Chinese in California

Chinese Immigrant Timeline (1)

1849-1851, only a few hundred Chinese immigrants to CA per year

1852, over 20,000 Chinese immigrate to CA

1840’s -1870s, before and after the Civil War  there was a ‘Coolie slave trade’, indentured labor to Cuba and Peru, also to CA for rail construction; few survived indenture, same transit death rate as African slave trade, disregard for life, perpetrated by northern US shippers and British

1853-1860 , 6000 Chinese per year immigrate to CA

1861, US Civil War, national commerce disorupted, home industry needed in CA, Chinese labor demand

1863- 1869, construction of transcontinental railroad, 10,000 Chinese laborers per year, plus construction of CA state rail system

-issue of too few and unreliable white laborers for railroad, same issue in CA agriculture and grapes

1865, Sonoma has 2000 acres planted in grapes

1869, when railroad complete, large number of unemployed Chinese in cities begins an anti-Chinese sentiment among whites

-with the railroad, cheap eastern goods flood the CA market, causes recession, high unemployment, rail and Chinese blamed, nativism again

-SF punitive laws against Chinese, cut off their hair, violence, vigilante justice

1870s, CA economy shifts from Gold Rush to agriculture, demand for Chinese labor is high

-grape boom in CA, from less than 10,000 acres  to 77,000 by 1878

-need for large amount of  seasonal labor, whites couldn’t do it, Chinese could

-white single men were floaters, ‘birds of passage’, not reliable labor

-Chinese did not drink, employed in cellars and wine making as well as fields

-Chinese move into domestic servant labor market in North Bay

1880, 37 wineries in Sonoma Valley

1880s, boom of wineries state-wide in CA, national marketing develops, Chinese labor ($1 a day) is integral to development of wine industry but little mention in history books or papers of the time

-labor is hard; vines are pruned low, knees/ bent over, low back work, heavy boxes

-the “Chinaman is necessary to make it profitable”

-over 90% of agricultural labor is Chinese, vineyard and winery, i.e. skilled labor too

1880, starts second great wave of immigration to US, many Italians come to CA and Sonoma Valley, with their historic wine culture and experience

1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, no more laborers, no chance to naturalize for those here, wine industry in a bind as they need cheap labor, keep quiet about Chinese, reflected in lack of historical notes

1883, Julius Dresel, cost of white labor is too high, not profitable

1890s Chinese labor starts to decline,

-tension between nativism and labor cost, industry wants Chinese

-German vintners introduce higher pruning, short stalk pruning declines, waist height stalk easier for white labor to harvest, white labor increases

-high stalk pruning better for frost in Spring and cooling in Summer

1900, phylloxera epidemic negative impact on wine industry

2014 what we see today in CA wine country is the same basic labor pattern only substitute Hispanic immigrant labor for Chinese

-the industry needs cheap labor to make profit, yet profits are huge, seasonal laborers have no political voice, can’t afford to live in Sonoma, one county supervisor is the representative, labor lives in fields and cars while the owners rake it in and then dole it out in the form of charity and everybody is supposed to be impressed

-Nativism blames immigrants, immigrant labor but no white guys are lining up to pick cabbage or grapes

-covert tension between nativism, labor cost, profit, social justice, we see how it shakes out with disenfranchised labor community and poverty in the Springs and the well-off charity community stepping in to the breach

-why don’t they just pay the labor a just wage up front?

-pay agricultural  and domestic labor, gardeners and construction labor a just wage 

Reference

 The Role of Chinese Labor in Viticulture and Wine Making in 19^th Century California

William F. Heintz, Sonoma State Master’s Thesis, 1977

-thanks Patricia Cullinan