Sometimes it takes a bit of math to understand history. Its 1845, there were ~15,000 nonindigenous people in California. In the next 5 years 20,000 hard working young men sailed over from China (with resources, as there was a toll for the trip). To the “powers who wanted to be” there were grumblings, taxes, rights stripped (Fremont conquered in 1846)
but the evidence was astounding.: Chinese immigration was real! After the building of the transcontinental railroad, it became even more apparent that Chinese immigration to the West Coast might swamp that of Europe and the eastern U.S. In 1892 the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, the 1st ever (and still only) law passed against a cultural, national group. In the Northwest this led to a “black market” of smuggled Chinese (from Victoria and Vancouver) arriving by ship into Milltown, 5 miles from this Farm. Local logging companies needed track laid; farms needed labor; Douglas Fir stumps could only be removed by even harder labor. On a bluff above Milltown (Trophy Lane, 6 miles north of the Farm) stood a house called the “Castle.” Ships arriving with Chinese could not see trailing Coast Guard Cutters “over the horizon” (because of the curvature of the earth), but the Castle could! If a light was seen burning in the Castle’s 3rd floor window, a ship was scuttled to the handcuffed Chinese doom. If not, they were off-loaded and purchased for a month’s serf’s “transportation fee” (“renters” would ride down Milltown Road to a concrete bunker, look down into the holding pen, and select among the huddled Chinese). 1882 to 1920, it was a different time, perhaps.
https://www.archives.gov/research/chinese-americans/guide
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/chinese-immigration
https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2021/01/chinese-americans-gold-rush/
https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/422db624-ef6a-4557-bc26-800640bf536c/content
The only U.S. law ever to be passed specifically targeting a cultural and national group of immigrants singled out:
Norwegians
Ukrainian Jews
Chinese
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