Embedded Files
Class Date: November 5th
Location: Your couch! See your weekly e-mail for Zoom link!
The West Coast
The West Coast
This week we are looking at the life of Donaldina Cameron, a missionary who worked to save women from lives of servitude and sex work in San Franscisco’s Chinatown. Before we talk about her work, let’s review some background events of the time:
1821 - Mexican Independence
The California region had been ruled by Spain from afar, largely through the presidio and mission system. Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, gaining control over formerly Spanish territory, including the California region.
To see a quick and simple overview of how independence affected the region, watch this 3-minute video here.
1823 - Monroe Doctrine announced
President Monroe establishes his Doctrine, declaring that America would remain neutral in future European wars. The Doctrine also denounced European intervention anywhere in the Americas.
1827 - Treaty of Limits is ratified by the U.S. Senate
The treaty establishes the Sabine River as the official border between Mexico and the United States, per the agreement laid out in the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819.
1841 - The first wagon train heads for California
On May 1st, the wagon train departed from Independence, Missouri with 69 adults and several children. John Bidwell led 32 people and 9 wagons as they broke off from the main group in Idaho to head into uncharted territory bound for California. Bidwell logged details of the trip in his journal which would later serve as a guide for future wagon trains. Bidwell also later worked for John Sutter and delivered the news of a discovery of gold at Sutter’s mill.
1865 - The Ku Klux Klan beings
A group of former Confederate veterans founded a ‘social club’ in Pulaski, Tennessee. This newly formed terrorist organization was meant to establish an ‘Invisible Empire of the South’. They selected former Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest as their first leader. Klan membership peaked in the 1920s, with more than 4 million members of the hate group.
1868 - First Japanese immigrate to Hawaii
Known as Gannenmono, or ‘first year men’, roughly 150 Japanese men (and a handful of women) arrived in Hawaii. King Kamehameha IV and a Japanese delegation had worked out a contract to recruit and bring Japanese laborers to the Hawaiian islands to work on the sugar plantations. To read more about this immigration, click to read an article here:
1869 - Transcontinental Railroad completed
Constructed from 1863 - 1869, the railroad became the first continuous railroad line across the United States.
To watch a 6-minute CBS special on the steam locomotive rebuilt to celebrate the centennial of the Transcontinental Railroad, click here:
To watch a longer, more detailed story of the Transcontinental Railroad, check out the History Channel episode of ‘America: The Story of Us - The Transcontinental Railroad Unites’ here:
1870 - Congress grants citizenship to “aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent”
The 14th Amendment granted birthright citizenship to all those born in the United States, but did not extend to those already here. in an Act of Congress, they extended citizenship to African Americans, but not other non-white persons, effectively excluding Asian immigrants from naturalized citizenship avenues.
1882 - Chinese Exclusion Act
The Act explicitly shut off all Chinese immigration (and Chinese citizenship) for the next 60 years. It also set precedent for additional laws that excluded all other Asian immigrants as well.
To watch a minute and a half preview of the PBS episode devoted to exploring the Act, click here.
To view the the first episode of the PBS show on the Chinese Exclusion Act, click here:
1883 - Civil Rights Cases
5 legal cases were combined by the Supreme Court (due to their similarity). The Court ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was unconstitutional. The Court held that the 13th and 14th Amendments did not allow Congress to outlaw racial discrimination by private individuals. Effectively, this ruling gave Congress very little power to legislate against segregation. It paved the way for decades of Jim Crow laws and inequality.
1908 - Gentlemen’s Agreement
After Chinese immigration was halted, Japanese immigration increased, particularly those coming as agricultural workers. Many in California objected to rising Japanese immigration, as they had previously opposed Chinese immigration. In an effort to appease those opposing immigration and to avoid offending Japan, President Theordore Roosevelt brokered a deal with the Japanese government to restrict Japanese immigration, especially laborers. The agreement did allow family migration to continue, and also allowed for Japanese American men to bring over wives (‘picture brides’), which allowed for a much more gender-balanced population, compared to other Asian communities. This led to continued population growth throughout Japanese American communities, which in turn led racists to clamor for even less immigration and restricted rights for Japanese Americans.
1920 - The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) founded
Largely in response to the “Palmer Raids” of 1919 and 1920, lawyer Roger Nash, helped to form the present day ACLU. Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer began conducting federal raids of suspected ‘radical leftists’ as fear of Communism and Bolsheviks gripped the nation. Thousands of people were arrested without warrant and were often held in custody with no charges or evidence. To read more about the start of the ACLU, click here:
That is where our timeline leaves us for this week! Check below for additional reading resources and check your e-mail for a link to this week’s lecture!
Recommended Reading
Recommended Reading
To read more about this period, here are some great books to get you started:
For kids:
The Paper Daughters of Chinatown: Adapted for Young Readers from the Best-selling Novel by Heather B. Moore and Allison Hong Merrill
Based on the true story of two friends who unite to help rescue immigrant women and girls in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the late 1890s.
When Tai Choi leaves her home in the Zhejiang province of China, she believes it’s to visit her grandmother. But despite her mother’s opposition, her father has sold her to pay his gambling debts. Alone and afraid, Tai Choi is put on a ship headed for “Gold Mountain” (San Francisco). When she arrives, she’s forced to go by the name on her forged papers: Tien Fu Wu.
Her new life as a servant is hard. She is told to stay hidden, stay silent, and perform an endless list of chores, or she will be punished or sold again. If she is to survive, Tien Fu must persevere, and learn who to trust. Her life changes when she’s rescued by the women at the Occidental Mission Home for Girls.
When Dolly Cameron arrives in San Francisco to teach sewing at the mission home, she meets Tien Fu, who is willful, defiant, and unwilling to trust anyone. Dolly quickly learns that all the girls at the home were freed from servitude and maltreatment, and enthusiastically accepts a role in rescuing more.
Despite challenges, Dolly and Tien Fu forge a powerful friendship as they mentor and help those in the mission home and work to win the freedom of enslaved immigrant women and girls.
My Chinatown: One Year in Poems by Kam Mak
My Chinatown explores a boy's first year in the United States—after emigrating from China—as he grows to love his new home in Chinatown through food, games, and the people surrounding him. Through Kam Mak's spare verse and richly detailed artwork, the streets of Chinatown come vividly alive. Included in Brightly.com's 2017 list of recommended diverse poetry picture books for kids.
Chinatown—a place of dragons and dreams; fireflies and memories Chinatown—full of wonder and magic; fireworks on New Year's Day and a delicious smell on every corner Chinatown—where every day brings something familiar and something wondrously new to a small boy
Chinatown—home?
For adults:
The Paper Daughters of Chinatown by Heather B. Moore
A powerful story based on true events surrounding Donaldina Cameron and other brave women who fought to help Chinese-American women escape discrimination and slavery in the late 19th century in California.
When Donaldina Cameron arrives at the Occidental Mission Home for Girls in 1895, she intends to teach sewing skills to young Chinese women immigrants, but, within days, she discovers that the job is much more complicated than perfect stitches and even hems. San Francisco has a dark side, one where a powerful underground organization--the criminal tong--brings Chinese young women to America to sell them as slaves. With the help of Chinese interpreters and the Chinatown police squad, Donaldina becomes a tireless social reformer to stop the abominable slave and prostitution trade.
Mei Lien believes she is sailing to the "Gold Mountain" in America to become the wife of a rich Chinese man.Instead she finds herself sold into prostitution--beaten, starved, and forced into an opium addiction. It is only after a narrow escape that she hears of the mission home and dares to think there might be hope for a new life.
The Paper Daughters of Chinatown throws new light on the age-old scourge of human trafficking. The heroes who fought this evil and the victims who triumphed over it more than a hundred years ago offer a bright example of courage and determination for anyone wishing for a better world.
Fierce Compassion: The Life of Abolitionist Donaldina Cameron by Kristin Wong
Fierce Compassion: The Life of Abolitionist Donaldina Cameron by Kristin Wong
San Francisco, 1877. Hundreds of angry men fill the streets, pillaging and burning as they yell, "The Chinese must go!" Meanwhile, girls and women are quietly trafficked from China to California, sold to the highest bidders, and tucked away in hidden corners of Chinatown to spend the rest of their lives as sex slaves.
A young Scottish-American woman came to Chinatown to teach sewing for one year. She stayed for over four decades. Daring and tenacious, charming and devout, she courageously fought Chinese organized crime and American racism. She rescued hundreds of slaves and raised them as her daughters. Hers is a story of romance and intrigue, oppression and hope, perseverance and faith. Her work greatly contributed to breaking the back of the Chinese slave trade in America. She was called the most loved and hated woman in Chinatown. Her name was Donaldina Cameron.
Join the mother and daughter team of Kristin and Kathryn Wong as they journey to this fascinating but forgotten story of American history.
Works Cited
Works Cited
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Newcomen
https://www.historycrunch.com/flying-shuttle-invention-in-the-industrial-revolution.html#/
https://www.britannica.com/technology/sewing-machine
https://www.softschools.com/timelines/industrial_revolution_timeline/40/
https://www.britannica.com/place/California-state/History
https://cal170.library.ca.gov/november-4-1841-first-wagon-train-arrives/
Google Sites
Report abuse