Driven out : the forgotten war against Chinese Americans / Jean Pfaelzer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pfaelzer, Jean.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Chinese Americans--California--History--19th century.

Chinese Americans.

Chinese Americans--Crimes against--California--History--19th century.

Chinese Americans--Relocation--California--History--19th century.

Racism--California--History--19th century.

Racism.

Violence--California--History--19th century.

Violence.

Forced migration--California--History--19th century.

Forced migration.

Ethnic neighborhoods.

History.

Race relations.

California--Race relations--History--19th century.

California.

Ethnic neighborhoods--California--History--19th century.

California--History, Local.

Local history.

Genre:

History.

Local history.

Physical Description:

xxix, 400 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Random House, [2007]

Summary:

The brutal and systematic "ethnic cleansing" of Chinese-Americans in California and the Pacific Northwest in the second half of the 19th century is a shocking and virtually unexplored chapter of American history. Driven Out unearths this forgotten episode in our nation's past. Drawing on years of groundbreaking research, Jean Pfaelzer reveals how, beginning in 1849, lawless citizens and duplicitous politicians purged dozens of communities of thousands of Chinese residents -- and how the victims bravely fought back. In town after town, as races and classes were pitted against one another in the raw and anarchic West, Chinese miners and merchants, lumberjacks and field workers, prostitutes and merchants' wives, were gathered up at gunpoint and marched out of their homes, sometimes thrown into railroad cars along the very tracks they had built. Here, in vivid detail, are unforgettable incidents such as the torching of the Chinatown in Antioch, California, after Chinese prostitutes were accused of giving seven white boys syphilis, and a series of lynchings in Los Angeles bizarrely provoked by a Chinese wedding. From the Port of Seattle to the mining towns in California's Siskiyou Mountains to "Nigger Alley" in Los Angeles, the first Chinese-Americans were hanged, purged, and banished. Chinatowns across the West were burned to the ground. - Jacket flap.

Chronicles the systematic attempts to purge Chinese enclaves across the West from the Gold Rush era to the turn of the twentieth century, documenting the efforts of the Chinese Americans to achieve reparations and attain rights.

Contents:

List of illustrations

Introduction : The Chinese called it Pai Hua, or The driven out

1. Gold! : "Peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must"

2. Dead branches

3. The woman's tale : "In case I should be kidnapped"

4. The Eureka method : "We have no Chinese"

5. The Truckee method : fire and ice

6. The Chinese rewrite the letter of the law

7. A litany of hate : the 1880s

8. The dog tag law

Conclusion : "No place for a Chinaman"

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 353-387) and index.

Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature - Adult Nonfiction, Winner, 2007-2008

Other Format:

Online version: Pfaelzer, Jean. Driven out.

ISBN:

1400061342

9781400061341

OCLC:

71779102

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description