Driven Out
Last week in the new books shelf at the library I picked up Jean Pfaelzer’s Driven Out: the Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans. Fantastic read. Well researched. Not for the faint of heart. From the book jacket:
The brutal and systematic “ethnic cleansing” of Chinese Americans in California and the Pacific Northwest in the second half of the nineteenth century is a shocking – and virtually unexplored – chapter of American history. Driven Out unearths this forgotten episode in our nation’s past. Drawing on years of groundbreaking research Jean Pfaelzer reveals how, beginning in 1849, lawless citizens and duplicitous politicians purged dozens of communities of thousands of Chinese residents – and how the victims bravely fought back.
Here’s just a couple of stories she tells:
- On Nov 3, 1886 police and the governor did nothing and the sheriff and mayor hid while 500 men with clubs and pistols forced the 1000 Chinese residents of Tacoma to leave in a matter of hours and looted their belongings.
- On Oct 18, 1871 seventeen Chinese were lynched and two others were knifed to death by a mob of white and hispanics in Los Angeles. Of the 150 who participated, 8 were convicted of manslaughter and were released from prison within months.
- On Feb 6, 1886 gallows were constructed in Eureka, CA and a sign posted: ANY CHINESE SEEN ON THE STREET AFTER THREE O’CLOCK TODAY WILL BE HUNG TO THIS GALLOWS. By Saturday morning 300 Chinese people left Eureka.
Between 1849-1906 more than 200 pogroms of Chinese Americans took place in California alone. Numerous more took place in Nevada, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington. Also told is the plight of Chinese women, oftentimes enslaved into prostitution by their Chinese captors. Mentioned are also the cleansing of Native Americans and Hispanics.
I recognize this work can be quite inflmmatory – that is not what compelled me to continue reading or why I post. Pfaelzer’s own motivation for the work began with her experience in 1974 at Humboldt State. When she noticed the complete lack of Asian Americans on campus she asked around and one local poet said that Chinese parents would not send their kids to HSU b/c the Chinese had been driven out from Eureka. I.e., even a century later the effect of these pogroms are still felt.
Her work explains a lot of things for me. In all my travels in the US, I’ve faced the most racism in California of all places. In all my 5 years in the midwest I never faced any racism. Yet when I moved back to Sacramento in 2003 I would experience an incident here and there. I was always baffled at the fact that for a state that has such a long history of Asians I would experience more racism in CA than say the midwest which had far fewer Asians. For me SF, Eastbay, and Southbay were great. The problems would occur once we traveled East or North to go skiing or camping. I remember one year our youth group drove up to Tahoe for a day in the snow. Since we played at a snow park we had to drive to a local grocery store to use their restrooms. I remember this particular store on Hwy 50 had a huge sign on its roof to attract motorists: BATHROOMS INSIDE. Once inside, I remember the store owner telling us one after another that the bathrooms were closed due to maintenance. Yet when a white customer came in, he walked right past us and straight to the bathroom. Some of us had even purchased something because we thought it would be impolite simply to use their restrooms for free. So we drove to Placerville and stopped by the McDonalds there. A group of teenagers were also in the store. I had no problems inside but I remember one of my friends went into the female restroom which was also occupied by a number of teens. I remember her coming out seething with anger yet didn’t want to talk about it when asked what was wrong. The next thing that happened is still a mystery to me. I.e., I’m not sure that it actually happened or not. I’ve wondered if it was only a bad dream. Or perhaps it is such a painful memory I’ve rationalized it as a dream. I remember as we drove out of the McDonald’s parking lot the group of teenagers had gathered outside screaming obscenities at us, laughing, and yelling at us to leave.
So reading Pfaelzer’s work has been sort of an eerie experience as I am very familiar with some of the places where these round-ups took place: Rocklin, Roseville, Antioch, Placerville, Auburn, Eureka. While we lived in Sacramento on occassion I would drive up Hwy 50 past the McDonalds in Placerville and the store with the BATHROOMS INSIDE sign. Needless to say I drove on.
i just finished a paper on some cultural and historical analysis of seattle- and though seattle has a history of some progressive policies- particularly with less discrimination relative to other parts of the US in the early 1900s, there are of course some very ugly events in the past as well.
though the 1885-86 riots that drove out the chinese are definitely worth mentioning, the worst is probably the plight of the many native americans who were here before the city was founded in the 1850s-60s. relations were relatively peaceful thanks to chief sealth after whom the city is named, but by just 1862, about a decade after early settlers had established their presence in the region, nearly 50% of the local indigenous population had been wiped out by smallpox epidemics- which some say was ’supported’ by the government through the distribution of infected blankets. talk about genocide…
Dave, absolutely don’t want to minimize the plight of the Native Americans who settled the land long before anyone else. Pfaelzer notes that before 1849 150,000-300,000 Native Americans lived in California under Spanish and Mexican rule. Within 11 years that number had decreased to 32,000! Also at the beginning of 1850 15,000 Latin Americans were in the Sierra Nevada, ten years year only 1/5 remained. Certainly all these stories need to be told and remembered.
As a long time East Bay resident I am glad to hear you did not experience that level of racism there, but so bummed to hear about your road trip encounters.
All the stories need to be told, from the Chinese round ups to the Japanese internments.
Thank you for your post.
Thanks Mazz. East Bay is great – I’d love to live there. In fact from the places I’ve visited the Bay Area is the best melting pot (rather than salad bowl) in the US.