The Great Street Swap: White Labor Replaces Chinese Contractors in Seattle
In a striking display of racial labor politics in 1876, sixty white workers were hired to replace Chinese contractors on Seattle streets, halting progress and inconveniencing residents.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
From the Daily of Tuesday.
ACCIDENT.—A man working in the Port Blakely sawmill broke his leg yesterday and was brought over to town to-day and taken to Dr. Reed’s hospital.
Sixty white men went to work on the streets yesterday, taking the place of the Chinese previously employed.
FIGHTS.—Two or three fights occurred in the streets yesterday, resulting in the deposit of various small sums to swell the city’s finances.
This brief notice captures a pivotal moment in Seattle's labor history: the systematic displacement of Chinese workers by white laborers. While today's headlines often focus on wage gaps or union negotiations, this 1876 event highlights how racial exclusion was once a primary mechanism for controlling the local workforce and infrastructure development.
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