Working on white womanhood: White working women in the San Francisco anti-Chinese movement, 1877-1890

Journal of Social History

Volumn 33, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 73-95

  Gardner, Martha Mabie ^a  

^a STANFORD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0039522017     PISSN: 00224529     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jsh.1999.0011     Document Type: Review

References (140)

1. San Francisco Daily Morning Call, Feb. 8, 1880.
2. On the development of "free labor" ideology see, Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War (New York, 1970).
3. The Truth, May 3, 1882.
4. Arthur B. Stout, M.D. "Chinese Immigration and the Physiological Causes of the Decay of a Nation" (San Francisco, 1862) in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets, Special Collections Rare Books, Stanford University. (hereafter Chinese Immigration Pamphlets)
5. Mary Wollaston's story appeared as a cover story of The Truth, a prolabor San Francisco newspaper; see The Truth, March 11, 1882.
6. Mary Wollaston's story appeared as a cover story of The Truth, a prolabor San Francisco newspaper; see The Truth, March 11, 1882.
7. The Truth, March 11, 1882.
8. The classic treatment of the development and character of the San Francisco labor movement is Ira B. Cross, A History of the Labor Movement in California (Berkeley, 1935); see also Alexander Saxton's discussion of the importance of race to a white working class local and eventual national identity (Saxton, The Indispensable Enemy: Labor and the Anti-Chinese Movement in California [Berkeley, 1971]); Michael Kazin, "Prelude to Kearneyism: The July Days in San Francisco, 1877," New Labor Review 3 (June 1980): 5-47; and Neil Larry Shumsky, The Evolution of Political Protest and the Workingmen's Party of California (Columbus, 1991).
9. The classic treatment of the development and character of the San Francisco labor movement is Ira B. Cross, A History of the Labor Movement in California (Berkeley, 1935); see also Alexander Saxton's discussion of the importance of race to a white working class local and eventual national identity (Saxton, The Indispensable Enemy: Labor and the Anti-Chinese Movement in California [Berkeley, 1971]); Michael Kazin, "Prelude to Kearneyism: The July Days in San Francisco, 1877," New Labor Review 3 (June 1980): 5-47; and Neil Larry Shumsky, The Evolution of Political Protest and the Workingmen's Party of California (Columbus, 1991).
10. The classic treatment of the development and character of the San Francisco labor movement is Ira B. Cross, A History of the Labor Movement in California (Berkeley, 1935); see also Alexander Saxton's discussion of the importance of race to a white working class local and eventual national identity (Saxton, The Indispensable Enemy: Labor and the Anti-Chinese Movement in California [Berkeley, 1971]); Michael Kazin, "Prelude to Kearneyism: The July Days in San Francisco, 1877," New Labor Review 3 (June 1980): 5-47; and Neil Larry Shumsky, The Evolution of Political Protest and the Workingmen's Party of California (Columbus, 1991).
11. The classic treatment of the development and character of the San Francisco labor movement is Ira B. Cross, A History of the Labor Movement in California (Berkeley, 1935); see also Alexander Saxton's discussion of the importance of race to a white working class local and eventual national identity (Saxton, The Indispensable Enemy: Labor and the Anti-Chinese Movement in California [Berkeley, 1971]); Michael Kazin, "Prelude to Kearneyism: The July Days in San Francisco, 1877," New Labor Review 3 (June 1980): 5-47; and Neil Larry Shumsky, The Evolution of Political Protest and the Workingmen's Party of California (Columbus, 1991).
12. Some historians have made passing reference to the presence of women in the Workingmen's Party of California and its activities. See Cross, A History of the Labor Movement in California , 90, 123; and Saxton, The Indispensable Enemy, 144-146, 171. Saxton quotes WPC rhetoric about women and women's work, but he does not discuss gender as an important category of analysis connected to race and class.
13. Some historians have made passing reference to the presence of women in the Workingmen's Party of California and its activities. See Cross, A History of the Labor Movement in California , 90, 123; and Saxton, The Indispensable Enemy, 144-146, 171. Saxton quotes WPC rhetoric about women and women's work, but he does not discuss gender as an important category of analysis connected to race and class.
14. This is the explanation Shumsky offers. His study traces participation through voting records; thus he is unable to address the evidence that suggests women's participation, (see Shumsky, Evolution of Political Protest, 26-27). Major exceptions are Mary Ryan's treatment of women in the July 1877 protests (Ryan, Women in Public: Between Banners and Ballots, 1825-1880 [Baltimore, 1990], 160-163), and Philip J. Ethington's discussion of the suffrage movement in San Francisco (Ethington, Public City: The Political Construction of Urban Life in San Francisco, 1850-1900 [Cambridge, 1994]).
15. This is the explanation Shumsky offers. His study traces participation through voting records; thus he is unable to address the evidence that suggests women's participation, (see Shumsky, Evolution of Political Protest, 26-27). Major exceptions are Mary Ryan's treatment of women in the July 1877 protests (Ryan, Women in Public: Between Banners and Ballots, 1825-1880 [Baltimore, 1990], 160-163), and Philip J. Ethington's discussion of the suffrage movement in San Francisco (Ethington, Public City: The Political Construction of Urban Life in San Francisco, 1850-1900 [Cambridge, 1994]).
16. This is the explanation Shumsky offers. His study traces participation through voting records; thus he is unable to address the evidence that suggests women's participation, (see Shumsky, Evolution of Political Protest, 26-27). Major exceptions are Mary Ryan's treatment of women in the July 1877 protests (Ryan, Women in Public: Between Banners and Ballots, 1825-1880 [Baltimore, 1990], 160-163), and Philip J. Ethington's discussion of the suffrage movement in San Francisco (Ethington, Public City: The Political Construction of Urban Life in San Francisco, 1850-1900 [Cambridge, 1994]).
17. Elsa Barkley Brown, "What Has Happened Here": The Politics of Difference in Women's History and Feminist Politics" Feminist Studies 18:2 (1992): 295-312; Nancy Hewitt, "Compounding Differences," Feminist Studies 18:2 (1992): 313-326;
18. Elsa Barkley Brown, "What Has Happened Here": The Politics of Difference in Women's History and Feminist Politics" Feminist Studies 18:2 (1992): 295-312; Nancy Hewitt, "Compounding Differences," Feminist Studies 18:2 (1992): 313-326;
19. Deborah Grey White, "The Slippery Slope of Class" in Susan Ware, ed., New Viewpoints in Women's History: Working Papers from the Schlesinger Library 50th Anniversary Conference, March 4-5, 1994 (Radcliffe College, 1994).
20. In exploring the construction of social identities, historians have sometimes isolated class from gender or from race. In discussing the San Francisco labor and anti-Chinese movements, for example, Alexander Saxton argues that white workingmen and their leaders discovered a powerful organizing tool in the anti-Chinese crusade, but by distracting the nonskilled and the unemployed from any campaign for radical social reform, their racism undermined a more radical class consciousness. Similarly, David Montgomery suggests that within a language of manliness the daily experience of wage labor helped instruct working-class men in the necessities of class consciousness bounded by traditional gender roles. How workers who were neither white nor male fit into these models of racialized or gendered class consciousness is unclear, although David Roediger's discussion of whiteness as a strategic response to the limitations of wage labor suggests that working-class whiteness is a gendered and raced phenomenon. See Saxton, The Indispensable Enemy; Montgomery, The Fall of the House of Labor: The Workplace, the State, and American Labor Activism, 1865-1925 (New York, 1987); Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class (New York, 1991).
21. In exploring the construction of social identities, historians have sometimes isolated class from gender or from race. In discussing the San Francisco labor and anti-Chinese movements, for example, Alexander Saxton argues that white workingmen and their leaders discovered a powerful organizing tool in the anti-Chinese crusade, but by distracting the nonskilled and the unemployed from any campaign for radical social reform, their racism undermined a more radical class consciousness. Similarly, David Montgomery suggests that within a language of manliness the daily experience of wage labor helped instruct working-class men in the necessities of class consciousness bounded by traditional gender roles. How workers who were neither white nor male fit into these models of racialized or gendered class consciousness is unclear, although David Roediger's discussion of whiteness as a strategic response to the limitations of wage labor suggests that working-class whiteness is a gendered and raced phenomenon. See Saxton, The Indispensable Enemy; Montgomery, The Fall of the House of Labor: The Workplace, the State, and American Labor Activism, 1865-1925 (New York, 1987); Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class (New York, 1991).
22. Elsa Barkley Brown, "What Has Happened Here," 298.
23. Cross, A History of the Labor Movement, 69.
24. Kazin, "Prelude to Kearneyism," 10-12.
25. Ping Chiu, Chinese Labor in California, 1850-1880; An Economic Study (Madison, 1967).
26. Wages are from the 1880 Manuscript Manufacture Census, as cited in Ping Chiu, Chinese Labor in California, 100.
27. Saxton, Indispensable Enemy, 106.
28. Kazin, "Prelude to Kearneyism," 12; Frances Cahn and Valeska Barry, Welfare Activities of Federal, State, and Local Governments in California, 1850-1934 (Berkeley, 1936), 199; Cross, A History of the Labor Movement, 71.
29. Kazin, "Prelude to Kearneyism," 12; Frances Cahn and Valeska Barry, Welfare Activities of Federal, State, and Local Governments in California, 1850-1934 (Berkeley, 1936), 199; Cross, A History of the Labor Movement, 71.
30. Kazin, "Prelude to Kearneyism," 12; Frances Cahn and Valeska Barry, Welfare Activities of Federal, State, and Local Governments in California, 1850-1934 (Berkeley, 1936), 199; Cross, A History of the Labor Movement, 71.
31. Communication from the Mechanics' State Council of California in relation to Chinese immigration (D.W. Gelwicks, State Printer, 1868) in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets.
32. Chinese workers were regularly depicted as stupid herd animals, devilish children, or pseudo women. See especially, "An Address of the Chinese Question by the Knights of Labor of San Francisco, to their Brethren throughout the United States" (District Assembly No. 53, Knights of Labor, San Francisco, California) in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets .
33. "The Chinese Must Go: The Labor Agitators, or the Battle for Bread," 24 in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets .
34. For a discussion of free labor ideology and the development of a white male labor movement see Roediger, Wages of Whiteness.
35. Hon. Aaron A. Sargent, "Immigration of Chinese," speech before the United States Senate, May 2, 1876, 7 in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets .
36. For a fuller discussion of the riots and their participants see Kazin, "Prelude to Kearneyism;" Shumsky, The Evolution of Political Protest.
37. Shumsky, The Evolution of Political Protest, 17.
38. Cross, A History of the Labor Movement, 88.
39. For a discussion of national anti-Chinese stereotypes see, Stuart Miller, The Unwelcome Immigrant: The American Image of the Chinese, 1785-1882 (Berkeley, 1969). Sander Oilman argues that disease provides a central axis around which societies distinguish the observer as "healthy" and the Other as "diseased" in Disease and Representation: Images of Illness form Madness to AIDS (Ithaca, 1988).
40. For a discussion of national anti-Chinese stereotypes see, Stuart Miller, The Unwelcome Immigrant: The American Image of the Chinese, 1785-1882 (Berkeley, 1969). Sander Oilman argues that disease provides a central axis around which societies distinguish the observer as "healthy" and the Other as "diseased" in Disease and Representation: Images of Illness form Madness to AIDS (Ithaca, 1988).
41. "Chinatown Declared a Nuisance!" (Workingmen's Party of California, 1880) in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets .
42. One sensationalized story related how a young and pious lady, daughter of one of the wealthiest San Francisco families, became seriously ill from teaching in a Chinese Sunday School. According to the published report, physicians concluded that the noxious odors emanating from the bodies of her Chinese students had overwhelmed her delicate digestive and nervous systems. (Sarah E. Henshaw, "California Housekeepers and Chinese Servants," Scribner's Monthly 12 [August, 1876]: 741).
43. "The Chinese Must Go; The Labor Agitators, or the Battle for Bread," 24 in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets; see also "Communication from the Mechanics' State Council of California in relation to Chinese Immigration" (D.W. Gelwicks, State Printet, 1868) in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets . Physicians did in fact testify to the prevalence of rapacious diseases in white boys which they traced directly to Chinese prostitutes before the California Senate Committee on Chinese Immigration. See Chinese Immigration, The Social, Moral and Political Effect of Chinese Immigration (Sacramento, 1876) in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets .
44. "The Chinese Must Go; The Labor Agitators, or the Battle for Bread," 24 in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets; see also "Communication from the Mechanics' State Council of California in relation to Chinese Immigration" (D.W. Gelwicks, State Printet, 1868) in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets . Physicians did in fact testify to the prevalence of rapacious diseases in white boys which they traced directly to Chinese prostitutes before the California Senate Committee on Chinese Immigration. See Chinese Immigration, The Social, Moral and Political Effect of Chinese Immigration (Sacramento, 1876) in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets .
45. "The Chinese Must Go; The Labor Agitators, or the Battle for Bread," 24 in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets; see also "Communication from the Mechanics' State Council of California in relation to Chinese Immigration" (D.W. Gelwicks, State Printet, 1868) in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets . Physicians did in fact testify to the prevalence of rapacious diseases in white boys which they traced directly to Chinese prostitutes before the California Senate Committee on Chinese Immigration. See Chinese Immigration, The Social, Moral and Political Effect of Chinese Immigration (Sacramento, 1876) in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets .
46. In one illusttation, Chinese men, who appear distorted and alien, spit on the laundry they were supposedly cleaning ("Laundry," in The Chinese in California, description of Chinese Life in San Francisco, their habits, morals, and manners, illustrated by Voegtlin [San Francisco, 1880], 78).
47. "The Chinese Must Go: The Labor Agitators, or the Battle for Bread" (G.W. Greene, n.d.), 26 in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets .
48. There is some evidence that white women did marry Chinese men, though intermarriage had been illegal beginning in May, 1870 when "Mongolian" was added to the miscegenation statue. In 1883, the Morning Call mentioned three cases of intermarriage, and in 1903 the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that there were twenty white women married to Chinese men. See Mary Coolidge, Chinese Immigration, (New York, 1909), 440-441. Coolidge notes, but dismisses, public fears of the "monstrosities" that would result from these intermarriages. For a more recent discussion see Megumi Dick Osumi, "Asians and California's Anti-Miscegenation Laws," in Asian and Pacific American Experiences: Women's Perspectives, ed. Nobuya Tsuchida (Minneapolis, 1982).
49. There is some evidence that white women did marry Chinese men, though intermarriage had been illegal beginning in May, 1870 when "Mongolian" was added to the miscegenation statue. In 1883, the Morning Call mentioned three cases of intermarriage, and in 1903 the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that there were twenty white women married to Chinese men. See Mary Coolidge, Chinese Immigration, (New York, 1909), 440-441. Coolidge notes, but dismisses, public fears of the "monstrosities" that would result from these intermarriages. For a more recent discussion see Megumi Dick Osumi, "Asians and California's Anti-Miscegenation Laws," in Asian and Pacific American Experiences: Women's Perspectives, ed. Nobuya Tsuchida (Minneapolis, 1982).
50. There is some evidence that white women did marry Chinese men, though intermarriage had been illegal beginning in May, 1870 when "Mongolian" was added to the miscegenation statue. In 1883, the Morning Call mentioned three cases of intermarriage, and in 1903 the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that there were twenty white women married to Chinese men. See Mary Coolidge, Chinese Immigration, (New York, 1909), 440-441. Coolidge notes, but dismisses, public fears of the "monstrosities" that would result from these intermarriages. For a more recent discussion see Megumi Dick Osumi, "Asians and California's Anti-Miscegenation Laws," in Asian and Pacific American Experiences: Women's Perspectives, ed. Nobuya Tsuchida (Minneapolis, 1982).
51. There is some evidence that white women did marry Chinese men, though intermarriage had been illegal beginning in May, 1870 when "Mongolian" was added to the miscegenation statue. In 1883, the Morning Call mentioned three cases of intermarriage, and in 1903 the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that there were twenty white women married to Chinese men. See Mary Coolidge, Chinese Immigration, (New York, 1909), 440-441. Coolidge notes, but dismisses, public fears of the "monstrosities" that would result from these intermarriages. For a more recent discussion see Megumi Dick Osumi, "Asians and California's Anti-Miscegenation Laws," in Asian and Pacific American Experiences: Women's Perspectives, ed. Nobuya Tsuchida (Minneapolis, 1982).
52. Stout, "Chinese Immigration"; also see John Swinton, "The New Issue: the ChineseAmerican question," (New York, 1870) in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets .
53. Stout, "Chinese Immigration"; also see John Swinton, "The New Issue: the ChineseAmerican question," (New York, 1870) in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets .
54. From 1864 to 1865 one in every 16.5 marriages in California ended in divorce. This rate increased, and by 1874-1875 one in every 7.6 marriages ended in divorce. Shumsky, The Evolution of Political Protest, 110-113.
55. See for example The Chinese in California, description of Chinese life in San Francisco, their habits, morals, and manners, illustrated by Voegtlin (San Francisco, 1880), 111-112 in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets .
56. "The Latest Craze," The Wasp , July 5, 1884.
57. "The Chinese Must Go: The Labor Agitators, or the Battle for Bread," 25 in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets .
58. Stuart Miller documents sensationalized newspaper reports from East coast periodicals containing stories of white girls being lured into opium dens and the back rooms of laundries. Miller, Unwelcome Immigrant, 184-185.
59. This constant presence of the raced body of the Chinese servant in the middle-and upper-class white home raised racial antagonism to new levels of printed hysteria. See, "The Chinese Must Go. The Labor Agitators; or, the Battle for Bread," 18-19 in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets .
60. Interestingly, there does not seem to have been much concern that Chinese men posed a violent physical threat to white women in the way that the African American male rapist dominated Southern discourse. Rather than fears of rape and forced intimacy, the overwhelming concern was with decadence, intimacy, and addiction. Sexual perversion on the part of Chinese men came through cunning manipulation and a pretense to femininity, rather than the hyper-manliness of black southern stereotypes.
61. See "Communication from the Mechanics' State Council of California in Relation to Chinese Immigration," (1868) in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets .
62. "The Chinese Must Go. The Labor Agitators; or, the Battle for Bread," 18-19 in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets.
63. "An Address of the Chinese Question. By the Knights of Labor of San Francisco, to their Brethren throughout the United States" (Adopted Jan. 4, 1886, by the District Assembly No. 53, Knights of Labor, San Francisco, California) in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets .
64. The Truth, April 8, 1882; also see The Truth, May 3, 1882 for evidence of the explicit links between working women, Chinese men, and prostitution.
65. The Truth, April 8, 1882; also see The Truth, May 3, 1882 for evidence of the explicit links between working women, Chinese men, and prostitution.
66. The Truth, April 8, 1882.
67. The Truth, Sept. 27, 1882; The Truth, March 29, 1884; The Truth, Feb. 28, 1883.
68. The Truth, Sept. 27, 1882; The Truth, March 29, 1884; The Truth, Feb. 28, 1883.
69. The Truth, Sept. 27, 1882; The Truth, March 29, 1884; The Truth, Feb. 28, 1883.
70. Abby Sage Richardson, "A Plea for Chinese Labor by an American Housewife" Scribner's Monthly 2 (July, 1871): 287.
71. "The Chinese Must Go! But, Who Keeps Them?" The Wasp, May 11, 1878.
72. Rev. O. Gibson, "Chinaman or White man, Which? Reply to Father Buchard," delivered in Platt's Hall, San Francisco, Friday evening March 14, 1873, published at the request of the San Francisco Methodist Preachers' Meeting (San Francisco, 1873).
73. Sarah E. Henshaw, "California Housekeepers and Chinese Servants," Scribner's Monthly 12 (Aug., 1876): 736.
74. For a discussion of Irish women as domestic servants in California, see Hasia R. Diner, Erin's Daughters in America: Irish Immigrant Women in the Nineteenth Century (Baltimore, 1983), 92-94.
75. The calculation of total foreign born immigrants to San Francisco does not include Chinese immigrants, and tallies only those immigrants from England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, France, Sweden, and Norway. As was true on the East Coast, Irish immigrants in San Francisco make up the vast majority of white immigrants (25,864), followed by Germans (18,602). Historical Atlas Map of Alameda County (Oakland, 1878; reprint, Fresno, 1976), 165, (I am indebted to Roberta Chávez for this source); Mary Roberts Coolidge, Chinese Immigration, p. 348-50. Coolidge concludes that while there is no evidence to suggest Chinese labor competed with white male labor, Chinese workers did compete with white women for similar positions; most of the women, according to Coolidge, were Irish immigrants.
76. The calculation of total foreign born immigrants to San Francisco does not include Chinese immigrants, and tallies only those immigrants from England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, France, Sweden, and Norway. As was true on the East Coast, Irish immigrants in San Francisco make up the vast majority of white immigrants (25,864), followed by Germans (18,602). Historical Atlas Map of Alameda County (Oakland, 1878; reprint, Fresno, 1976), 165, (I am indebted to Roberta Chávez for this source); Mary Roberts Coolidge, Chinese Immigration, p. 348-50. Coolidge concludes that while there is no evidence to suggest Chinese labor competed with white male labor, Chinese workers did compete with white women for similar positions; most of the women, according to Coolidge, were Irish immigrants.
77. H.A.D. "Employment of Women in San Francisco," Overland Monthly 4, second series (Oct., 1884), 389. For a discussion of the relationship between domestic servants and their employers nationally see David Katzman, Seven Days a Week: Women and Domestic Service in Industrializing America (New York, 1978); Daniel Sutherland, Americans and their Servants: Domestic Service in the United States from 1800 to 1920 (Baton Rouge, 1981); Faye Dudden, Serving Women: Household Service in Nineteenth-Century America (Middletown, CT, 1983).
78. H.A.D. "Employment of Women in San Francisco," Overland Monthly 4, second series (Oct., 1884), 389. For a discussion of the relationship between domestic servants and their employers nationally see David Katzman, Seven Days a Week: Women and Domestic Service in Industrializing America (New York, 1978); Daniel Sutherland, Americans and their Servants: Domestic Service in the United States from 1800 to 1920 (Baton Rouge, 1981); Faye Dudden, Serving Women: Household Service in Nineteenth-Century America (Middletown, CT, 1983).
79. H.A.D. "Employment of Women in San Francisco," Overland Monthly 4, second series (Oct., 1884), 389. For a discussion of the relationship between domestic servants and their employers nationally see David Katzman, Seven Days a Week: Women and Domestic Service in Industrializing America (New York, 1978); Daniel Sutherland, Americans and their Servants: Domestic Service in the United States from 1800 to 1920 (Baton Rouge, 1981); Faye Dudden, Serving Women: Household Service in Nineteenth-Century America (Middletown, CT, 1983).
80. H.A.D. "Employment of Women in San Francisco," Overland Monthly 4, second series (Oct., 1884), 389. For a discussion of the relationship between domestic servants and their employers nationally see David Katzman, Seven Days a Week: Women and Domestic Service in Industrializing America (New York, 1978); Daniel Sutherland, Americans and their Servants: Domestic Service in the United States from 1800 to 1920 (Baton Rouge, 1981); Faye Dudden, Serving Women: Household Service in Nineteenth-Century America (Middletown, CT, 1983).
81. The Wasp , Jan. 19, 1878, 395. This is a rather sarcastic betrayal of working women's efforts to control their working conditions, but its wit is drawn from familiar experiences with Irish women who stipulated the details of their contract.
82. This was a common complaint see Alta, Feb. 26, 1880. A sympathetic reading of the issue appears in Judge Hastings testimony before the Congressional Committee, as quoted in Seward, Chinese Immigration, p. 126-7.
83. This was a common complaint see Alta, Feb. 26, 1880. A sympathetic reading of the issue appears in Judge Hastings testimony before the Congressional Committee, as quoted in Seward, Chinese Immigration, p. 126-7.
84. Richardson, "A Plea for Chinese Labor," 287.
85. Richardson, "A Plea for Chinese Labor," 288.
86. "Opening Argument of F.A. Bee, before the Joint Committee of the Two Houses of Congress on Chinese Immigration" (San Francisco, 1876), 33.
87. California Labor Exchange report published in Alta, Nov. 12, 1868; Lucile Eaves, A History of California Labor Legislation, with an introductory sketch of the San Francisco labor movement (Berkeley, 1910), 311.
88. California Labor Exchange report published in Alta, Nov. 12, 1868; Lucile Eaves, A History of California Labor Legislation, with an introductory sketch of the San Francisco labor movement (Berkeley, 1910), 311.
89. Henshaw, "California Housekeepers and Chinese Servants," 739.
90. Alta, Feb. 21, 1880. Schmitz, a music teacher, proposed a committee to obtain pledges from every San Francisco household against Chinese labor. The committee would then procure white domestic servants from the Eastern states or from Europe to fill the vacancies, C. Schmitz, "A New Device to rid our State of the Heathen Chinese." Studies of the Women's Trade Union League demonstrate similar attempts at cross-class alliances. See Meredith Tax, The Rising of the Women: Feminist Solidarity and Class Conflict, 1800-1917 (New York, 1980); and Alice Kessler-Harris, "Organizing the Unorganizable: Three Jewish Women and Their Union," Labor History 17 (Winter 1976): 5-23.
91. Alta, Feb. 21, 1880. Schmitz, a music teacher, proposed a committee to obtain pledges from every San Francisco household against Chinese labor. The committee would then procure white domestic servants from the Eastern states or from Europe to fill the vacancies, C. Schmitz, "A New Device to rid our State of the Heathen Chinese." Studies of the Women's Trade Union League demonstrate similar attempts at cross-class alliances. See Meredith Tax, The Rising of the Women: Feminist Solidarity and Class Conflict, 1800-1917 (New York, 1980); and Alice Kessler-Harris, "Organizing the Unorganizable: Three Jewish Women and Their Union," Labor History 17 (Winter 1976): 5-23.
92. Alta, Feb. 21, 1880. Schmitz, a music teacher, proposed a committee to obtain pledges from every San Francisco household against Chinese labor. The committee would then procure white domestic servants from the Eastern states or from Europe to fill the vacancies, C. Schmitz, "A New Device to rid our State of the Heathen Chinese." Studies of the Women's Trade Union League demonstrate similar attempts at cross-class alliances. See Meredith Tax, The Rising of the Women: Feminist Solidarity and Class Conflict, 1800-1917 (New York, 1980); and Alice Kessler-Harris, "Organizing the Unorganizable: Three Jewish Women and Their Union," Labor History 17 (Winter 1976): 5-23.
93. Alta, Feb. 21, 1880. Schmitz, a music teacher, proposed a committee to obtain pledges from every San Francisco household against Chinese labor. The committee would then procure white domestic servants from the Eastern states or from Europe to fill the vacancies, C. Schmitz, "A New Device to rid our State of the Heathen Chinese." Studies of the Women's Trade Union League demonstrate similar attempts at cross-class alliances. See Meredith Tax, The Rising of the Women: Feminist Solidarity and Class Conflict, 1800-1917 (New York, 1980); and Alice Kessler-Harris, "Organizing the Unorganizable: Three Jewish Women and Their Union," Labor History 17 (Winter 1976): 5-23.
94. Cautionary, moral tales in The Hesperian lay poverty and want at the feet of shallow wealthy women who paid niggardly wages to their domestic help. See H.B.D., "Rich and Poor; or, who made thee to differ?" The Hesperian, 2 (April, 1859) and, Calvin B. McDonald, "Women of the West," The Hesperian, 2 (March, 1859). Peggy Pascoe argues that middle class women used relief work to challenge patriarchal systems through moral authority, Peggy Pascoe, Relations of Rescue: The Search for Moral Authority in the American West, 1874-1939 (New York, 1990).
95. Cautionary, moral tales in The Hesperian lay poverty and want at the feet of shallow wealthy women who paid niggardly wages to their domestic help. See H.B.D., "Rich and Poor; or, who made thee to differ?" The Hesperian, 2 (April, 1859) and, Calvin B. McDonald, "Women of the West," The Hesperian, 2 (March, 1859). Peggy Pascoe argues that middle class women used relief work to challenge patriarchal systems through moral authority, Peggy Pascoe, Relations of Rescue: The Search for Moral Authority in the American West, 1874-1939 (New York, 1990).
96. Cautionary, moral tales in The Hesperian lay poverty and want at the feet of shallow wealthy women who paid niggardly wages to their domestic help. See H.B.D., "Rich and Poor; or, who made thee to differ?" The Hesperian, 2 (April, 1859) and, Calvin B. McDonald, "Women of the West," The Hesperian, 2 (March, 1859). Peggy Pascoe argues that middle class women used relief work to challenge patriarchal systems through moral authority, Peggy Pascoe, Relations of Rescue: The Search for Moral Authority in the American West, 1874-1939 (New York, 1990).
97. Cautionary, moral tales in The Hesperian lay poverty and want at the feet of shallow wealthy women who paid niggardly wages to their domestic help. See H.B.D., "Rich and Poor; or, who made thee to differ?" The Hesperian, 2 (April, 1859) and, Calvin B. McDonald, "Women of the West," The Hesperian, 2 (March, 1859). Peggy Pascoe argues that middle class women used relief work to challenge patriarchal systems through moral authority, Peggy Pascoe, Relations of Rescue: The Search for Moral Authority in the American West, 1874-1939 (New York, 1990).
98. "Fleet Street, A Contrast," The Wasp , November 10, 1877.
99. H.A.D. "Employment of Women in San Francisco," Overland Monthly 4, second series (Oct., 1884), 387.
100. The Truth, May 24, 1882; also see, The Truth June 7, 1882.
101. The Truth, May 24, 1882; also see, The Truth June 7, 1882.
102. Ryan also refers to the presence of women in these early protests, Ryan, Women in Public, 160-163. Kazin has used arrest records to develop a list of participants and their general socio-economic background, Kazin, "Prelude to Kearneyism". Shumsky found greater success using a combination of sources including voting registers, census tables, and city directories, Shumsky, The Evolution of Political Protest.
103. Ryan also refers to the presence of women in these early protests, Ryan, Women in Public, 160-163. Kazin has used arrest records to develop a list of participants and their general socio-economic background, Kazin, "Prelude to Kearneyism". Shumsky found greater success using a combination of sources including voting registers, census tables, and city directories, Shumsky, The Evolution of Political Protest.
104. Ryan also refers to the presence of women in these early protests, Ryan, Women in Public, 160-163. Kazin has used arrest records to develop a list of participants and their general socio-economic background, Kazin, "Prelude to Kearneyism". Shumsky found greater success using a combination of sources including voting registers, census tables, and city directories, Shumsky, The Evolution of Political Protest.
105. Women's involvement in the national 1877 labor unrest had been the subject of much discussion and concern in individual local papers across the country. Soaping railroad tracks in Hornellsville, fighting in street battles in Chicago, marching in St. Louis, and striking in Galveston, in every community where protest erupted women (including women of color) had been part of the "mob." See, Philip S. Foner, Women and the American Labor Movement vol. 1 (New York, 1979): 163-177.
106. Alta, July 24, 1877.
107. "The Latest Hoodlum Style," The Wasp , October 20, 1877.
108. This metaphor would be picked up a few years later by the Alta in referring to sand lot protesters. In this more conservative newspaper, the allusion to revolution would be entirely negative: "[H]e aroused them to deeds of blood ... representatives of the 'gentler sex' leading off, and being particularly ferocious, as were their female prototypes in the French Revolution, and during the rule of the Commune some 10 years ago." Alta, Feb. 27, 1880.
109. "Great Anti-Chinese Demonstration in San Francisco, California, July 1870, under the auspices of the Knights of St. Crispin," 1 in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets ; "Great Anti-Chinese Demonstration," 2 in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets .
110. "Great Anti-Chinese Demonstration in San Francisco, California, July 1870, under the auspices of the Knights of St. Crispin," 1 in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets ; "Great Anti-Chinese Demonstration," 2 in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets .
111. "Great Anti-Chinese Demonstration," 5 in Chinese Immigration Pamphlets .
112. These meetings were viewed as an outgrowth of the WPC and were attended by its officials as well as local officials; the mayor spoke frequently. Sand lot meetings were regularly covered in the local press throughout the 1880s. Anna Smith and other women became increasingly present over the decade, (see for example, Examiner, Feb. 8, 10, 11, 13, 16, 18, 1880; Morning Call, Feb. 12, 20, 1880; Alta, Feb. 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 21, 1880).
113. These meetings were viewed as an outgrowth of the WPC and were attended by its officials as well as local officials; the mayor spoke frequently. Sand lot meetings were regularly covered in the local press throughout the 1880s. Anna Smith and other women became increasingly present over the decade, (see for example, Examiner, Feb. 8, 10, 11, 13, 16, 18, 1880; Morning Call, Feb. 12, 20, 1880; Alta, Feb. 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 21, 1880).
114. These meetings were viewed as an outgrowth of the WPC and were attended by its officials as well as local officials; the mayor spoke frequently. Sand lot meetings were regularly covered in the local press throughout the 1880s. Anna Smith and other women became increasingly present over the decade, (see for example, Examiner, Feb. 8, 10, 11, 13, 16, 18, 1880; Morning Call, Feb. 12, 20, 1880; Alta, Feb. 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 21, 1880).
115. Anna Smith was the source of much public curiosity. Born in New York City, she migrated steadily west working as a domestic servant, janitress, nurse, and laundress. Arriving in San Francisco in 1875, a widow with a son, Smith found work alternately as a local nurse and as a domestic servant in the rural areas outside of the city. Her life story was reported piecemeal in many San Francisco papers, but the most thorough and sympathetic treatments appeared in the Morning Call, Feb. 18, 1880 and Examiner, Feb. 18, 1880.
116. Anna Smith was the source of much public curiosity. Born in New York City, she migrated steadily west working as a domestic servant, janitress, nurse, and laundress. Arriving in San Francisco in 1875, a widow with a son, Smith found work alternately as a local nurse and as a domestic servant in the rural areas outside of the city. Her life story was reported piecemeal in many San Francisco papers, but the most thorough and sympathetic treatments appeared in the Morning Call, Feb. 18, 1880 and Examiner, Feb. 18, 1880.
117. The argument put forward by employers paralleled that argued by white working men against Chinese immigrant laborers who planned on returning to China to be married and thus were also not permanent members of the labor force.
118. William F.G. Shanks, "Chinese Skilled Labor," Scribbner's Monthly 2 (July 1871), 499.
119. Mary Coolidge reaches a similar conclusion: "The Chinese competed, if at all, chiefly with women and girls, but when it is remembered that there were two men to every woman in California at this time and even in San Francisco three men to every two women, it is difficult to imagine that any great number remained long unmarried or out of work." Coolidge, Chinese Immigration, 102.
120. Morning Call, Feb. 18, 1880; San Francisco Examiner, Feb. 18, 1880. Similarly, Max Morgenthau, part owner of the Mission and Pioneer woolen mills, a jute factory, and a candle and soap factory, testified that in his own experience white women had proved unreliable and uncommitted workers. (Testimony taken before a Committee of the Senate of the State of California hearings in San Francisco, Chinese Immigration, The Social, Moral and Political Effect of Chinese Immigration [Sacramento, 1876], 66-68.)
121. Morning Call, Feb. 18, 1880; San Francisco Examiner, Feb. 18, 1880. Similarly, Max Morgenthau, part owner of the Mission and Pioneer woolen mills, a jute factory, and a candle and soap factory, testified that in his own experience white women had proved unreliable and uncommitted workers. (Testimony taken before a Committee of the Senate of the State of California hearings in San Francisco, Chinese Immigration, The Social, Moral and Political Effect of Chinese Immigration [Sacramento, 1876], 66-68.)
122. Morning Call, Feb. 18, 1880; San Francisco Examiner, Feb. 18, 1880. Similarly, Max Morgenthau, part owner of the Mission and Pioneer woolen mills, a jute factory, and a candle and soap factory, testified that in his own experience white women had proved unreliable and uncommitted workers. (Testimony taken before a Committee of the Senate of the State of California hearings in San Francisco, Chinese Immigration, The Social, Moral and Political Effect of Chinese Immigration [Sacramento, 1876], 66-68.)
123. Alta, Feb. 24, 1880.
124. Morning Call, Feb. 18, 1880.
125. Morning Call, Feb. 12, 1880.
126. Alta, Feb. 25, 1880.
127. The Truth, May 24, 1882.
128. Alta, Feb. 13, 1880, Feb. 14, 1880, Feb. 17, 1880. Reporters were inconsistent at best in their spelling of participants names. For example, Mrs. Heisler was sometimes Mrs. Hausler; Anne E. Smith was also Anna F. Smith; and Mrs. Sergeant was occasionally Mrs. Sargent. If indeed her name was Mrs. Sargent, she may have been the same Mrs. Sargent active in California's suffrage movement and married to Aaron Sargent, a California senator and a prominent proponent of Asian exclusion . Although the newspapers never directly interviewed Mrs. Sergeant/Sargent, the possibility that she may be the suffrage leader presents an early example of cross class gender coalitions among white women. Moreover, Sergeant/Sargent's attendance at sand-lot rallies points to the possibility that middle-class women may have been active in public demonstrations on behalf of white working women.
129. Alta, Feb. 21, 1880; also Morning Call, Feb. 19, 1880.
130. Alta, Feb. 21, 1880; also Morning Call, Feb. 19, 1880.
131. Langley's San Francisco Directory (San Francisco, 1881).
132. The Truth, June 7, 1882.
133. Susan Englander argues that middle class suffragists actively sought working-class women's assistance in the campaign for women's suffrage in California. Susan Englander, Class Conflict and Coalition in the California Woman Suffrage Movement, 1907-1912: The San Francisco Wage Earners' Suffrage League (Lewiston, New Jersey, 1992).
134. Englander, Class Conflict and Coalition.
135. Shumsky, The Evolution of Political Protest, 201.
136. Susan Englander links women's participation in the labor movement to their activism in the anti-Asian movements: "The anti-Asian movement provided San Francisco white women with an entrée into the trade union establishment, while ongoing antiChinese and anti-Japanese activity of female unionists served to reinforce their solidarity with the white male union membership of the San Francisco Labor Council." Englander, Class Conflict and Coalition, 51.
137. Englander, Class Conflict and Coalition, 42; The Truth, May 19, 1883; Lillian Matthews, Women in the Trade Unions in San Francisco (Berkeley, 1913).
138. Englander, Class Conflict and Coalition, 42; The Truth, May 19, 1883; Lillian Matthews, Women in the Trade Unions in San Francisco (Berkeley, 1913).
139. Englander, Class Conflict and Coalition, 42; The Truth, May 19, 1883; Lillian Matthews, Women in the Trade Unions in San Francisco (Berkeley, 1913).
140. The California Bureau of Labor Statistics reported boys' weekly factory wage double the wage received by girls, $5-$12 for boys and $4-$9 for girls. Chinese employees were treated the most unfairly, and received $1-6 per week. The competition was framed in terms of employment rather then equal wages; thus both Chinese men and white women fought over the lowest end of the wage scale.