The 1885 Tacoma Riot and 1886 Seattle Riot brought national attention to the burgeoning coastal cities of Washington Territory for their forced eviction from their Chinese populations by angry mobs – and largely white. These actions were part of a brutal wave of anti-Chinese violence that rocked the American West in the second half of the 19th century, displacing more than 20,000 Chinese; between 1849 and 1906, there were at least 200 purges of Chinese residents in California alone. In response, the US government released more restrictive immigration policies that set a precedent for race-based immigration quotas.
Chinese in the American West
The first Chinese settlers in America came in the wake of the California Gold Rush of 1849, which attracted prospectors from all over the world. Railways raced to connect the east and west coasts as part of America’s rapid westward expansion.
In the 1860s, Chinese immigrants began to settle in the Seattle area. They found work digging mines, conserving salmon, logging nearby forests, and laying railroads. The new arrivals were predominantly men; the discriminatory pages law of 1875 had sharply reduced the number of Chinese women entering the United States.
Anti-Chinese resentment was fueled by white workers, many of whom were recent immigrants themselves. Racial prejudice meant that employers paid Chinese workers less than their white peers – a disparity that led them to be accused of undermining their competitors.
“Many Chinese workers sent money to their families in China, so they lived quite modestly,” says Gordon H. Chang, professor of history and humanities at Stanford University and author of Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The epic story of the Chinese who built the transcontinental railroad. “White workers, many of whom supported families locally, saw the Chinese as a difficult group to compete with. Employers knew how to play ethnic groups against each other. ”
READ MORE: Building the Transcontinental Railroad: How 20,000 Chinese Immigrants Got There
The Chinese exclusion law and the rise of anti-China violence
The Chinese Exclusion Act, enacted by President Chester A. Arthur in 1882, suspended Chinese immigration for 10 years and denied Chinese immigrants the right to become U.S. citizens. “The 1882 Act is a political act adopted in part as a stopgap measure to appease the white population without prompting the Chinese government to close its doors. [to trade]Chang said. “Because it was a compromise, it did not satisfy most of the categorical anti-Chinese elements in the West.” Enforcement issues, loopholes and delays further angered anti-Chinese workers’ interests.
Increasingly frustrated with the law’s “failed promise”, local communities have turned to violence, says Beth Lew-Williams, associate professor of history at Princeton University and author of The Chinese Must Go: Violence, Exclusion, and the Making of Foreigners in America. In some cases, angry workers have slaughtered Chinese miners in places like Sqak Valley in Washington Territory and Rock Springs in Wyoming Territory and Hell’s Canyon in Oregon. More often than not, Lew-Williams says, systematic eviction has become the method of choice: “The vigilantes used boycotts, arson and assaults to quickly expel the Chinese from their towns and prevent their return.”
READ MORE: Before the Chinese exclusion law, this anti-immigration law targeted Chinese women
1885 Group portrait of 14 members of the Committee of Fifteen responsible for anti-Chinese unrest in Tacoma, Pierce County, Washington Territory.
Courtesy of the Washington State Historical Society at WashingtonHistory.org.
The Tacoma Riot: November 3, 1885
On September 28, 1885, the Washington branch of the Knights of Labor held a meeting to discuss the “Chinese question”. Led by the city’s German mayor, Jacob Weisbach, the group set a deadline to remove all Chinese from the Tacoma-Seattle corridor: November 1, with committees formed to enforce the decision if the Chinese refuse to leave. “Tacoma is unique because… the removal of [Chinese] the population was so completely orchestrated ”, explains Jean Pfaelzer, author of Hunted: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans.
On November 3, 1885, fire bells rang out, signaling the assembled vigilantes to round up the remaining 300 Chinese residents of Tacoma. They carried batons and pistols to “lead us like so many pigs,” eyewitness Tak Nam recalls. Local merchant Lum May recalled that the crowd of 500 – which included the city’s mayor, judge and city councilors – “broke into homes, smashing doors and windows.”
“Chinese residents have been informed that they have only a few hours to pack their bags. They were taken on foot to the railway line 15 kilometers from the city, ”says Pfaelzer. The pouring rain soaked bodies already bogged down with all the material goods they could carry. Once on the slopes, they were forced to buy their own ticket to Portland, Oregon. Those who could not afford a ticket or who did not fit on the first train began to walk along the rails that their compatriots had laid. Two men died from exposure.
Within four days of the eviction, both of Tacoma’s Chinatowns had been burnt to the ground. Although the identity of the main perpetrators, known as “Tacoma 27”, is well known, none have been convicted.
1885 Tacoma, Washington bringing citizens together for an anti-Chinese rally.
Courtesy of the Washington State Historical Society at WashingtonHistory.org., Edward N. Fuller ephemera collection
Seattle Riot of 1886: February 6-9, 1886
Fear of growing violence has prompted 150 Chinese residents of Seattle to flee. Washington Governor Watson Squire contacted President Grover Cleveland, who sent federal troops to Seattle for 10 days to keep the peace. “Federal troops are what keep Seattle from burning to the ground,” Pfaelzer says. “But as soon as they’re taken … all hell breaks loose.”
By February, more than half of Seattle’s Chinese population had fled, leaving just under 400. On February 7, 1886, an angry mob led by the Knights of Labor invaded Chinatown. They rounded up any residents they could find, put them in wagons, and dragged them to the port. Eyewitness Chang Yen Hoon recalled, “During the riot procedure, Mr. Chan Yee Hee’s residence was invaded by crowds and people. [pregnant] his wife was dragged down the second floor and down the street by the hair of his head. She later miscarried.
At the port, the crowd tried to force the gathered group to board the steamboat Queen of the pacific, bound for San Francisco. There was just one problem: they didn’t have the fare to book the passage. “No one wants to pay to send them to China, and the deportation laws were complicated,” Pfaelzer says.
By the end of the day, 89 people had been loaded onto the Queen of the Pacific, leaving 215 trapped in a warehouse, surrounded by crowds. A plan to expel the remaining Chinese by rail to Tacoma was thwarted, sending the crowds into a spiral of destruction. They began to attack the homes of citizens who employed Chinese servants, including that of Mayor Henry Yesler.
That Monday, US judge Roger Greene called on all Chinese on the ship and in the warehouse to be brought to justice and asked them if they wanted to stay or leave. Only 16 expressed interest in staying, but there were still insufficient funds to purchase passage for the rest of the population. The Knights of Labor reluctantly agreed that the remaining Chinese could stay until a second ship, the Elder, arrived the following week.
As the Chinese residents left to return home temporarily, the crowd outside the courtroom opened fire. A military escort surrounded them and retaliated. Five members of the crowd were shot dead, one of whom succumbed to his injuries. Governor Squire declared martial law and imposed a curfew on all Seattle residents.
When the Elder left port six days later, most of the remaining Chinese population was on board.
Impact of the Seattle and Tacoma riots
A sum of $ 276,619.15 was paid to the Chinese government by Congress as compensation for the evictions. The displaced, for their part, have never seen payment.
The forced deportation of Chinese immigrants has come to be known as the “Tacoma Method” – and has spread across the West. Congress, seeking to restore peace, passed a stricter Chinese exclusion law, the Scott Law, in 1888. “Local violence contributed to the birth of racial-based border control policies which continued. until the middle of the 20th century, ”says Lew-Williams.
