Intolerance
Even as they
struggled to find work, Chinese immigrants were also fighting
for their lives. During their first few decades in the United
States, they endured an epidemic of violent racist attacks, a
campaign of persecution and murder that today seems shocking.
From Seattle
to Los
Angeles, from Wyoming to the small towns of California,
immigrants from China were forced out of business, run out of
town, beaten, tortured, lynched, and massacred, usually with
little hope of help from the law. Racial hatred, an uncertain
economy, and weak government in the new territories all contributed
to this climate of terror and bloodshed. The perpetrators of
these crimes, which included Americans from many segments of
society, largely went unpunished. Exact statistics for this period
are difficult to come by, but a case can be made that Chinese
immigrants suffered worse treatment than any other group that
came voluntarily to the U.S.
One traveler
from the east coast, in his
account of life in California, observed that "To abuse a Chinaman;
to rob him; to kick and cuff him; even to kill him, have been things
not only done with impunity by mean and wicked men, but even with
vain glory.
"Had 'John'--here and in China alike the English and
Americans nickname every Chinaman 'John'--a good claim, original
or improved, he was ordered to 'move on'--it belonged to someone
else. Had he hoarded a pile, he was ordered to disgorge; and,
if he resisted, he was killed. Worse crimes even are known against
them; they have been wantonly assaulted and shot down or stabbed
by bad men, as sportsmen would surprise and shoot their game in
the woods. No one was so low, so miserable, that he did not despise
the Chinaman, and could not outrage him."
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