Hunger and Accusations in Renton
Two Chinese workers were placed on trial for allegedly stealing food from a store they claimed withheld their wages.
The two Chinamen who were arrested the other day for participating in the attack on the store of Wing Sing & Co., at Renton, were tried before Judge Cann yesterday. Deputy Prosecutor Ronald and I. A. Rasm, Esq., conducted the prosecution, while the accused were without the services of a lawyer. The prosecutor claimed that the prisoners had taken from the store opium, silk handkerchiefs, and other articles, and evidence to that effect was introduced. On the contrary, it is claimed by the prisoners that they were starving while Wing Sing & Co. withheld the money due them, and that they took from the store only sufficient rice to relieve their hunger. The case was taken under advisement.
“It is claimed by the prisoners that they were starving while Wing Sing & Co. withheld the money due them.”
This 1884 account of criminalized poverty and the exploitation of immigrant labor predates the violent expulsions of Chinese residents from Seattle and Tacoma in 1885-86. It highlights how the legal system of the time often ignored the underlying economic conditions of marginalized workers, prioritizing property rights over their survival.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.