Chinese in Northern California 1850 on

In Asia, Countries First

• Volunteer Immigrants to the United States
• Not Incorporated by Force Unlike Native Americans of the East, Blacks and Mexicans of the Deserts in the West
• Chinese Were Gold Seekers as White Americans and European Immigrants to California
• Asians are diverse: Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, Russians, Koreans, India, Thai, Indonesians, Pakistanis, Iran,
• Largest and Oldest Group in US are Chinese, followed by Japanese, Filipinos then Koreans
• Chinese and India have had the highest immigration growth in last 20 years
• Most are Foreign Born Because US Did Not Allow until after 1965 except for Russian Empire Jews–1.3 million were permitted to enter from 1900-1924 & “permitted” to flourish

Philippines Under Colonial Spain

• First “Asians” to North America Could Be Stated To Be Filipinos
• After Spain Colonized Centro Mexico they continued exploring the Pacific Ocean
• Magallan Expedition in the Philippines were connected to Spain through Acapulco, Mexico
• One Reason People from the Philippines have Spanish names, are Catholics
• Filipinos settled in Mexico as Sailors With Spanish
• They traveled to South America, the Caribbean as Part of the Spanish & Used as Labor known as Coolies.

US Naturalization Act of 1790:

• Prevented Barred Blacks and Asians from Naturalization (changes for Blacks with 14th Amendment)
• European Immigrants “Whites” not barred until 1924– Open Entrance

1848

Chinese:

America Was Eager for ChineseLinks to an external site.

• Is considered as the starting point though by people later called Asian Americans in the US
• The first Asian group to California were Chinese at outbreak of the Gold Rush, most came from Guangdong Province in South China along the coast.
• “The first Chinese miners in California are thought to have been a group of around 60 contracted miners who arrived in Tuolumne County in 1849. They were hired by British people in Shanghai under a contract that gave them passage money in return for their money to be paid back via monthly wage deductions”
• Gold Seekers as White Americans from the Eastern US & European Immigrants
• Chinese called California the Gold Mountain;Reasons for Immigrating was seeking wealth
• Affected by British Control who defeated China in the Opium Wars and lost lands through taxation
• 67000 Chinese had arrived by 1855; majority were males
• They went to the Sierra Nevada in Eastern California to Columbia, Jamestown, Sonora known as the Motherlode
• Singled and Racialized by White Americans through Foreign Miner’s Tax, also applied to Mexicans even though they were Natives (Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo did not prevent Mexicans from Sonora from traveling)
• European Immigrants driven by greed were not forced to pay Foreign Miner’s Tax–Benefit Socially from White Skin Color
• White Violence takes place towards California Natives from the Sierra Nevada through direct killings of women and children but also by Scalping Laws paid by local towns
• Lynchings of Mexicans/ Native Americans including women became common
• Chinese were assaulted by White miners who did not want competition

Other Survival Mechanisms:

Railroad, Farming, Restaurants & Laundry

California In Transition During Gold Rush

When Chinese Entered La California in 1851:

• It is important to keep in mind that the Chinese entered California right after the conquest of California from Mexico
• California Mexicans as Native people of pueblos, ranchos and rancherias were racially adjusting to the arrival of Anglo Americans
• Anglo Americans brought with them 200 years of wars against other Native Countries and viewed them as inferiors
• California Mexicans were being dispossessed of their lands violently–examples are such as daily violence in big towns, later Bald Hills War in Mendocino and Del Norte Counties
• Americans brought profound racial hatred and became vigilantes-race war in El Monte is one example
• La California was not empty rather occupied along the coast and the interior of the state
• Changes in land ownership, culture and language are to take place
• Lecture below demonstrates what Anglo Americans were doing and began with how they viewed California Mexicans
• Negative racial Anti Attitudes of Mexicans for their Native American blood and other East Coast anti Cherokee, Seminoles, Creek, Choctaws and Shawnees would be brought upon Chinese who were viewed as “Not White”

How Anglos viewed Mexicans when they entered Northern Mexico (Tejas):

“American visitors to the Mexican frontier were nearly unanimous in commenting on the dark skin of Mexican mestizos who, it was generally agreed, had inherited the worst qualities of Spaniards and Indians to produce a ‘race’ still more despicable than that of either parent.

The observations of historian David Weber, who described early Anglo perceptions of Mexican people, pg ’46.

“There are no people on the continent of America, whether civilized or uncivilized, with one or two exceptions, more miserable in condition or despicable in morals than the mongrel race inhabiting New Mexico….

To manage them successfully, they must needs be held in continual restraint, and kept in their place by force, if necessary,-else they will become haughty and in-solent. As servants, they are excellent, when properly trained, but are worse than useless if left to themselves.”

Rufus B. Sage expressed the common view of Mexicans in 1846: pg. 47

Expansion Across Northern Mexico to the Pacific 1848

In 1848, the United States had completed a war they started against the country of Mexico in 1846 utilizing a racial Protestant philosophy known as Manifest Destiny (God gave White Americans rights to conquer)

The following Mexican states were conquered:

• This is where we stand today in “Baja” Southern California
• Tejas becomes Texas
• Nuevo Mexico New Mexico
• Colorado
• Alta California (Included Western Arizona)
• Sonora (Arizona)
• Yutah Utay (change in name under US)
• Chihuahua Texas (Tejas originally)
• Coahuila& Nuevo Leon (Battle of Monterey)
• Veracruz
• Mexico City

War ends with US bombing of Mexico City and signing Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. US withdraws from Nuevo Leon, Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico and Mexico City. Mexico loses half of its territory and they get a certain compensation.

New United States now consists of the following territories:

• Colorado, Tejas, New Mexico, Alta California, Parts of Sonora, Utah, Parts of Western Oklahoma, Parts of Wyoming

New Characteristics:

• Mexicans from the North become “Americans” through Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
• Population estimates consist of up to 3 million people:
• Pueblos of Yerba Buena, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Tuxson, Las Cruces, El Paso, Santa Fe, Alburquerque, San Antonio, Waco (Hueco), Alamogordo, Pueblo, Las Vegas and many other Ranchos existed where rivers ran.
• Rio Grande, Brazos, Los Angeles, Colorado, Gila, San Joaquin, Guadalupe, San Joaquin, Sacramento and endless other rivers. This was the lifesource of the deserts of the Mexican North now to become the West.

Population Consisted of the following:

• Utes, Navajos, Kikapoos, Mescaleros, Apaches, Cucapahs, Ohlone, Chumash, Malibu, Comanche, Shoshone, Tohono O’odam, Papago, Arapaho:
• California Natives were Cucapah, Chumash, Pauite, Modoc, Serranos, Juanenos, Mohave, Cahuilla, Kumeyaay, Malibu, Miwoks, Yokuts, Ramaytush, Chokchenyo, Salinas, Yang-Na and Pomo

-Some were Catholics, some were not, Native Mexicans were the majority of the residents.

• This population were all citizens of Mexico and with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (Still in effect today) entered as US citizens as landowners, ranchers and farmers. Cattle and sheep herders, houses made of adobe to survive the hot summers.
• Most spoke a Uto Aztecan language mixed with Central Mexican Spanish, for example; the word Orale spoken frequently today in Mexican Spanish comes from the Navajo word “Yarele”.
• English speakers pronounce all Native Uto Aztecan & Spanish words in English.

New fate was to come: Gold Rush by 1850 in the Sierra Nevada area from Sonora east of Stockton north to Coloma and Sutter’s Mill east of Sacramento. Thousands of US white males entered California as well as European and Chinese immigrants seeking gold.

New Social Racial Rules by the United States Imposed:

Anglocizing California

• New “Mexican” Americans are re-categorzied as Non Citizens because 95% were viewed as “Indians”. Being Spanish speaking, Catholic, even Cowboy attire, landowning made them non-suitable because they were not white. Racialized like those from the Eastern United States.
• East Coast Indians (Cherokees, Seminoles, Creeks, Chocktaws) were labeled Non-Citizens by US because they were brown non white; had land stolen from them and expelled outside the US to Arkansas and Oklahoma which were not considered part of the US.
• White America ran from Louisiana east to the Atlantic seaboard but in the west, where would Native Mexicans be expelled to?
• Mexicans (both Apache and Navajos as well as Catholics) could not be removed so they endured warfare especially if a mineral was found there: gold in Sierras from along what is now Hwy 49 or later in Arizona mountains.
• New Laws: from loss of lands through taxations; Californios had a barter system more than a paper economy; sheriff violence, anti-loitering laws, every day violence: race war took place in El Monte, Rancho de San Joaquin now known as Irvine and Newport Beach, in the Gold Fields one place stands out “Hangtown” where the practice of lynching becomes common.
• Californian Mexicans become known as bandidos were fighting back due to violence on them in the gold fields: Joaquin Murrietta (name is on plaque in Murphys for being bandit); Juan Flores, Tiburcio Vasquez and later others like Geronimo and Cochise in Arizona or Juan Cortina in Tejas.
• Newly formed towns in Northern California pay bounties for Native Mexican American scalpings of men, women, children. Whites males majority participant.
• Long Walk of the Navajo to Bosque Redondo in 1860s:US forced walk of Navajos from Northern Arizona/ Utah to Eastern New Mexico; 53 different forced marches by US Calvary 300 mile, 18 day forced relocation. 8000 relocated, 200 died.
• Apaches in Southern Arizona engaged in battles in the mountains or fled into Sonora on the Mexico side where they were not viewed as Mexicans anymore either and faced hostility from Centro Mexico who saw them as invaders.
• Other countries South of Mexico did not experience this loss, only Mexicans thus lumping this as a Latino experience is incorrect because those other countries did not live through this.

Equally, the other half of Mexico forgot them and left them to defend themselves which was impossible because they did not have rifles.

United States Self-Segregation:

• Whites self segregated in residency, living apart from Northern Mexicans in San Jose and San Francisco as gold transforms the creates the first US city on the Pacific.
• Port city begins to transport lumber, cattle even agricultural products.
• California Mexicans were farming maize, tomatoes, pinto frijoles, wheat but newly arrived White Americans start pushing a narrative of being savages, mocking them for having multiple wives, dirty for being barefoot and daily use of bathing and temescal (saunas), calling them Native Americans to make them distinct from each other.
• US imposed a new legal system, based on whiteness,
• Prohibited congregation for fear of revolt
• Even Italian and Irish priests were brought in to diminish the importance of Mexican priests
• New society was being created which was based on violence, skin color, theft of land and new cultural norms such as Protestant Churches, English language and relegation to inferior status. Skin color was the new rule, cut hair and even spirituality was attacked as witchcraft.
• Deputizing Groups of White Males to control through violence and killings
• Modern United States of America is born from ocean to ocean
• A New Border that divided one land begins to take shape
• New Society where Mexican Americans are viewed distinct from US Settlers
• Mexican Americans begin to enter a Racial Caste structure where they lose their land, if not life, are viewed as inferior and relegated to manual labor status in agriculture, construction, cattle and servant labor
• (see case of Serranus Clinton Hastings, former Supreme Court Justice & founder of Hastings Law School in San Francisco): “What you won’t read is the story of how the mutton chop-bearded judge promoted and financed the killing of hundreds of Native Americans in Mendocino and surrounding counties and stole their land. Those who were not slain were imprisoned in labor camps ostensibly for their own “protection.” There they were starved, sexually assaulted and brutalized”. Yuki Natives of Mendocino County.
• American Schools Begin the Cultural Change Process
• The US Civil War starts over which of these territories would enter as slave or free states: Texas as Slave and California as “Free” State (Native Mexican children could be taken as apprentice by white families for labor until age 18).

New Cultural Norms Banned Practices:

• Bullfighting banned seen as barbaric
• Cockfighting banned (practice in secrecy) (Puerto Rico has had this issue under “Animal Rights” excuse)
• Spanish begins to be banned especially in Government Offices
• Adobe is viewed as inferior
• Socializing becomes illegal “Loitering: 3 or more Mexicans are a gang”
• Mexican becomes a negative, dirty term until today (Hispanic, Latino to downplay negativity)
• Siesta is viewed as lazy even though its natural
• Even White & Mexican Children were viewed as “cholos”

Picture of Pelea de Gallos & Bullfighting in Fiesta de San Marcos, Aguascaliente (Julian Camacho)

Chinese 1851:

• Chinese entered La California with Anglo Americans trying to gain control because was still not the real “US”
• US made California a state because of the Gold Rush & new Racial Order is transforming Northern California
• Northern California is becoming demographically Anglo but they are still not the majority
• The pattern of land theft starts and San Francisco becomes new capital because of the bay
• Gold makes San Pancho the financial capital and the city springs forth the first US city
• Chinese enter California under these changes, considered as the starting point though by people later called Asian Americans
• The first Asian group to California were Chinese at outbreak of the Gold Rush
• Gold Seekers as White Americans from the Eastern US & European Immigrants
• Chinese called California the Gold Mountain
• Reasons for Immigrating was seeking wealth
• Affected by British Control who defeated China in the Opium Wars and lost lands through taxation
• 67000 Chinese had arrived by 1855; majority were males
• They went to the Sierra Nevada in Eastern California to Columbia, Jamestown, Sonora known as the Motherlode
• Singled and Racialized by White Americans through Foreign Miner’s Tax, also applied to Mexicans even though they were Natives (Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo did not prevent Mexicans from Sonora from traveling)
• European Immigrants driven by greed were not forced to pay Foreign Miner’s Tax–Benefit Socially from White Skin Color
• White Violence takes place towards California Natives from the Sierra Nevada through direct killings of women and children but also by Scalping Laws paid by local towns
• Lynchings of Mexicans/ Native Americans including women became common
• Chinese were assaulted by White miners who did not want competition

-Pattern of violence towards Chinese had existed since Gold Fields

-First: Foreign Miner’s Act was a tax imposed by Whites in California to rid Mexican and Chinese miners. Chinese paid and that still did not prevent violence. Mexicans fled but many fought such as Joaquin Murrieta who was labeled a bandit.

-In 1854 Chinese were prohibited from testifying in court thus they had no rights to protect themselves (same applied to Blacks and Native Americans)

-Even laws in San Francisco were established that prohibited Chinese from setting up businesses.

-White miners kicked them out from the Sierra Nevadas just as they did with the Mexican miners

-Chinese then found work working on the railroads over the Sierra Nevada which was dangerous and where many died

-As California Mexican merchants are reduced to a farm labor group Chinese become new merchant class

Yellow Peril & Fear of ChineseLinks to an external site.

Read Articles Below:

They Provide More Detail on Topics of US War, New Racial Societal Imposition, Forced Division of Lands, Violence in California and Effects of Violence Still Felt Today:

HastingsLinks to an external site.

US Mexico WarLinks to an external site.

US Imposition on California & Other Northern Desert RegionsLinks to an external site.

Creation of the Southern Border Links to an external site.

Negative Effects of US Border ImpositionLinks to an external site.

Massacres in Northern California Links to an external site.

Philippinos in the USLinks to an external site.

The First Asian AmericansLinks to an external site.

Chinese Expelled:

• Pattern of violence towards Chinese had existed since Gold Fields
• First: Foreign Miner’s Act was a tax imposed by Whites in California to rid Mexican and Chinese miners. Chinese paid and that still did not prevent violence. Mexicans fled but many fought such as Joaquin Murrieta who was labeled a bandit.
• In 1854 Chinese were prohibited from testifying in court thus they had no rights to protect themselves (same applied to Blacks and Native Americans)
• Even laws in San Francisco were established that prohibited Chinese from setting up businesses.
• White miners kicked them out from the Sierra Nevadas just as they did with the Mexican miners
• In a message to the legislature in January 1862, Governor Leland Stanford said:

To my mind it is clear, that the settlement among us of an inferior race is to be discouraged by every legitimate means. Asia, with her numberless millions, sends to our shores the dregs of her population. Large numbers of this class are already here; and, unless we do something early to check their immigration, the question, which of the two tides of immigration, meeting upon the shores of the Pacific, shall be turned back, will be forced upon our consideration, when far more difficult than now of disposal. There can be no doubt but that the presence among us of numbers of degraded and distinct people must exercise a deleterious influence upon the superior race, and to a certain extent, repel desirable immigration.[33]Links to an external site.Stanford was initially acclaimed for such statements, but lost support when it was revealed that his Central Pacific Railroad was also importing Chinese workers to construct the railroad

• Chinese then found work working on the railroads over the Sierra Nevada which was dangerous and where many died
• Violence that emerged many times had to do with the economy downturns: in 1869 in San Francisco Wan Lee was stoned to death at a time when railroads hired Chinese at low wages
• Irish Worker’s Party pushed for a law banning Chinese from the US which they got in 1882
• White males, many Irish immigrants themselves saw Chinese as people taking their “jobs”, at a time that other Asian immigrants from Russia and Italy arrived.
• Congress passed The Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 which was a law that banned Chinese from immigrating to US for 10 years, it included skill and unskilled thus even Chinese diplomats had trouble entering–
• At the root of this discrimination is the idea of a “Yellow Peril,” which, in the words of John Dower is “the core imagery of apes, lesser men, primitives, children, madmen, and beings who possessed special powers” amidst a fear of invasion from the sleeping giant of Asia.
• Could not become citizens and if left they would not be allowed to enter; even Chinese people from Mexico were not allowed to enter US–“illegal immigrants notion” was first applied to Chinese who did not have permission from the US.
• A common strategy was that of the so-called “paper sonLinks to an external site.” system, in which young Chinese males attempted to enter the United States with purchased identity papers for fictional sons of U.S. citizens (people of Chinese descent who had falsely established the identities of those “sons”).
• First time any outside group was prohibited from entering the US, other Asians from Russia, and Greece entered the US along with Italians but by 1920s US was limiting their entrance under quotas of 3% from outside countries.
• 1885 in Rock Springs, Wyoming 23 Chinese were murdered by whites
• San Jose- White residents used health excuses to burn down 3 Chinatowns, forced out of town, could not attend Episcopal Church which was also burned down
• Eureka-set on ships and forced out to sea
• True reason Chinese excluded: Chinese in numbers 105,000 was perceived as a threat because US feared California not being a white country and with California Mexicans in high numbers, there was a fear being outnumbered.
• Chinese became racialized through not fault of their own, simply for being.
• Anti Chinese sentiment even took place in downtown Santa Ana as Chinatown was burned down under a health scare.
• Chinese immigrants remained ineligible for citizenship until 1943 with the passage of the Magnuson Act because US needed assistance during WW2.Links to an external site.

Expulsion from EurekaLinks to an external site.

Apology from San Jose for burning ChinatownLinks to an external site.

Prompt-

1. Explain the racial cultural changes taking place in La California when Chinese arrived for the Gold Rush (US had just conquered California from Mexico