In the California State Supreme Court categorized Chinese with Blacks and Indians, denying them the right to testify against white men in courts of law. During the s, an economic downturn resulted in serious unemployment problems, and led to more heightened outcries against Asian immigrants. Racist labor union leaders directed their actions and the anger of unemployed workers at the Chinese, blaming them for depressed wages and lack of jobs, and accusing them of being morally corrupt.
Therefore many of the non-Chinese workers in the United States came to resent the Chinese laborers, who might squeeze them out of their jobs. Furthermore, as with most immigrant communities, many Chinese settled in their own neighborhoods, and tales spread of Chinatowns as places where large numbers of Chinese men congregated to visit prostitutes, smoke opium, or gamble. Some advocates of anti-Chinese legislation therefore argued that admitting Chinese into the United States lowered the cultural and moral standards of American society.
Others used a more overtly racist argument for limiting immigration from East Asia, and expressed concern about the integrity of American racial composition.
To address these rising social tensions, from the s through the s the California state government passed a series of measures aimed at Chinese residents, ranging from requiring special licenses for Chinese businesses or workers to preventing naturalization. Because anti-Chinese discrimination and efforts to stop Chinese immigration violated the Burlingame-Seward Treaty with China, the federal government was able to negate much of this legislation.
In , advocates of immigration restriction succeeded in introducing and passing legislation in Congress to limit the number of Chinese arriving to fifteen per ship or vessel.
Republican President Rutherford B. Hayes vetoed the bill because it violated U. Nevertheless, it was still an important victory for advocates of exclusion. Democrats, led by supporters in the West, advocated for all-out exclusion of Chinese immigrants.
A Chinese man responded with a letter to the Alta California , writing "The effects of your late message has been thus far to prejudice the public mind against my people, to enable those who wait the opportunity to hunt them down, and rob them of the rewards of their toil.
And, as predicted, violence increased. The Alta California reported that Chinese miners had been robbed and four murdered at Rich Gulch. When miner Alfred Doten's camp was robbed, he blamed some convenient Chinese. In the case People v. Hall , the California Supreme Court reversed the conviction of George Hall and two other white men who had murdered a Chinese man.
Hall and his companions had been convicted based on testimony of some Chinese witnesses. In its reversal the court extended the California law that African Americans and Native Americans could not testify in court to include the Chinese.
The reversal made it impossible to prosecute violence against Chinese immigrants. Business and Servitude Chinese men moved into other occupations, including the laundry business, domestic service and later railroad building.
Only a few Chinese women came to the U. Rose-colored Glasses When Chinese miners sent their gold home, their families quickly assumed a prominent new place. Women married to successful miners were called "gold mountain wives. States and territories followed with crack-downs on the Chinese already living within their jurisdictions. Mindful of the U. Laws regulating laundries and opium dens were anti-Chinese in orientation if not in actual wording.
The opium regulations, for instance, stood in contrast to regulations regarding saloons, even though alcohol resulted in much more violence. Also, echoing the racial disparity of drug laws in our own time, opium users white were treated less harshly than opium sellers Chinese.
But, as Pugsley showed, the Chinese fought back, determined to use the courts to battle discrimination. Sometimes they even won their cases. JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. Privacy Policy Contact Us You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the provided link on any marketing message.
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