1886. This is probably one of the most famous that has come out of california at this time. Owner, theredry was another case in this case and there were multiple montrealers owners that were reported of this particular case. Laundry owners that were reported of this particular case. And find over a local City Ordinance in San Francisco that required laundry be in buildings that were made of brick or stone. In San Francisco, at that time there was about 320 laundrys. 240 were owned by chinese immigrants. The only ones that seem to be targeted to pay these fines were the ones owned by chinese immigrants. It was argued that even though the ordinance in itself was not necessarily racially or nationally specific, it is implementation its implementation was. The court sided with him on this as well, but this they violation of the 14th amendment caret what is interesting here is, they would have overturned plessy versus ferguson in 1896, but it was not taken into account at all. The last thing i want to talk about in the last few minutes is the issue of naturalization. I will talk about it out of order because of ending it on a high note. These people. Bout this is a photo. You can see who he is. 18re are many cases in the 60s and 1870s of chinese immigrants trying to become u. S. Citizens, and trying, as they might being denied because of the 1790 national naturalization act and subsequent acts that did not include them. This is the last major one of the cases that was less heard in the federal court in the United States. Him, not know much about other than he was living in california and applied to become a naturalized u. S. Citizen. The local courts opposed it, they said it was because he was not of european ancestry, or african ancestry that he could not become a citizen. Remember, by this time we had passed a naturalization act in 1870 that also included africanamericans. Codes andied to black wanting to protect the enfranchisement of africanamerican men. This basically becomes a law of the land in terms of chinese immigrants and naturalization. It becomes complicated in both the other two cases. First, let me talk about him. Has a long story. Of mixed ancestry. His father was an englishman, his mother was of chinese and japanese ancestry. They met and married in shanghai, that is where he was born. He got a job with the u. S. Navy, he worked on ships in the pacific. 1890 two, he finally ended up in the United States still working for the u. S. Navy. The early 20th century he decided he wanted to become a u. S. Citizen, but because of his ancestry, the courts felt that they needed to address the issue. They ultimately decided against him. This is where, what we call Blood Quantum. I will put it up your stash up here. Up Blood Quantum becomes pertinent to american naturalization policy. That because he was only half white, that he could not become a u. S. Citizen. Last but not least, lets talk about this. I have mentioned him before because he is in many ways a high note among all of these court cases that we have been talking about. Also a high note in terms of the experiences of chinese immigrants in the 19th and early 20th century. 1873 in sanin francisco. In San Francisco. In 1894, he decided to go to Southern China to visit with family and friends. In 1895 he returned back to San Francisco, thinking he was coming home. The immigration inspector told him no, you cannot come back into the United States because you are not a u. S. Citizen. You follow under the jurisdiction of the chinese exclusion act. And said no, i am a u. S. Citizen based upon british , remember we talked about this. , the law of the sun, meaning that if you are born on u. S. Soil, no matter what, your racial nation of origin, background, you are automatically entitled to u. S. Citizenship. Ends up in the u. S. Supreme court and he of course wins. Landbecomes the law of the , and was revisited in 2010 by related Supreme Court to undocumented immigrants and their children as well. This idea that if you are born in the United States, no matter what, it you are a u. S. Citizen gives hope to Many Americans that they will be able to have some sort of political voice in the United States and lead to substantial change. On that note, i am going to end todays lecture. Do not forget to do the readings for friday. I will finish up all the other stuff as well. Saturdays every evening at 8 00 p. M. And midnight eastern as we joined students in College Classrooms to hear lectures on topics ranging from the American Revolution to 9 11. 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