“Meat vs Rice -- American Manhood vs Asiatic Coolieism. Which will survive?” Punchinello, Vol 1, No. 17, July 23, 1870
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“You sturdy tillers of the soil, |
“MEN FROM CHINA come here to do LAUNDRY WORK.
Every one doing this work takes BREAD from the mouths of OUR WOMEN.”
- Pioneer Laundry Workers Assembly, 1878
“Job competition became fierce… the American workers became desperate.
They formed labor parties such as the Workingmen’s Party of California
which was led by Denis Kearney, a very persuasive speaker.”
- Ruthanne Lum McCunn, author of An Illustrated History of Chinese in America
“The Chinese are coming. How can we get rid of them? How can we stop them? A nation has a right to do everything that can secure it from threatening danger and to keep at a distance whatever is capable of causing its ruin.
We have a great right to say to the half-civilized subject from Asia, You shall not come at all.”
- H.N. Clement, San Francisco lawyer, 1876
A Statue for Our Harbor.” from The Wasp, Nov. 11, 1881.
Courtesy of San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library |
Advertisement for arsenic to rid houses of unwanted pests
Courtesy of New York Public Library |
“Featuring a stereotypical image of the Chinese male coolie in place of the Statue of Liberty, the cartoon suggests that while New York’s statue represented the promise of (European) immigration, California's state symbolized how Chinese immigration would overrun the West and destroy the nation itself .” |
“American labor could not compete with Chinese workers, who can sleep in twenty feet of cubic space, who can live on a dead rat and |
“Who have built a filthy nest of iniquity and rottenness in our midst? The Chinese. Who filled our workshops to the exclusion of white labor? The Chinese. Who drives away white labors by their stealthy but successful competition? The Chinese.”
- San Francisco Chronicle, 1873
“Politicians used Chinese immigration as a smokescreen for genuine national problems: economic depression, mass poverty and growing unemployment.
They used this tactic to ensnare the working people's support by passing this law
'in defense and advocacy of the interests of the laboring classes.'”
- Andrew Gyory, author of Closing the Gate: Race, Politics, and the Chinese Exclusion Act
“I fear that some of the supporters of the anti-Chinese bills do not act from principle, but are seeking under cover of this bill, to promote some ulterior and selfish end, such as
their own re-election or their possible nomination for the Presidency.”
- Kwong Ki Chiu, a Chinese scholar residing in Connecticut, April 29, 1882