#jean pfaelzer

[california-slow-take]

By looking west to California, Jean Pfaelzer shifts our understanding of slavery as a North-South struggle and focuses on how those who were enslaved in California fought, fled, and resisted human bondage. In unyielding research and vivid interviews, Pfaelzer exposes how California's appetite for slavery persists today in the trafficking in human beings who are lured by promises of jobs but who instead are imprisoned in sweatshops or remote marijuana fields, or are sold as nannies or sex workers.

Pfaelzer relates the history of slavery in California across its entire spectrum, from indentured Native American ranch hands in the Spanish missions, children sent to Indian boarding schools, Black miners, kidnapped Chinese prostitutes, and convict laborers to the victims of modern human trafficking, and she argues that California owes its origins and sunny prosperity to slavery. Spanish invaders captured Indigenous people to build and farm the chain of Catholic missions. Russian otter hunters shipped Alaskan Natives down to the California coast—the first slaves to be transported to California. The Russians also launched the Pacific slave trade with China. Southern plantation slaves were marched across the plains to help their owners mine during the Gold Rush. San Quentin Prison was the incubator for California’s carceral state. Kidnapped Chinese girls were sold to caged brothels in early San Francisco. And Indian boarding schools supplied farms and hotels with unfree child workers. 

Pfaelzer's provocative history of slavery in California could rewrite people's understanding of the settling of the West, and redefine the actual paths to eventual freedom for many Americans.

[demospectator]

Fresno Chinatown, c. 1880. Photographer unknown.

The Armed Chinatown of Fresno

For this short roadtrip away from San Francisco, this brief paragraph from the Stockton Independent newspaper of September 15, 1879, mentioning “guns, pistols and daggers” illustrates the seriousness with which early Chinese Americans in Fresno, California, and other rural Chinatowns addressed external threats to their lives and livelihoods. This included threats from the then-surging Workingmen’s Party, led by notorious demagogue, xenophobe and racist agitator Denis Kearney.

from the "Valley Items" column published in the Stockton Independent newspaper of September 15, 1879.

In the 1870s Kearney began denouncing Chinese immigrants as the cause of white workers’ economic woes. By 1878, he frequently gave violent speeches against Chinese at San Francisco’s Sandlot forum, blaming them for white labor problems. His movement propelled his party to the 1879 California Constitutional Convention where various anti-Chinese laws, including a ban on employing Chinese laborers, were enacted. Kearney also took credit for nationalizing the debate over Chinese immigration to the US, culminating in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

Dennis Kearney (1847-1907), Irish-American political leader, influential in the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

As recounted in more detail by author Jean Pfaelzer in her book, Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans, (pub. Random House) rural Chinatowns throughout California became targets of economic boycotts and vigilante violence. Fresno’s Chinatown, established during the construction of railroad lines after the Transcontinental Railroad’s completion in 1869, was not immune from persecution by white agitators. Despite it’s the residents arming themselves, possibly for deterrence, the community faced vigilante violence in the next decade.

The Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 did little to calm rural California and its unemployed white workers. In 1886, an anti-Chinese economic boycott movement began in Truckee. Fresno’s local anti-Chinese club set up a whites-only employment office, attracting four hundred men. However, during the early spring planting season near Fresno, vineyard and fruit growers in the Fresno area rejected the boycott, stating that it was “absolutely impossible” to obtain white labor. The troubles in Fresno represented a symptom of the violence and roundup of Chinese Americans throughout California during the latter half of the 19th century, when Chinese were literally driven out rural areas to concentrate in the state’s cities, particularly San Francisco.

A map showing more than 200 incidents of rounding up Chinese in California for expulsions during 1849 to 1906.

Rather than calm the hostility by whites against Chinese, the congressional enactments of the 1882 Act and its 10-year extension, the Geary Act of 1892, seemed to foment more anti-Chinese boycotts, violence, and expulsions.

In Fresno, anti-Chinese violence peaked in the summer of 1893, when deliberately-set fires in Fresno destroyed several mills and packinghouses, not all of which employed Chinese workers. White workers demanded that merchants fire their Chinese workers. Fearing the mob, several packinghouse and vineyard owners complied and fired their Chinese workers. Many Chinese field-workers sought protection in Fresno’s Chinatown, which continued to provide refuge from mob violence.

Detail from Fresno Chinatown's main street, c. 1880.

On August 15, rioters invaded vineyards near Fresno, and another white mob raided the Fracher Creek Nursery, capturing Chinese workers, stealing their money and belongings, and bludgeoning one man to death. The mob marched the Chinese nursery workers toward Fresno in the valley heat until the sheriff intervened and released them. That same week, Chinese packers at the nearby Earl Fruit Company were forced onto a train to Fresno and given five days to leave the county. Gangs forced more Chinese men out of local vineyards and destroyed their tent camps. Hundreds of unemployed white workers and vagrants milled around Fresno’s streets, watching the Chinese depart. The roundups and expulsions of Chinese workers did not solve the massive unemployment crisis. Even after the purges, few jobs were available for whites. Hunger exacerbated the riots. By late August, Fresno’s Presbyterian church was providing eight hundred meals nightly to white men, some of whom had not eaten for days. The city council’s plan to give meal tickets to “idle men” for cleaning alleys failed due to a lack of funds.

The roundups and expulsions of Chinese did not solve the crisis of massive unemployment. Even after the purges, there were few jobs for whites. Hunger exacerbated the riots. Toward the end of August, Fresno’s Presbyterian church was nightly providing eight hundred meals to white men, some of whom had not eaten for days. The city council’s plan to give meal tickets to “idle men” for cleaning alleys failed when it ran out of money. The supervisors moved some of the “tramps and ruffians” out of town by forming them into chain gangs to clear roads or do field work.

The temple in old Fresno Chinatown, c. 1880. This detail from a larger photo appears to depict the Chee Kung Tong temple at 939 G Street, which was built in the early 1880's with contributions from the tong. The temple housed a wooden altar reportedly carved in 1869 in China. The two-story brick structure contained a meeting hall on the first floor. Lodgings wer located next door. The joss house was closed to the public in 1936 and later used by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Society. The structure no longer exists.

The purge of Chinese workers from California’s fields, citrus groves, and orchards worsened the economic situation. Fresno’s labor bureau had over six hundred men seeking work, but farmers and nurserymen knew their crops would perish if unskilled laborers replaced the skilled Chinese workers, such as fruit tree "budders." Banks closed, and local stores went out of business.

Roundups of Chinese residents continued into the following year, often with judicial sanction. In May 1894, the Del Rio Rey Vineyard in Fresno replaced its white employees with Chinese workers. Within days, dynamite bombs were found under the bunkhouses. The new Chinese workers fled in response to the terrorism, but no arrests were made. Today’s diaspora communities across the US could learn from these pioneers who, contrary to passive stereotypes, were prepared to protect themselves by any means necessary. This was just one small railroad Chinatown arming itself in difficult times.

New Year's celebration and parade in Fresno, California, c. 1900. Some researchers have speculated that the dragon shown in this photo was the well-known Marysville Chinatown dragon which appeared all over California during this period.

Lessons from these small Chinatowns of the past regain relevance today. Asian American communities should recommit to self-defense where local governments fail to provide basic public safety.

[ausetkmt]

An August poll by UC Berkeley found that most Californians oppose paying cash reparations to the descendants of the enslaved.

As a supporter of reparations, I found the results disappointing. But not surprising. Most of the state’s 40 million residents probably don’t know our dark history of enslavement. The poll didn’t provide that context, making it hard for people to feel responsible for something that happened long ago.

I grew up thinking mistakenly there was no slavery in California.

I got that impression in the fourth grade, the time when California students study our state’s history. My 1963 textbook, “California: Story of Our Past,” presented an idealized version of the conquest of California, with Indians delighted to meet the “kind and brave captain,” Juan Cabrillo, the first European to explore the coast. There was no mention of the deliberate killing of Native Americans or how they were forcibly kept at the 21 missions.

Fortunately, students today learn a more nuanced view of California history, including how Native Americans resisted colonization.

But the history of African Americans in California is not widely taught. And that is influencing public policy.

California was admitted to the union in 1850 as a free state, one where slavery was illegal. But slavery was integral to California’s origins, as two new studies, the recently released report by California’s Reparations Task Force as well as “California, A Slave State” by Jean Pfaelzer, illustrate.

As many as 1,500 people were enslaved in California, brought by their Southern enslavers to work in the gold fields. When some miners went bust, they sold off the men they enslaved. A June 17, 1852, notice in the San Francisco Herald advertised a “Negro for Sale” for $300, according to Pfaelzer.

California not only neglected to enforce the state’s slavery ban, it also passed harsh laws curtailing the rights of African Americans. The first governor of the state tried to ban African Americans from settling here. California’s version of the Fugitive Slave Act was more onerous than the national law.

I am a fifth-generation Californian who has written two books on the state’s history, but I didn’t learn about its slave-holding past until I read the task force’s report in June.

The lack of knowledge of the harm government did to Black residents may account for the poll, which shows that 59% of those queried oppose cash payments, even though 60% believe that Black Californians are still affected by the legacy of slavery.

A main reason for the opposition is “it’s unfair to ask today’s taxpayers to pay for wrongs committed in the past.”

But the poll didn’t detail the “wrongs committed in the past,” leaving respondents to rely on information they had already acquired.

One of the important aspects of the task force’s report is its exploration of how harms to Black Californians continued long after the Civil War. Government policies denied African Americans access to homes and loans through redlining, segregated them in substandard schools, and over-policed them.

The task force recommends numerous remedies, not just cash payments, to repair this harm, such as easy access to home loans, free education, and community-based health and cultural centers. None of these options were mentioned in the poll.

In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom apologized to Native Americans for the state’s role in nearly obliterating them. It’s time for California to acknowledge the harms it did to its Black residents.

So far, Newsom has been mostly mum on the task force’s recommendations. He may be waiting until January when the Legislature will address the report.

But that is too late. If an important part of repair is shedding light on historical harms, officials must educate voters about California’s dark history. Only then will people realize that reparations are not handouts, but a debt owed for past harms. And without that fundamental realization, support for reparations will remain low.

[almackey]

California, A Slave State

In this discussion, Professor Jean Pfaelze discusses California’s history as a state with slavery in it. The video’s description reads, “Author Jean Pfaelzer discussed the history of forced labor in California and argued that California owes its origins and prosperity to slavery. The Commonwealth Club of California hosted this event.” https://www.c-span.org/video/?529798-1/california-slave-state

[panicinthestudio]

The surprising reason behind Chinatown's aesthetic, Vox: Missing Chapter, May 10, 2021

The iconic "Chinatown" look started as a survival strategy.

From London, to Manila, to Melbourne, Chinatowns in cities around the world share similar design elements. And that’s on purpose. Their distinct "Chinatown" style can be traced back to a single event: the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which came on the heels of decades of violence and racist laws targeting Chinese communities in the US. The earthquake devastated Chinatown. But in the destruction, San Francisco's Chinese businessmen had an idea for a fresh start: a way to keep their culture alive, by inventing a completely new one. 

Chinatown carved out a place for itself under the threat of hate and violence. Today, that legacy is staring us in the face. 

Explore the full Missing Chapter playlist, including episodes, a creator Q&A, and more! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... 

Check out more resources from the Chinese Historical Society of America: https://chsa.org/ 

Learn more from Bonnie Tsui’s book, American Chinatown: https://www.simonandschuster.com/book... 

Philip P. Choy’s book, San Francisco Chinatown: http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=... 

and Jean Pfaelzer’s book, Driven Out: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/97805202... 

Listen to 99 Percent Invisible’s podcast on the history of Chinatown: https://99percentinvisible.org/episod... 

These are some archives about the rebuilding of Chinatown: https://archive.org/details/chinesedi... 

https://archive.org/details/sanfranci... 

Check out more of Vox’s coverage of Asian American identity: https://www.vox.com/asian-america

Vox

[newyorktheater]

Young Jean Lee

Playwright Young Jean Lee wrote an Op-Ed this week about the advantages of affirmative action in education and diversity in the theater. Looking at some of the faces below of the people who made theater news this week helps provide the proof — performer Billy Porter delivering the LGBTQ State of the Union; Qui Nguyen announcing a sequel to his “Vietgone”; Kenny Leon directing Shakespeare and Kristoffer Diaz writing the book for the stage musical Hercules, both in Central Park; a new trophy for Yazbek (David) and a new role for Yazbeck (Tony), both descended from Lebanese immigrants.    It’s bracing then to realize that it’s the theater that popularized blackface; for nearly a century the minstrel show was the most popular stage entertainment in America, and, as recent events make clear, it remains part of our cultural DNA. (See my Blackface on Stage: The Complicated History of Minstrel Shows.)

Off Broadway Week through February 24th.

The Week in New York Theater Reviews and Previews

  The Trial of the Catonsville Nine

More than half a century has passed since the Berrigan brothers, both of them priests, along with seven other Catholic activists, broke the law to protest the Vietnam War… The Trial of the Catonsville Nine” ran on Broadway for 29 performances in June, 1971, with a 16-member cast including Sam Waterston and James Woods… Now, the Transport Group is presenting what it calls a radical re-imagining of the playWhat’s changed most drastically is the staging. In place of 16 actors, there are now only three who juggle all the characters. All three of the performers are Asian-American

: .

Talking Band’s City of No Illusions

“City of No Illusions” (the title a nickname for Buffalo, since the Blizzard of 1977), which Talking Band artistic director Paul Zimet has both written and directed.  Running from February 8 to 24th at La MaMa, the play explores this connection between death and immigration in scenes that alternate between serious, satirical and surreal. The cast includes young performers who are themselves immigrants portraying the characters who are immigrants or refugees.

The Week in New York Theater News

The Band’s Visit album wins the Grammy for best musical theater album. Watch songs from all the nominees at Broadway at the Grammys.

Dean and I went up and accepted the awards but I’d like to shout out to the incredible musicians who are at the heart of the album- George Abud, Ossama Farouk, Harvey Valdes, Garo Yellin, Sam Sadigursky,Alex Eckhardt, Phil Mayer, Jeff Theiss, and MD Andrea Grody. Thank You Folks! https://t.co/jy0LMN6tBP

— David Yazbek (@DavidYazbek) February 10, 2019

Thirty-three-day #NotaLabRat strike by Actors Equity is over, with the Broadway League agreeing to profit sharing and higher wages.

  Anastasia will end its Broadway run on March 31, having played 808 regular and 34 preview performances. It’s already on tour internationally, with more tours planned.

Laura Benanti will extend her run by five months in Lincoln Center’s My Fair Lady, through July 7.

Congratulations to Edmund Donovan, winner of the Clive Barnes Award in Theater, for his role in Lewiston/Clarkston

Shakespeare

Kenny Leon

Daniel Sullivan

Al Menken

Kristoffer Diaz

Lear deBessonet

New Shakespeare in the Park summer season at the Delacorte:

Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Kenny Leon May 21 – June 23

Coriolanus, directed by Daniel Sullivan, July 16 – Aug 11

Hercules, music by Al Menken, book by Kristoffer Diaz, directed by Lear deBessonet Aug 31 – Sep 8

Thrilled that this is finally announced.

Beyond thrilled to finally officially get to play on the @PublicTheaterNY stage. Especially THIS Public Theater stage.

I love you, New York City. https://t.co/tlIKVJTxbI

— Kristoffer Diaz (@kristofferdiaz) February 6, 2019

    Florian Zeller

Jonathan Pryce

Eileen Atkins

Qui Nguyen

May Adrales

Jeff Augustin

MTC’s 2019-2020 season adds three new plays:

1. The Height of the Storm by Florian Zeller starring Jonathan Pryce and Eileen Atkins, opening September 24

2. Poor Yella Rednecks by Qui Nguyen (Vietgone), directed by May Adrales, opening June 2, 2020

3. The New Englanders by Jeff Augustin, directed by Saheem Ali, opening October 2, 2019

Lincoln Center appoints Henry Timms its new president andCEO. Timms currently heads the 92nd Street Y and came up with the idea for #GivingTuesday. His new  job begins in May.

Tony Yazbeck et al to star in Marc Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock, March 21 – May 19 at Classic Stage Company. “The 1937 premiere of this story of American class tension directed by Orson Welles was famously shut down on the eve of opening night by federal authorities”

Joining Alex Brightman and Sophia Anne Caruso in the cast of Beetlejuice on Broadway : Rob McClure, Kerry Butler, Leslie Kritzer, Kelvin Moon Loh, Adam Dannheisser and more! Opens April 25 at Winter Garden

Joining the previously announced principal cast of Reeve Carney, André De Shields, Amber Gray, Eva Noblezada, and Patrick Page in Hadestown will be Jewelle Blackman, Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer, and Kay Trinidad as the Fates. The chorus of Workers will be played by Afra Hines,Timothy Hughes, John Krause, Kimberly Marable, and Ahmad Simmons. The full cast will also include swings Malcolm Armwood, T. Oliver Reid, Jessie Shelton, and Khaila Wilcoxon.

Christopher Burney

Johanna Pfaelzer

Christopher Burney has been appointed the new artistic director of New York Stage and Film (responsible for Powerhouse season every summer at Vassar) Currently artistic producer at Second Stage, he succeeds Johanna Pfaelzer, who’s been named new artistic director of Berkeley Rep.

The Davenport Theater closed in January after five years. Ken Davenport, the producer who said he named the theater after his grandfather, has told people in the industry that he lost his lease.“It will not be a theater,”  a rep of the landlord told Philip Boro in Broadway Journal. “Maybe a gym.”

Congratulations to Urban Assembly School for the Performing Arts, &snfAnijah. Lezama of Brooklyn, Kelly Lukito of Flushing, local recipients of grants/scholarships from The American Theatre Wing’s Andrew Lloyd Webber Initiative.

If you want theater to be totally accessible, you need to look larger: In NYC, “there are 550,000 residents who have difficulty walking. Two-thirds of them live far from an accessible subway station…”https://t.co/jouOjQoDDn

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) February 11, 2019

Melissa Errico writing about Open Table, a musical about a family restaurant that she has been spending the last five years helping its creative team Adam Gopnik and David Shire put together, and how she realized the show is about New York City. (with a delicious exchange with Stephen Sondheim.)

  We’re here, we’re queer, and we ain’t going nowhere! @theebillyporter delivers the LGBTQ State of the Union on issues facing the #LGBTQ community, triumphs, setbacks, and looking ahead to 2019. 🏳️🌈✊#SOTU #LGBTQSOTU pic.twitter.com/xdubUj26mD

— Logo 🏳️🌈 (@LogoTV) February 5, 2019

  In an opinion piece in the New York Times — “I’m Asian-American: Affirmative Action Worked for Me” — playwright Young Jean Lee (Straight White Men, etc.) talks about her getting into Berkeley because of affirmative action, turned her life around. But she also talks about the theater:

“I’ve seen how increasing diversity can cause a field to flourish. The theater world is in the midst of a golden age of playwriting, and this has coincided with a concerted effort by theaters to diversify their programming. The next step is for theaters to produce more work by playwrights who come from low-income backgrounds, as our field is still dominated by the voices of the middle-to-upper classes. To achieve real diversity, I believe that affirmative action should be a holistic process, as it is at Harvard, encompassing class as well as race.”

  Rest In Peace

Albert Finney, 82, “angry young man” British stage actor, 2-time Tony nominee (Luther, A Day in the Life of Joe Egg), 5-time Oscar nominee (Erin Brockovich, Under the Volcano, Tom Jones, etc.)

Joseph Sirola, 89, actor and Tony-winning producer.

    Anastasia Ending. Hercules Coming to Central Park. Laura Benanti Continuing. Diversity vs. Blackface on Stage. #Stageworthy News of the Week Playwright Young Jean Lee wrote an Op-Ed this week about the advantages of affirmative action in education and diversity in the theater.

[bunkie2021]

From Bread and Roses 1912 - 2012 In the early 1870’s the United States was in a long, deep recession. Solidarity among workers failed. In San Francisco, Denis Kearney (1847 – 1907), an Irish immigrant, helped form the “Workingmen’s Party”, (image is WP poster) focusing its anger on the Chinese, who worked for lower wages than white workers. Rising anti-Chinese feelings among workers resulted in a number of violent outbursts. At French Canal and in Nevada City, white workers forcibly expelled the Chinese from the work camps associated with the mines. On October 23, 1871, whites in Los Angeles invaded Chinatown, and sacked the Chinese quarters, killing a score of Chinese in the process. Kearney started every speech with the ringing phrase, “The Chinese Must Go!” This phrase was shouted in sandlots and union halls all over California. In 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and there was organized violence against Chinese communities up and won the West Coast. For more: Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America; Jean Pfaelzer, Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans. #laborhistory

[gr-main-blog]

Hanging out is good historical methodology.

Jean Pfaelzer

[california-slow-take]

Jean Pfaelzer thought she knew what injustice looked like. A longtime professor of American studies at the University of Delaware, the L.A. native forged her political consciousness at UC Berkeley in the ’60s, joined civil rights and justice access movements and wrote several works of history including 2007’s “Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans.”

But it wasn’t until she was researching that book that Pfaelzer began glimpsing another neglected history. Studying a photograph of a young Chinese woman shackled in a brothel in San Francisco in the 1870s, she was struck by the fact that this kind of slavery existed at all. “I kept looking at the picture of the Chinese girl, thinking, ‘What happened to the 13th amendment?’” Pfaelzer, who lives part-time in Humboldt County, says during a phone interview. “How could this be happening?”

Some years later that image, and those questions, came flooding back when she read a newspaper story about a 15-year-old who had escaped from forced labor on a marijuana farm in Northern California, where she had been kept in a box and abused with a cattle prod. Pfaelzer’s creeping epiphany became a full-blown thesis: California, cemented in the American mind since at least the Civil War as the beacon of freedom and opportunity, was — and remains — a slave state. “It’s not like I didn’t really know,” she says. “But I didn’t know this.”

[bunkie2021]

From Bread and Roses 1912 - 2012 For the record, hatred and violence directed against immigrant populations is nothing new in the U.S.; it is, one could argue, as 'American as apple pie'. Here's an example: On July 23, 1877, anti-Chinese nativist agitators at a huge outdoor rally in San Francisco about the economic depression and unemployment organized by the Workingmen’s Party of the United States incited a two-day riot of ethnic violence against Chinese workers, resulting in four deaths and the destruction of property. Five years later, President Chester Arthur signed the federal Chinese Exclusion Act, prohibiting immigration of Chinese laborers. The back story: In the early 1870’s the United States was in a long, deep recession. Solidarity among workers failed. In San Francisco, Denis Kearney (1847 – 1907), an Irish immigrant, helped form the “Workingmen’s Party”, focusing its anger on the Chinese, who worked for lower wages than white workers. Kearney started every speech with the ringing phrase, “The Chinese Must Go!” This phrase was shouted in sand lots and union halls all over California. In 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and there was organized violence against Chinese communities up and down the West Coast. Anti-Chinese feelings among workers resulted in a number of violent outbursts. At French Canal and in Nevada City, white workers forcibly expelled the Chinese from mine work camps. On October 23, 1871, whites in Los Angeles sacked Chinese neighborhoods, killing a score of Chinese in the process. For more, Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America; Jean Pfaelzer, Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans, Random House, 2007. #laborhistory