ASAM book review

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Chinese Must Go VIO LENCE, EXCLUSION, AND THE MAKING OF THE ALIEN IN AMER I CA

Beth Lew- Williams

Cambridge, Mas sa chu setts · London, England 2018

Copyright © 2018 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of Amer i ca

First printing

Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data

Names: Lew- Williams, Beth, author. Title: The Chinese must go : vio lence, exclusion, and the making of the

alien in Amer i ca / Beth Lew- Williams. Description: Cambridge, Mas sa chu setts : Harvard University Press,

2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017032640 | ISBN 9780674976016 (cloth) Subjects: LCSH: Chinese— United States— History—19th century. |

Chinese— Vio lence against— United States. | Border security— United States— History—19th century. | Race discrimination— United States— History—19th century. | Emigration and immigration law— United States— History—19th century. | Aliens— United States— History—19th century. | Citizens—United States— History—19th century. | United States— Race relations— History—19th century.

Classification: LCC E184.C5 L564 2018 | DDC 305.895 / 1073— dc23 LC rec ord available at https:// lccn.loc . gov / 2017032640

Cover photo courtesy of the Oregon Historical Society, image number 28159

Cover design by Jill Breitbarth

https://lccn.loc.gov/2017032640

In memory of Lew Din Wing

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

The Vio lence of Exclusion 1

PART 1 • Restriction

1. The Chinese Question 17 2. Experiments in Restriction 53

PART 2 • Vio lence

3. The Banished 91 4. The People 113 5. The Loyal 137

PART 3 • Exclusion

6 . The Exclusion Consensus 169 7. Afterlives under Exclusion 194

EPILOGUE

The Modern American Alien 235

APPENDIX A

Sites of Anti- Chinese Expulsions and Attempted Expulsions, 1885–1887 247

APPENDIX B

Chinese Immigration to the United States, 1850–1904 253

ABBREVIATIONS 255 NOTES 259 ACKNOWL EDGMENTS 337 INDEX 341

THE

Chinese Must Go

1

INTRODUCTION

The Vio lence of Exclusion

THEY LEFT IN driving rain. Three hundred Chinese mi grants trudged down the center of the street, their heads bowed to the ele ments and the crowd. They were led, followed, and surrounded by dozens of white men armed with clubs, pistols, and rifles. As if part of a grim parade, they were encircled by spectators who packed the muddy sidewalks, peered from narrow doorways, and leaned out from second- story win dows for a better view. One of the Chinese, Tak Nam, tried to protest, but later he remembered the mob answering in a single voice: “All the Chinese, you must go. Every one.”1

The date was November 3, 1885, and the place was Tacoma, Washington Territory. But that hardly mattered. In 1885 and 1886, at least 168 commu- nities across the U.S. West drove out their Chinese residents.2

At times, these purges involved racial vio lence in its most brazen and basic form: physical force motivated by racial prejudice and intended to cause bodily harm.3 The vigilantes targeted all Chinese people— young and old, male and female, rich and poor— planting bombs beneath businesses, shooting blindly through cloth tents, and setting homes ablaze. Once physical vio lence had become a very real threat, the vigilantes also drove them out using subtler forces of coercion, harassment, and intimidation. They posted deadlines for the Chinese to vacate town, leaving unspoken the conse- quences of noncompliance. They locked up leaders of the Chinese commu- nity and watched as the rest fled. They called for boycotts of Chinese workers and waited for starvation to set in. This too was racial vio lence.

While historians often claim that racial vio lence is fundamental to the making of the United States, rarely are they referring to the Chinese in the

Sites of Anti- Chinese Expulsions, 1885–1886. Vigilantes drove out Chinese residents through harassment, intimidation, arson, bombing, assault, and murder. Map based on data collected by the author (see Appendix A).

ASAM book review was first posted on December 4, 2019 at 8:27 pm.
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