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怀俄明大屠杀是美籍华人史中的悲惨事件
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怀俄明大屠杀是美籍华人史中的悲惨事件
黄安年推荐 黄安年的博客、2016年/5月25日发布
有关1885年美国怀俄明石泉大屠杀美籍华人事件，笔者已经在博文中多有揭露。在华人集聚的怀俄明州石泉矿场，1885年9月2日发生白人种族主义者攻击华工的恶性案件，28名华工被杀、15名受伤，其他华工皆被赶走。华人是美国历史上惟一曾被美国国会及联邦政府立法排挤和禁止移民的民族。見《沉默的的道釘》第95頁，圖116，并见談130年前美國國會通過的《排華法案》，黃安年的博客/2012年6月20日發佈（http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-415-583934.html）；《美國國會遲到了70年的道歉》，黃安年的博客2012年6月20日發佈（http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-415-583936.html）；《美國總統賈斯特•艾倫·亞瑟和1882年排華法案》，黃安年的博客/2014年6月26日發佈（）http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-415-806709.html；《1882年美國排華法和清駐美公使鄭藻如》,黃安年的博客/2014年6月28日發佈http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-415-807350.html；《1885年美國石泉慘案和清駐美公使鄭藻如》,黃安年的博客/2014年6月28日發佈http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-415-807356.html；《梁誠與抗議美國排華潮》，黃安年的博客/2014年6月29日發佈http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-415-807513.html
http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-415-807517.html
见Harper’s Weekly, Sept. 26,1885，White coal miners Rock Springs, Wyoming Territory,chased Chinese miners out of town, shooting or burning to death at least 15people。并见The Chinese in California, 1850-1925，Item 105 of 149 ，Harper's Weekly, Vol. 29，1885年，NUMBER，MTP/HW: Vol. 29: 637， brk7231，The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley。并见美国国会图书馆。
参见:梁碧莹着：《艰难的外交—晚清中国驻美公使研究》第五章不如使命的公使—郑藻如，三、石泉案交涉（天津古籍出版社，第169-179页，2004年7月版。1885年11月30日清政府驻美公使郑藻如向美国国务卿托马斯·贝雅德发出照会，引用1868年的蒲安臣条约第6款和1880年中美《北京条约》第2款,中美规定两国人民可享有互惠原则及最惠国待遇的规定,要求美国政府对本案所造成的损失加以赔偿、惩凶，并保护在怀俄明属地及其它美境内华人免遭类似攻击。指出相反美国人在中国一直受到依照中国政府的保护。石泉事件是美国排华运动中最具有代表性的个案之一。美国政府仅仅赔偿华人财产损失，而惨遭杀害的28人和15名受伤者，一字不提，一文不赔，显示美国政府没有遵守条约的诚意和对于华人生命权的无视。
并见阎广耀、方生选译：《美国对华政策档选编----从鸦片战争到第一次世界大战(1842-1918)》,人民出版社,1990年中附录 7-11 国务卿贝阿得致中国驻美公使郑藻如，答复中国关于在罗克斯普林斯屠杀华工的照会（1886年2月18日）（215-223页）
这里转发李兆良先生日前推荐的“Massacre in Wyoming a sad chapter in history ofChinese in America”一文。
需要指出该文提供的照片均为已知信息，且为多系背景资料。笔者提供了当时我国政府的抗议，美国传媒披露者很少。
照片10张选自该文，最后一张（第11张）选自黄安年、李炬著《沉默道钉的足迹—纪念华工建设美国铁路》，第191页，2015年9月中国铁道出版社。
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Massacre in Wyoming a sad chapter in history of Chinese in America
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GOOGLE IMAGES
Idaho’s Polly Bemis (1853-1933)
Posted: Sunday, May 22, 2016 12:00 am
Massacrein Wyoming a sad chapter in history of Chinese in America By SYDALBRIGHT/Special to The Press The Coeur d' Alene Press | 0 comments
Polly Bemis was one of the lucky ones.Only 4-foot-5 tall, she lived in Warren, Idaho, during a time when noteveryone was nice to the Chinese. Born in Chinaand sold into slavery by her parents, she ended up in Idaho and became a legend. Many of hercountrymen came to Americain the 1800s and met discrimination, violence and death.
Racial tension in America wascommon in those days — affecting Indians, African Americans, Asians, Irish andothers. Chinese immigration was restricted by law in 1869, and the 1882 ChineseExclusion Act stopped them from entering the U.S. and wasn’t repealed until1943.
A terrible act of violence against theChinese broke out on Sept. 2, 1885, in the mining and railroad town of Rock Springs in southwest Wyoming, where the Union Pacific Railroadalso owned coal mines.
Those early Chinese were hard workers,willing to suffer privations, take menial jobs and work for less pay. Also,they couldn’t speak English, had strange customs, and looked different. In Rock Springs, they facedan unhappy community.
The Union Pacific and Central Pacificrailroads began hiring Chinese laborers and the white workers didn’t like it.White miners were especially angry that the Chinese willingness to work forlower pay was keeping everyone’s wages low.
The Wyoming Tribune reported that 1,200new “Chinamen” had arrived in Californiaand would soon be “taking men’s jobs.” Wyomingwhites picked up on that sentiment.
“Every day a suicide, some poor devilof a white man out of money, too proud to beg, too honest to steal, too nobleto starve, blows his brains out,” the paper’s editorial thundered. “White bloodis at a discount and coffins are cheap. The potter’s field is large; starvingwhite people are welcome to its gates.
“By every consideration of honor andmanhood; by every impulse of justice and patriotism, I conjure you to rise asone man in the majesty of your power as freemen, and throw back the tide ofheathen paupers from our shores.”
The Union Pacific’s railway and coalmines were essentially one operation. In southern Wyoming,the UP had coal mines in Carbon, near Medicine Bow, Rock Springs, and Almy near Evanston.
Trains needed the coal, and because therailroad owned the mines, they didn’t have to pay for shipping, while at thesame time charging high transportation fees to competing coal mines.
In addition to wage issues, the minerswere further rankled by the railroad’s requirement that they buy their food,clothing and tools only at the company store — where prices were high.
In Rock Springs, white miners thought theChinese were getting a better deal from the company than they were. They werewrong. Chinese were earning $1.73 to $2 aday, while white miners made $2.50 to $3. The Chinese rented their homes for $5to $7 a month, compared towhite miners paying $2.50.
Miners were paid by the amount of coalmined, and white miners accused the Chinese of bribing their bosses to givethem the best areas, where digging the coal was easier and quicker.
Then in 1883, the Knights of Labor cameto town. They “promoted the social and cultural uplift of the workingman,rejected socialism and anarchism, demanded the eight-hour day, and promoted theproducer’s ethic of republicanism.”
They signed up the disgruntled minersand also invited the Chinese to join the union, but they refused, having morefaith in their elders to represent their interests — and considered the Knightsof Labor a white man’s organization. The rebuff enraged the miners, and theybegan plotting the removal of the Chinese from Wyoming.
In 1885, there were 600 Chinese minersand 300 white in Rock Springs.“The Chinese must go!” clamored the miners. They must stay, said Union Pacific.Neither side budged. Finally, the miners went on strike and violence soonfollowed.
Federal troops were called in torestore order — which they did. The miners lost and the company won. (That samepattern would happen twice during the 1890s in Idaho’sSilver Valley, though the Chinese were not afactor.)
Then on Sept. 2, in Rock Springs afight broke out between Chinese and white miners, with one Chinese killed by ablow to the skull with a pick, followed by an armed white mob raiding the localChinatown. Even women and children took part.
Seeing them coming, the Chinese fledtheir homes and headed for the hills. Those who didn’t escape were brutallybeaten and murdered — including the sick. Some were burned alive in their camphouses, and others tortured.
One report said, “The mob moved into Chinatown from three directions, pulling some Chinese menfrom their homes and shooting others as they came into the street… A few ranstraight for the mob and met their deaths.
“The mob turned back through Chinatown, looting the shacks and houses, and thensetting them on fire. More Chinese were driven out of hiding by the flames andwere killed in the streets. Others burned to death in their cellars. Stillothers died that night out on the hills and prairies from thirst, the cold andtheir wounds.”
Twenty-eight Chinese died, 15 wereinjured and hundreds more chased out of town. Seventy-nine Chinese homes werelooted and burned to the ground.
Wyoming Territorial Governor Francis E.Warren telegraphed the Army and President Grover Cleveland for help. A weeklater, federal troops arrived.
A hundred miles west in Evanston, a special trainwith the governor, railroad officials and 250 troops aboard headed out to roundup as many Chinese as they could find. About 600 were herded into boxcars, givenfood, water and blankets and told they were being taken to the safety of San Francisco — where theChinese wanted to go. Unknown to them, the train slowly headed east instead ofwest.
That evening, they stopped and theChinese were let out of the boxcars. To their horror, they were back in Rock Springs. They’d beentricked. In front of them was the destroyed Chinatown,with mangled and decomposing bodies of their friends and relatives still lyingin the streets.
Despite the horrendous tragedy, theChinese courageously rebuilt their community and went back to work in themines.
One report said, “Eventually the UnionPacific fired 45 of the white miners for their roles in the massacre, but noeffective legal action was ever taken against any of the participants.”
It was a dark episode in Americanhistory.
Sadly, two years later a similar attackhappened 450 miles northwest of Rock Springs in Hell’s Canyon, Ore., where 34Chinese gold miners were ambushed and murdered by white horse thieves andschoolboys. No one was ever punished.
But Rock Springs rose again from the ashes. TheUnion Pacific rebuilt the destroyed Chinese homes — mostly with Chinese labor.By late October 1885, 720 Chinese were back in the mines, joined by Mormonsfrom Utahreplacing the white miners on strike.
Many Chinese prospered and eventuallyreturned to Chinawith enough money to live well. But some who returned faced hard times andwrote to their former employers pleading for financial help — and some did.
Living in the mining town of Warren high in the mountains of west-central Idaho, 4-foot-5 Pollymanaged to get away from her Chinese saloonkeeper owner and went to work foranother saloonkeeper, Charlie Bemis. Some say he won her in a poker game. Shealso ran his popular boarding house and everyone loved Polly. Her real name wasLalu Nathoy.
She and Charlie married — even thoughmixed race marriages were illegal — and they lived on a ranch 17 miles fromtown. Polly never hesitated to take in ill or injured miners and nurse themback to health. She lived in Idahofor 60 years and became a legend — even tourists wanted to meet her.
Polly was always afraid of being sentback to China,but she never was. She died of a stroke in 1933 at age 80.
Though sold into slavery in China for two bags of seed and shipped off to America, PollyBemis became a happy chapter in the history of the Chinese in the Old West.
Syd Albright is a writer and journalistliving in Post Falls. Contact him at silverflix@roadrunner.com.
http://cdapress.com/columns/syd_albright/article_7e0e38f0-1fa7-11e6-9a9d-f7490b3c237d.html
1885年美国石泉惨案和清驻美公使郑藻如
黄安年推荐 黄安年的博客/2014年6月28日发布
中山大学梁碧莹教授《艰难的外交：晚清中国驻美公使研究》（天津古籍出版社，2004年7月版）一书,通过近代中国晚清驻美公使视角，展示了近代中美外交艰难的发展。其中第五章不辱使命的公使—郑藻如,第三节石泉案交涉，谈及如何应对美国排华事件。现在我的博客转发。
照片11张,拍自该章。
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