The Chinese Massacres...

[5fish]

The first great massacres of Chinese as in Los Angeles in 1871... The link describes the events in detail...

How Los Angeles Covered Up the Massacre of 17 Chinese - LA Weekly

The greatest unsolved murders in Los Angeles' history — bloodier than the Black Dahlia, more coldly vicious than the hit on Bugsy Siegel — occurred on a cool fall night in 1871. Seventeen Chinese men and boys, including a popular doctor, were hanged by an angry mob near what is...

www.laweekly.com

The greatest unsolved murders in Los Angeles' history — bloodier than the Black Dahlia, more coldly vicious than the hit on Bugsy Siegel — occurred on a cool fall night in 1871. Seventeen Chinese men and boys, including a popular doctor, were hanged by an angry mob near what is now Union Station, an act so savage that it bumped the Great Chicago Fire off the front page of The New York Times.

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Eight men eventually were convicted, but the verdicts were thrown out almost immediately for a bizarre technical oversight by the prosecution. Unbelievably for a crime that occurred in full view of hundreds of people, no one was ever again prosecuted.

Here at this link is a 8min video of the event...

The Chinese Massacre: One of Los Angeles' Worst Atrocities

On October 24, 1871, a mob of Anglos and Latinos murdered nearly 20 Chinese immigrants.

www.kcet.org

Here is wiki link to the event...

Chinese massacre of 1871 - Wikipedia

snip... photos...

The Chinese massacre of 1871 was a racial massacre that occurred on October 24, 1871, in Los Angeles, California, when a mob of around 500 White and Hispanic persons entered Old Chinatown and attacked, bullied, robbed, and murdered Chinese residents in cold blood.[1][2] The massacre took place on Calle de los Negros also referred to as "Negro Alley". The mob gathered after hearing the policeman and rancher were killed as a result of a conflict between rival tongs, the Nin Yung, and Hong Chow. When news of their death had passed through the city, along with the rumors that the Chinese community "were killing whites wholesale", more men gathered around the boundaries of Negro Alley. A few 21st-century sources have described this as the largest mass lynching in American history.[2][3]

An estimated 17 to 20 Chinese immigrants were killed and later hanged by the mob in the course of the riot, but most had already been shot to death. At least one was mutilated, when someone cut off a finger to get his diamond ring. Ten men of the mob were prosecuted and eight were convicted of manslaughter in these deaths. The convictions were overturned on appeal due to technicalities.

 

[5fish]

Here is the other massacre of Chinese workers was at Rock Spring, WY... The link below goes into detail and even list their names...

"To This We Dissented": The Rock Springs Riot

historymatters.gmu.edu

snip... a summary

Even in the late nineteenth-century American West, a notably violent region, the violence directed against Chinese immigrants was shocking. The Union Pacific railroad employed 331 Chinese and 150 whites in their coal mine in Rock Springs, Wyoming. On September 2, 1885, Chinese and white miners, who were paid by the ton, had a dispute over who had the right to work in a particularly desirable area of the mine. White miners, members of the Knights of Labor, beat two Chinese miners and walked off their jobs. That evening the white miners, armed with rifles, rioted and burned down the Chinese quarter. No whites were prosecuted for the murder of twenty-eight Chinese and $150,000 in property damage, even though the identities of those responsible were widely known. Although U.S. Army troops had to provide protection before some of the Chinese could finally return to their burned-out homes in Rock Springs, some defiantly continued to work in the Union Pacific mines into the next century. The grim story of the riot was given in the Chinese workers’ own words in this “memorial” that they presented to the Chinese Consul at New York.

Here is another link with a 11min. radio discussion on the topic with another detail article about it with photos...

Riot in Rock Springs Leads to Massacre – Legends of America

September 2, 1885 brought violence and mayhem to Wyoming as racial tensions between white and Chinese immigrants leads to the Rock Springs Massacre.

www.legendsofamerica.com

It was a dark day for Wyoming Territory and even darker times for freedom and inclusion in America. September 2, 1885, brought violence and mayhem to Rock Springs, and in the end 28 (some say up to 50), Chinese immigrants lost their lives, and over 75 homes were burned, causing what today would be almost $4 million in property damage. The historic event is now known as the Rock Springs Massacre.

snip... nativism...

Tension in the United States over Chinese immigration had been building for years in the late 1800s. So much so that in May of 1882 President Chester A. Arthur signed into law the Chinese Exclusion Act. It was one of the most significant restrictions on free immigration in U.S. History and was the first law implemented to prevent a specific ethnic group from immigrating to the country. Although the Act was originally designed to last for only 10 years, it would be renewed, and then made permanent, until finally being repealed by the Magnuson Act of 1943.

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Newspaper accounts that followed the riot on that September day in 1885, wrote of building tensions, and indicated that labor organizers had been planning a general strike, “to bring matters to a crisis”, but the violence that ensued was not “part of the programme.” Indeed, the tensions had been rising against Union Pacific, who by paying the Chinese lower wages, left the white miners at Rock Springs believing they were being robbed of their own decent wage. In addition, a strike against Union Pacific ten years earlier led the company to replace the mostly Cornish, Irish, Swedish and Welsh workers with Chinese strikebreakers. When the strike of ’75 was over, the company resumed mining with only 50 white miners, compared to 150 Chinese immigrants.

When things came to a head in 1885, there were 150 white miners and over 300 Chinese miners in Rock Springs. That summer many white miners were out of work, but Union Pacific was bringing in Chinese laborers by the dozens. In August, notices were posted from Evanston to Rock Springs demanding the expulsion of the Chinese, and on the night of September 1, white miners held a meeting. That next morning a fight broke out between ten white miners and Chinese laborers in the mine, resulting in two of the Chinese being badly beaten, one of whom would later die from his injuries. The white miners then walked out of the mine to strike against the company. More white miners were gathering in town for a Knights of Labor meeting, and thus the mob began to grow.

While some of the white miners chose to go to the saloons instead of taking part in what was coming, a Union Pacific official, anticipating trouble, convinced the saloons and grocers to close by early afternoon. About that time the mob of white miners, now armed, moved toward Chinatown with the explicit goal of driving out all Chinese immigrants from the town. The mob gave them an hour to leave and the Chinese, now in a panic, agreed. But the mob grew impatient and thinking that the Chinese were preparing to defend themselves, began to advance on them with “much shooting and shouting”.

here is wiki link...

Rock Springs massacre - Wikipedia

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The Rock Springs massacre, also known as the Rock Springs Riot, occurred on September 2, 1885, in the present-day United States city of Rock Springs in Sweetwater County, Wyoming. The riot, and resulting massacre of immigrant Chinese miners by white immigrant miners, was the result of racial prejudice toward the Chinese miners, who were perceived to be taking jobs from the white miners. The Union Pacific Coal Department found it economically beneficial to give preference in hiring to Chinese miners, who were willing to work for lower wages than their white counterparts, angering the white miners. When the rioting ended, at least 28 Chinese miners were dead and 15 were injured. Rioters burned 78 Chinese homes, resulting in approximately US$150,000 in property damage[1][2][3] ($4.27 million in present-day terms[4]).

 

[5fish]

Here is a link about the Chinese in California faces since 1848... in the 19th century...

https://theculturetrip.com/north-am...ory-of-anti-chinese-propaganda-in-california/

 

[O' Be Joyful]

Chinese Massacre at Deep Creek

Of the many crimes and injustices committed against early Chinese immigrants in the American West, what may have been the most brutal occurred at Deep Creek on…

www.oregonencyclopedia.org

Of the many crimes and injustices committed against early Chinese immigrants in the American West, what may have been the most brutal occurred at Deep Creek on the Oregon side of the Snake River in Hells Canyon. In May 1887, at what is now known as Chinese Massacre Cove, as many as thirty-four Chinese gold miners were ambushed and murdered by a gang of horse thieves and schoolboys from Wallowa County.
The crime was discovered when some of the bodies, thrown by the killers into the Snake River, were spotted near Lewiston, Idaho Territory, sixty-five miles to the north. News accounts reported that the bodies showed evidence of torture. The first accounts of the killings at Deep Creek reported that ten men had been murdered. While the focus intially was on this number, early news accounts suggested the number of victims was much higher.

The Sam Yup Company of San Francisco, employer of the Chinese miners, directed Lee Loi, who may have lived near where the bodies were found, to pursue the matter. Lee hired Lewiston judge Joseph K. Vincent to investigate the murders. Vincent reported his findings substantiating the basic details of the crime to the Chinese consulate in San Francisco, which unsuccessfully sought help from the U.S. State Department.
In March of 1888, one of the gang of killers, Frank Vaughan, confessed and turned state's evidence against the others.

 

[5fish]

U.S. State Department.

Was it the Indians or white miners/outlaws at China Gulch...

The No Place Project: China Gulch

www.noplaceproject.com

 

[5fish]

Of the many crimes and injustices committed against early Chinese immigrants in the American West,

Here an article with more details about that event...

The Lingering Injustice of Oregon’s Chinese Massacre

The Wallowa Mountains, which border Wallowa County. The mountains and Hell’s Canyon made the fertile Wallowa Valley relatively difficult to reach, so it was settled later than some other parts of E…

fhspost.com

snip... old files...

The members of the gang that remained in the county were prosecuted, but all were acquitted. They were tried for the murder of ten Chinese miners, an initially mistaken figure, based only on the number of bodies that washed ashore near Lewiston. Frank Vaughan, the only gang member to turn state’s evidence and testify against the others, shifted much of the blame for the killings toward those who had already left the county. Two investigations followed, one based out of Lewiston and one out of Wallowa County. Both half-hearted attempts to fi nd the missing fugitives failed. Evans’ fate is unknown, but Canfi eld may have returned to Wallowa County years later, likely to retrieve some of the buried gold. He later ran a profi table blacksmith’s shop in nearby Idaho, possibly using some of the gold from the Chinese as starter money.

snip... cover up...

It was not until 1995 that some of the court documents were rediscovered by a county clerk, having been hidden or misplaced in an old safe. Following a local news article on the documents, R. Gregory Nokes, a correspondent for the Oregonian, began an investigation into the crime. Ten years later, Nokes located the full trial record. “The records of the trial were hidden away, I finally found them in the planning commission vault in the county courthouse in enterprise… It’s clear that people had hidden everything away and they didn’t want people to know about it—they didn’t want history to know about it,” he said. Nokes wrote a book on his findings entitled Massacred for Gold, the most comprehensive account of the massacre yet. Nokes relied on primary historical accounts, legal documents, newspaper records, national archive materials, interviews, and other resources to complete his research.

 

[5fish]

The more you read about the Chinese in the west you see the Chinese Expulsion from numerous towns out west... Here a link to all the violence against Chinese in the west. It time a moment to work the map... interesting map... click the link...

https://www.tacomamethod.com/mapping-antichinese-violence

 

[5fish]

Oregon had some Chinese massagers... It seems native Americans did not like Chinese miners...

Chinese Massacres

Oregon's Chinese Heritage: A Legacy of Places.

ochalp.blogspot.com

Battle Creek Chinese Massacre. Baker County. According to a lone Chinese survivor, Piute Indians killed approximately 40 Chinese miners near Battle Creek in 1866. The name Battle Creek is attributed to a fight between two Native American groups in 1870. Reference: Edson, 1974: 13; McArthur, 1982: 44.

Chinese Massacre Cove. Wallowa County. Located near the confluence of Deep Creek and the Snake River in the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, Chinese Massacre Cove is the five acre site where 10 to 34 Chinese gold miners were robbed and murdered in 1887. The site was officially recognized and named by the U.S. Board of Geographic Names in 2005. Six Euro Americans were indicted with three escaping while in jail and the others being found not guilty. Reference: Nokes, 2009: 179-181.

Clearwater River Chinese Massacre. Douglas County. The Clearwater River, a 15 mile-long tributary of the North Umpqua River approximately 50 miles east of Roseburg, was the site of the massacre. Approximately 30 Chinese were killed in 1877 by a band of Native Americans. Reference: Penner, 1990: 27.

Jordan Creek Chinese Massacre. Malheur County. Jordan Creek in Jordan Valley was the location of the murder of approximately 50 Chinese who were travelling to the Owyhee mines in 1864. Paiute Indians were thought to have been the culprits. Reference: Hanley, 1980: 15, 53, 212; “History of Avalanche.”

 

[5fish]

Here another a little more detail about expelling Chinese from the Northwest...

Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest

www.washington.edu

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Tacoma's "Committee of Fifteen," (below) who were in charge of organizing the expulsion of the Chinese in 1885, included among its members some of the city's most prominent businessmen. One of them, James Wickersham, went on to become a federal judge. (Special Collections, University of Washington, Social Issues File Cb, neg. 1679.)

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White Tacomans had expressed concern over the Chinese population prior to the fall of 1885. Newspaper accounts had for months attacked the Chinese as sub-human and blamed them for virtually all the city's problems. One newspaperman wrote:

Why permit an army of leprous, prosperity-sucking, progress-blasting Asiatics befoul our thoroughfares, degrade the city, repel immigration, drive out our people, break up our homes, take employment from our countrymen, corrupt the morals of our youth, establish opium joints, buy or steal the babe of poverty or slave, and taint with their brothels the lives of our young men?...If no other method of keeping them at a distance from our people can be found, let the citizens furnish them with lots on the waterfront, three fathoms below low tide.​

Here is much more in the article but the last paragraph the locals realize the Chinese were good for local businesses...

 

[diane]

Here the Chinese miners were disliked - the white miners went for the gold and the Chinese went for the jade, which to them was more valuable. The Kanakas also had some trouble - they were Hawaiian miners. However, the Chinese and Hawaiians didn't do murders and rapes, so they didn't get killed by Indians as much. They had to get out of town at sundown the same way any other person of color had to do. The town here has done a huge obliteration of their presence during mining times - they have a Chinese cemetery with one person in it, and all of old Chinatown was razed to put in the freeway. The last remnant was a curious old house with up-sloping corners on the roof and bamboo-like porch railing - that was the home of the family who first set up a business inside town - Chinese restaurant. It's very belated to try to preserve the Chinese history here - but at least something is better than nothing at all.

 

[5fish]

Here a good article about Chinese coming to American and being driven away...

‘Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans’ (Published 2007)

“Dreaming of wealth on ‘Gold Mountain,’ as California came to be known, Chinese villagers sold their fields or fishing boats, or borrowed money to sail to California.”

www.nytimes.com