*This episode discusses child abuse, human trafficking, and prostitution.
A Mui Tsai in San Francisco (image credit: Stanford Special Collections / California State Library)“I was nineteen when this man came to my mother and said that in America there was a great deal of gold. Even if I just peeled potatoes there, he told my mother, I would earn seven or eight dollars a day, and if I was willing to do any work at all I would earn lots of money. He was a laundryman, but said he earned plenty of money. He was very nice to me, and my mother liked him, so my mother was glad to have me go with him as his wife. I thought I was his wife, and was very grateful that he was taking me to such a grand, free country, where everyone was rich and happy.”
–Wong Ah SoWhile Chinese men flocked to “Gold Mountain,” many families in the “Celestial Empire” struggled for survival, and girls were the least valuable members. Sometimes they were sold away, and ended up in the United States as prostitutes. But they found refuge in organizations like the Women’s Occidental Board of Missions, led by Donaldina Cameron.
Eventually, Chinese men were able to bring their wives, and San Francisco’s Chinatown became a community of families. The demands of home life kept working-class wives very busy. But middle-class Chinese women formed societies that gave them the opportunity to not only socialize, but develop leadership skills, and advocate for issues that were important to them, including suffrage.
Emma Leung and Clara Lee were the first Chinese women to register to vote in the US. (Also pictured, Tom Leung, Dr. Charles Lee, and Deputy County Clerk W.B. Smith)Additional Reading:
Tye Leung and Charles Schulze, an Untold Angel Island Love Story
The White Devil’s Daughters: The Women Who Fought Slavery in San Francisco’s Daughters by Julia Siler
Unbound Voices: A Documentary History of Chinese Women in San Francisco, Judy Yung
Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco
“Is it a disgrace to be born a Chinese?” (Chinese Immigration, Part 3)
“The Chinese were in a pitiable condition …” (Chinese Immigration, Part 1)
“We were all of us children of polygamous parents.” (Elinore Rupert, Part 13)
“Your pork and beans must be out of a can.” (Elinore Rupert, Part 12)
“…She gave him a dose of morphine and whiskey.” (Elinore Rupert, Part 11)
“The old sorrow is not so keen now.” (Elinore Rupert, Part 10)
“They told us the Indian ways were bad.” (US Indian Policy: Violence, Displacement, and Assimilation)
“Horse-thieves and desperate men seemed too remote…” (Elinore Rupert, Part 9)
“See that shack over yonder?” (Women Homesteaders)
“… We were almost starved.” (Elinore Rupert, Part 8)
“A very angry Aggie strode in.” (Elinore Rupert, Part 7)
“The wind was shrieking, howling, and roaring.” (Elinore Rupert, Part 6)
“The ‘rheumatiz’ would get all the money …” (Elinore Rupert, Part 5)
“I had a confession to make …” (Elinore Rupert, Part 4)
“I am making a wedding dress.” (Elinore Rupert, Part 3)
“Such a snowstorm I never saw!” (Elinore Rupert, Part 2)
“Everything is just lovely for me.” (Elinore Rupert, Part 1)
“They’re going to bomb us!” (Mine Wars, Part 3)
“They hit me and threw me down.” (Mine Wars, Part 2)
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