User:Yellowtailshark/Asian Americans in U.S. History

After becoming fascinated with the selection process for deciding who would be the face of Asian Americans on the Wikipedia article, Asian American, one editor brought up an excellent point: Are we putting too much focus on fame and not enough on historical significance? That question led me to a transcontinental train of thought (Asian American reference!): If there was a Time Magazine's Person of the Year given for Asian Americans for every calendar year since Asians first settled in America, who would it be? Who would best represent what was happening to Asian Americans at that time?

I'm putting together a narrative of my research, and by no means are these academically verifiable (yet), but if I had a list of 100 Asian Americans and be able to tell a continuous, compelling historical narrative using their names as examples, it might make for an interesting book (and published books require rigorous standards in verifying information, and adherence to copyright law). I wanted to post updates as I go along just because I have friends whom we share interest in things Asian American.

Colonial America
I decided to begin from first arrival in America.

There were Manila men, Filipino sailors, who part of Spanish expeditions during the late 16th century along the West Coast of the North American continent. One galleon arrived in 1763 in New Orleans, Louisiana (a French colony that became part of New Spain) but unfortunately in all of these circumstances there were no specific names.

One Filipino, Antonio Miranda Rodriguez, was an early settler of Los Angeles around 1781. Although he was chosen to be part of the founding group, he was delayed and arrived only a bit later. John Mando, a Manilla man, in 1789, arrived in Sitka Harbor as a cabin steward aboard the Gustavus III.

Early National Era
There was also mention of Asian Indians arriving in the United States in 1790, but there weren't any specific names.

Francisco Flores was a cabin boy, arriving in Texas, New Spain, in 1822 and eventually settling in Port Isabel with a fishing business, but portraits.

Gold Rush
It was difficult finding any information on Asians in America up until the Gold Rush in the mid-19th century, when Chinese from Canton (now Guangdong) ventured to California to try to strike it rich, as well as escape turmoil caused by civil war, British imperialism, and typhoons. In 1849, there were only 791 Chinese in California. By 1852, the number would swell to 25,000. One notable was Yee Fung Chung, an herbalist who treated Jane Stanford who was dying of a pulmonary disorder, the wife to Governor Leland Stanford (and guess which university is named after him???). But unfortunately, no portrait.

Chinese women were few during this period. For example, in 1852, there were 804 Chinese males and only 10 Chinese females in Sacramento. And generally the women were prostitutes. Like the Chinese men, they had to work off their debts assumed from having to pay fare to cross the Pacific. Among the most well-known was Ah Toy, who became a madame in San Francisco. There aren't any clear portraits of her, but I managed to find some related images.

There was also Yee Ah Tye, who eventually rose to a position of leadership of the Sze Yup Association in San Francisco. The Sze Yup Association would welcome new Chinese immigrants, house them and help them find work. Consider that during this time, a number of anti-Chinese laws were established in California, including a Foreign Miner Tax which specifically targeted Chinese to pay taxes on the gold they mined, and laws that prevented Chinese from testifying against Whites in court. This allowed murders of Chinese by non-Chinese to go unpunished. Therefore the establishment of Chinatowns, such as the ones in San Francisco and Sacramento, afforded some sense of mutual aid among the Chinese in a hostile environment.

Finally, there were mention of Manila men found at the mining camp of Tulitos, but no specific names.

Civil War Era
At the start of the U.S. Civil War in 1861, about 200 Chinese resided east of the Mississippi River. The war was principally fought along the Atlantic seaboard. There were Chinese on both the Union side as well as the Confederate side. Some of the Chinese who fought on the Confederate side were escaped coolies, who were conscripted into the Confederate Army. Coolies, essentially Chinese slaves, were shipped from China to the Caribbeans, notably Cuba, during the "Coolie Trade" period that began during the 1840s and 1850s. Some laborers signed contracts based on misleading promises, some were kidnapped, some were victims of clan violence whose captors sold them to coolie brokers, while others sold themselves to pay off gambling debts. From 1847 to 1862, most of the laborers bound for Cuba were shipped on American vessels and numbered about 600,000 per year. In 1862, Congress passed a law, and California passed the Anti-Coolie Act, which began to prohibit the procurement of coolies from China, which was motivated primarily to appease the crowds of anti-Chinese sentiment arising during economic recession during the 1850s that found White laborers facing employment competition against the Chinese. (See Coolie and Anti-Coolie Act.)

Out of all the Chinese Americans that were mentioned in the Civil War, two had photos. The first is Edward Day Cohota. A child stowaway aboard the merchant ship Cohota in 1845, he was adopted by the ship's captain, Sargeant S. Day, and together they sailed from Shanghai to Massachusetts. Day retired in 1857, and Edward attended school and was treated like a brother by the other Day children. During the Civil War, he joined the 23rd Massachusetts Infantry. After the war, he was stationed at Fort Randall in Dakota Territory. He served in the U.S. Army for 30 years, but failing to submit his naturalization papers before the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, he was unable to gain citizenship. Cohota died in 1935 in Hot Springs, South Dakota.

Joseph Pierce was brought to the United States from China by his adoptive father, Connecticut ship Captain Amos Peck. Pierce enlisted on July 26, 1862 and was mustered into the Fourteenth Regiment, Company F of the Connecticut Volunteer Infantry that became part of the Second Brigade of the Third Division, Second Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac. From 1862 to 1865, Pierce unknowingly participated in what turned out to be many of the pivotal military events of the war, fighting in major campaigns from Antietam to Gettysburg to Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House. He survived some of the bloodiest battles of the war and is believed to have achieved the highest rank of any Chinese American to serve in the Union Army, having reached the rank of Corporal. (See Military history of Asian Americans.)

Readings

 * "The First Asian Americans", Asian-Nation.org
 * "Reflections on the Chinese Immigrant Experience in Gold Mountain" by Rachelle Chong
 * "Asian American History Timeline", Ancestors in the Americas
 * "A historical perspective of Americans of Asian Indian origin" by Srirajasekhar Bobby Koritala
 * "Brief History of American Response to Immigration", Immigration News Daily