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This Bittersweet Soil: The Chinese in California Agriculture, 1860-1910
Sucheng Chan
1986
Library-of-Congress HD.8039.F32.U62.1986
503pp.
ISBN 0520053761 or 9780520053762
Author's wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucheng...
Chinese people had an effect on California agriculture disproportionate to their numbers and tenure. They pioneered the labor-intensive vegetable- and fruit-cultivation that would dominate California agriculture. They reclaimed Sacramento/San Joachim delta land. Their sense of community made them particularly useful: a Chinese labor contractor would arrange for enough workers to be at the farm for the harvest. Most were laborers, but there were contractors and tenant farmers and professionals among them.
Chan did the work to unearth the facts of where, who, how many, what they did. It required pleading for access to records buried in county courthouses throughout the state (successfully, in all but one county). Chan's interviews, 1979 to 1981, with surviving elders in their 70s, 80s, and 90s, in the one remaining Chinese agricultural community, can't be repeated. pp. 487-488.
Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country that was never colonized. p. 13.
From about 1841 to 1900, 2.5 million Chinese, mostly from near Canton, emigrated to all over the world. p. 16. 200,000 to California. p. 37. They had been on the edge of survival anyway; imperialism, including the opium wars, worsened conditions in China, opened opportunities elsewhere, and brought ships to take emigrants.
The end of African slavery gave rise to the coolie trade: mostly to Peru and Cuba. p. 21. It cost $120 to $170 to secure a coolie and ship him to Latin America. If alive, he was there sold for $350 to $400. p. 23.
After 1867 most trans-Pacific travel was by steamship. p. 26. 4500-5000 miles in 33-34 days. p. 27.
Chinese immigration and opposition to it helped to consolidate the white labor movement in California and probably elsewhere too. p. 30.
Spaniards between 1769 and 1821 built 21 missions from San Diego to Sonoma, and the pueblos and presidios of Los Angeles, Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Jose, and San Francisco. p. 33.
6,000 aspiring miners appeared in California in 1848, and 100,000 from all over, in 1849. p. 35.
By 1866, 80% of Central Pacific Railroad workers were Chinese. p. 38. Transcontinental line complete, 1869. p. 39.
Economic depressions fueled anti-Chinese hostilities. p. 39.
Chinese were excluded from entering the U.S. from 1882-1943, except merchants, students, diplomats, and temporary travelers. p. 41. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese... A despised and unwanted minority. p. 73. Few Chinese women were in the U.S. in 1882; fewer came thereafter. pp. 77-78, 387, 389. In the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, only six Chinese farmers out of over 400 in the area in 1900 had wives living with them. p. 395. Except for the Delta, by the late 1920s there were few Chinese farmers or farm laborers left anywhere because the population that remained grew old, their children did not wish to continue in farming, and other groups--particularly the Japanese, the Italians, and various European immigrants--quickly displaced them from California's fields and orchards. p. 402.
California's employers reaped the benefits of having laborers who came full grown, the cost of whose nurturance had been borne by families and villagers in China and not by communities in America. p. 330.
Compare total CA population
https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i...
California was 9% Chinese, 1860-1880; by 1900 only 3% Chinese. pp. 48-49.
The manuscript schedules of the 1890 census were lost in a fire. p. 52.
Sacramento flooded in 1850, 1852, 1853, 1862, and 1867. The railroad built an adequate levee in the 1870s. p. 102.
The use of a seasonal, migratory labor force has been one of the salient characteristics of agricultural production in the golden state. California Indians (1833-1846 p. 275), Chinese, Japanese (Japanese tenantcy exceeded Chinese beginning 1905, p. 380), Asian Indians, Filipinos, and Chicanos in turn have served as the backbone of California's migratory labor force. Only briefly during the 1930s did large numbers of white people enter California's migratory stream, when refugees from the Dust Bowl--the Okies and the Arkies--came to find work in the state's fields and orchards and thereby engendered great public concern. But after many of them were absorbed into the industrial labor force during World War II, public consciousness of migrant farm laborers waned once again, not to be awakened until more than two decades later when Cesar Chavez made their plight into a cause to shame the nation. pp. 272-273.
"The Chinese cook I have now has been with me nearly two years, is about 18 years of age, a good plain cook, washer and ironer, churns, takes care of pigs and poultry, harnesses my buggy horse, herds stock, is handy with carpenters' tools, or paint brush, is very quick to learn anything; can kill and dress a hog and take care of the meat and lard as well as any professional butcher. If I leave my home and there is any money in the house I give it into his charge. I pay him $20 per month. I do not believe the Chinese usurp the place of white labor; they fill a want that cannot be otherwise supplied. I find my China boy honest and with principles that would do credit to a Christian." --Martha, a farmer near Stockton, California, 1876. pp. 364-365.
In agricultural California, tenant farmers, merchants, and labor contractors, who constituted the rural elite, seldom exceeded 15% of the Chinese population; professionals and artisans only 1% to 3%; laborers and providers of personal service, who worked for both Chinese and whites, made up over 80% of the Chinese in agricultural regions. p. 404. In San Francisco and Sacramento from about 1870 to 1900, 40+% of the Chinese were entrepreneurs, 5 to 12% professionals and artisans; the working class less than half of the urban Chinese population.
Sucheng Chan is brilliant. Perceptive, has read all that academics have written on the subject, has discovered that much of it was wrong, a good writer, a persistent researcher. This is a quick 400 pages plus endmatter, many photos and tables, several maps.
Sucheng Chan
1986
Library-of-Congress HD.8039.F32.U62.1986
503pp.
ISBN 0520053761 or 9780520053762
Author's wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucheng...
Chinese people had an effect on California agriculture disproportionate to their numbers and tenure. They pioneered the labor-intensive vegetable- and fruit-cultivation that would dominate California agriculture. They reclaimed Sacramento/San Joachim delta land. Their sense of community made them particularly useful: a Chinese labor contractor would arrange for enough workers to be at the farm for the harvest. Most were laborers, but there were contractors and tenant farmers and professionals among them.
Chan did the work to unearth the facts of where, who, how many, what they did. It required pleading for access to records buried in county courthouses throughout the state (successfully, in all but one county). Chan's interviews, 1979 to 1981, with surviving elders in their 70s, 80s, and 90s, in the one remaining Chinese agricultural community, can't be repeated. pp. 487-488.
Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country that was never colonized. p. 13.
From about 1841 to 1900, 2.5 million Chinese, mostly from near Canton, emigrated to all over the world. p. 16. 200,000 to California. p. 37. They had been on the edge of survival anyway; imperialism, including the opium wars, worsened conditions in China, opened opportunities elsewhere, and brought ships to take emigrants.
The end of African slavery gave rise to the coolie trade: mostly to Peru and Cuba. p. 21. It cost $120 to $170 to secure a coolie and ship him to Latin America. If alive, he was there sold for $350 to $400. p. 23.
After 1867 most trans-Pacific travel was by steamship. p. 26. 4500-5000 miles in 33-34 days. p. 27.
Chinese immigration and opposition to it helped to consolidate the white labor movement in California and probably elsewhere too. p. 30.
Spaniards between 1769 and 1821 built 21 missions from San Diego to Sonoma, and the pueblos and presidios of Los Angeles, Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Jose, and San Francisco. p. 33.
6,000 aspiring miners appeared in California in 1848, and 100,000 from all over, in 1849. p. 35.
By 1866, 80% of Central Pacific Railroad workers were Chinese. p. 38. Transcontinental line complete, 1869. p. 39.
Economic depressions fueled anti-Chinese hostilities. p. 39.
Chinese were excluded from entering the U.S. from 1882-1943, except merchants, students, diplomats, and temporary travelers. p. 41. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese... A despised and unwanted minority. p. 73. Few Chinese women were in the U.S. in 1882; fewer came thereafter. pp. 77-78, 387, 389. In the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, only six Chinese farmers out of over 400 in the area in 1900 had wives living with them. p. 395. Except for the Delta, by the late 1920s there were few Chinese farmers or farm laborers left anywhere because the population that remained grew old, their children did not wish to continue in farming, and other groups--particularly the Japanese, the Italians, and various European immigrants--quickly displaced them from California's fields and orchards. p. 402.
California's employers reaped the benefits of having laborers who came full grown, the cost of whose nurturance had been borne by families and villagers in China and not by communities in America. p. 330.
Fraction of U.S. immigrants from China: p. 42
1861-1870 . 2.7%
1871-1880 . 4.4%
1881-1890 . 1.2%
1891-1900 . 0.4%
Number of Chinese in California & U.S. (thousands) p. 42
. . .. CA . .. U.S.
1860 . 35
1870 . 49 . . . 63
1880 . 75 . .. 105
1890 . 72 . .. 107
1900 . 46 . . . 90
Monthly wages of white year-round farm laborers in U.S. regions. p. 330.
. . . . . . .. 1869 . . 1879
California .. 46.38 .. 41.00
West not CA . 27.01 .. 20.38
East . . . .. 32.08 .. 20.21
Midwest. . .. 28.02 .. 19.69
South . . . . 17.21 .. 13.31
California Chinese agricultural laborers received about two-thirds of white wages for the same work: about $26 per month. p. 330. A farmer's wife in 1877 complained that Chinese would not work for less than $1 a day. White wages were $1.50. pp. 330-331. Chinese fruit-pickers successfully struck for a higher share of the fruit harvest in Santa Clara County in 1880, and Chinese hop-pickers struck in Kern County in 1884. After exclusion, labor scarcity enabled Chinese farm laborers to demand and receive $1.50/day by 1890. pp. 332-333.
Canned fruit pack, million 24-can cases
1857 . First cannery in San Francisco
1876 . 0.3
1888 . 1.2
Irrigated square miles in California p. 324
1880 .. 547
1890 . 1569
1900 . 2260
1910 . 4163
Compare total CA population
https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i...
California was 9% Chinese, 1860-1880; by 1900 only 3% Chinese. pp. 48-49.
The manuscript schedules of the 1890 census were lost in a fire. p. 52.
Sacramento flooded in 1850, 1852, 1853, 1862, and 1867. The railroad built an adequate levee in the 1870s. p. 102.
The use of a seasonal, migratory labor force has been one of the salient characteristics of agricultural production in the golden state. California Indians (1833-1846 p. 275), Chinese, Japanese (Japanese tenantcy exceeded Chinese beginning 1905, p. 380), Asian Indians, Filipinos, and Chicanos in turn have served as the backbone of California's migratory labor force. Only briefly during the 1930s did large numbers of white people enter California's migratory stream, when refugees from the Dust Bowl--the Okies and the Arkies--came to find work in the state's fields and orchards and thereby engendered great public concern. But after many of them were absorbed into the industrial labor force during World War II, public consciousness of migrant farm laborers waned once again, not to be awakened until more than two decades later when Cesar Chavez made their plight into a cause to shame the nation. pp. 272-273.
"The Chinese cook I have now has been with me nearly two years, is about 18 years of age, a good plain cook, washer and ironer, churns, takes care of pigs and poultry, harnesses my buggy horse, herds stock, is handy with carpenters' tools, or paint brush, is very quick to learn anything; can kill and dress a hog and take care of the meat and lard as well as any professional butcher. If I leave my home and there is any money in the house I give it into his charge. I pay him $20 per month. I do not believe the Chinese usurp the place of white labor; they fill a want that cannot be otherwise supplied. I find my China boy honest and with principles that would do credit to a Christian." --Martha, a farmer near Stockton, California, 1876. pp. 364-365.
In agricultural California, tenant farmers, merchants, and labor contractors, who constituted the rural elite, seldom exceeded 15% of the Chinese population; professionals and artisans only 1% to 3%; laborers and providers of personal service, who worked for both Chinese and whites, made up over 80% of the Chinese in agricultural regions. p. 404. In San Francisco and Sacramento from about 1870 to 1900, 40+% of the Chinese were entrepreneurs, 5 to 12% professionals and artisans; the working class less than half of the urban Chinese population.
Sucheng Chan is brilliant. Perceptive, has read all that academics have written on the subject, has discovered that much of it was wrong, a good writer, a persistent researcher. This is a quick 400 pages plus endmatter, many photos and tables, several maps.
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