Questions | Capital District | Chinese Communities
The Push of Prejudice: Chinese Migration to New York
Document 5
“…The anti-Chinese racial hatred in Chico in 1877 was the cause of a great deal of trouble. Citizens in Chico who employed Chinese, received letters like this.
To General Bidwell:
Sir: Get rid of your Chinese help within the next two months or suffer the consequence, let this be enough…”
“…The feeling against the Chinese had become so bitter it finally ended in murder. My wife’s uncle, Chris Lemm had a piece of land he wanted cleared and he made a contract with the Chinese to clear it. The land was on Big Chico Creek about two miles east of Chico and extended to the main road leading to the mountains.
On the thirteenth of March, 1877, after their day’s work was over and they had had supper they lay down on their bunks which were in a row. About nine o’clock five men and a boy came to the Chinese camp. They pulled their revolvers and ordered the Chinese to sit on the foot of their bunks, which were about one foot off the ground. Two of the men searched the camp and got a few dollars, then they placed themselves each in front of a Chinaman and at the word fired. One did not fire as quickly as the others and a Chinaman who was to be shot threw up his hands and the bullet just grazed his arm. This Chinaman fell back on his bunk and made believe he was dead. After firing the fiends poured coal oil on the blankets which they took from the beds and put in a pile and set fire to them and then hurried away. The Chinaman, who was wounded, threw a blanket over the fire and extinguished it. Then he ran to the Lemm home. My wife was there and she said he struck the porch with a bound and banged on the door, waking all in the house. …”
Document 5: Excerpts from Moak, Sim. "California as I Saw It": First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900; American Memory, Library of Congress. Online at http://www.loc.gov/index.html.
Document 5 Short-Answer Questions
- What was the first sign that anti-Chinese hatred was beginning to cause trouble in the town of Chico California?
- What occurred in the Chinese camp on the Lemm property?
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