1/12/2024 0 Comments Indeed seattle mandarin translator3, in Tacoma, a mob of hundreds, armed with guns and clubs, marched to the Chinese shanties that dotted the city’s business district and along the waterfront. 24, 1885, about 2,500 of the City’s residents participated in an anti-Chinese demonstration. Both groups agreed that the Chinese should be removed-they simply disagreed about how to do it. The second group was comprised of business leaders and other civic leaders. The first group was led by labor unions and laborers. The second group-called the “Law and Order” group-favored a more orderly process of removal through legislative action. One group favored the direct and immediate removal of the Chinese from the city. The anti-Chinese forces in Seattle quickly split into two groups. In all these incidents, no one was brought to trial. Similar occurrences were reported at Newcastle and Renton. In yet another clash, a party of masked and armed men entered the Franklin mines and forced the Chinese onto a special train to Seattle. At the end of the same month, another coal mine east of Seattle ousted its Chinese workers. Nine Chinese were injured in that incident. 19, the Chinese were driven from the coal mining town of Black Diamond, southeast of Seattle. The attackers-five whites and two Native Americans-were acquitted after an eight-day trial. On the night of September 5, a group of whites and Native Americans, armed with rifles, ambushed 35 Chinese at a hop farm in Squak Valley (now Issaquah), a few miles east of Seattle, killing three and injuring three. News of the event made an impression on locals. The immediate spark that precipitated the anti-Chinese outbreaks in Seattle was the riot in September 1885 at Rock Springs, Wyoming, where 28 Chinese were murdered and over 500 driven out of town. As jobs decreased in outlying areas, the Chinese laborers came to Seattle to seek work. Two years later, the Canadian Pacific Railroad was also completed. The Northern Pacific Railroad was completed in 1883 with the construction of the east-west connection at Pasco. The anti-Chinese movement reached a crescendo in Seattle and the rest of Washington state after the completion of the railroads. Even though the Exclusion Act barred the further entry of Chinese laborers to the United States, the white working men wanted no less than the total removal of the Chinese. White settlers began to call for the removal of all Chinese from the Territory. Meanwhile, a severe economic downturn in the 1880s meant jobs were scarce. who later wished to re-enter to obtain “certificates of return.” In effect, the Exclusion Act curtailed Chinese immigration to the U.S. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was enacted, which (1) prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers to the U.S., (2) denied Chinese the right to become naturalized citizens, and (3) required Chinese laborers already legally present in the U.S. It signaled economic progress for the area. On occasions, the arrival of shiploads of Chinese laborers was greeted by cheers. The lack of white labor was too evident to cause even the most ardent anti-Chinese to resent their employment on the railroads. In railroad construction, for example, whites generally reacted without animosity to the employment of Chinese in Washington. Over the next decade, however, hostility against the Chinese was not always evident. Another measure, titled “An Act to Protect Free White Labor Against Competition with Chinese Coolie Labor and to Discourage the Immigration of Chinese in the Territory,” resulted in a poll tax levied on every Chinese. One law barred Chinese from testifying against whites in court. Indeed, the “Chinese Problem” was a major issue from the time Washington became a territory in 1853.īy the mid-1860s, after a small number of Chinese began to appear in the area, territorial lawmakers passed additional anti-Chinese laws. It came about because of the anti-Chinese movement, which began soon after the Chinese arrived in America in 1849. Weeks ago, there was a rally in the Chinatown-International District (CID) focused on the 1886 anti-Chinese riot in Seattle-the worst race riot in this city’s history. In recent times, anti-Asian hate has been a national and local issue. Ref lections on history of anti-Chinese hate in Seattle and Washington stateĮxcerpts from a Maspeech by Doug Chin at the Seattle-International District Rotary Club
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