Seattle's earliest Chinese residents are believed to have arrived in the early 1860s, and while welcomed at first for the role they played in the region's development, Chinese immigrants were not allowed to vote and were subjected to numerous laws that restricted their rights. In the mid-1870s and early 1880s the national economy took a downturn, increasingly leading White workers to view the Chinese as threats to the few available jobs. In 1882 the federal government passed Chinese Exclusion Act, prohibiting all Chinese labor immigration for ten years.
By the mid-1880s anti-Chinese sentiment had grown and city leaders in Seattle began to advocate an orderly and legally-supported expulsion of the local Chinese, but not everyone agreed. On February 7, 1886, violence broke out as a large group began to forcibly eject most of the city's Chinese population. At least one person was killed when the Home Guards protecting Chinese residents were attacked. Martial law was declared and federal troops remained in Seattle until summer. Although the White population of Seattle quickly moved past these events, it would be 20 years before the Chinese population in Seattle returned to its pre-1886 numbers.
The newspaper pictured here, The Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer, continues to serve the city as of 2019, although since 2009 as an online-only publication. An article is featured in this issue of The Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer titled "The Chinese Interviewed: All They Ask Is Time to Settle Their Affairs," in which a Post-Intelligencer reporter spoke with several leading Chinese businessmen, including Lue King, head of Tong Ye Chong & Co.; W. Gen, owner of a cigar factory; On Tai, a merchant on Mill Street; Wan Lee, a launder on Mill Street; Quong Chong, owner of Quong Chong & Co.; Gee Hee, also of Quong Chong & Co.; and Foo Kee, owner of a Chinese restaurant on South Second Street. The interviews indicate these men were willing to leave Seattle, if Chinese residents were compensated for outstanding bills, their investments, and travel out of the city or back to China.
Caption information sources: "Anti-Chinese Activism — Seattle," by Walt Crowley, HistoryLink.org Essay 1057; "Chun Ching Hock opens the Wa Chong Company in Seattle on December 15, 1868," by Margaret Riddle, HistoryLink.org Essay 10800; and "Mobs forcibly expel most of Seattle's Chinese residents beginning on February 7, 1886," by Phil Dougherty, HistoryLink.org Essay 2745. Caption information source: "Newspapers of Washington Territory," by Edmond S. Meany, The Washington Historical Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 3 (JULY, 1923), pp. 186-200. Accessed at journals.lib.washington.edu.
