Expulsion and Harassment on the Waterfront
A Chinese man arrives in Seattle only to be threatened by a local anti-Chinese group, highlighting the climate of exclusion in 1885.
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.
A Chinaman who bought a ticket in Portland for Victoria was landed here Monday evening because he did not have $50 to pay for the privilege of landing at Victoria. The unfortunate fellow belongs to a company that is in bad odor with the Seattle Chinamen, and he was at once notified that he must leave town or he would be killed. His luggage was in one of the China houses on Washington Street, but he was afraid to go and get it, so he sat down on the wharf in despair, not knowing what to do, and cried like a child. His wails attracted attention, and one of the employees on the City Dock called the attention of the police to the case. The officers recovered his baggage for him, and the O.R. & N. Co. volunteered to carry him back as far as Tacoma free of expense, which was gladly accepted by the Chinaman.
“he was at once notified that he must leave town or he would be killed.”
This incident occurred in the lead-up to the 1886 expulsion of Seattle’s Chinese residents. It documents the extreme vulnerability of immigrants facing both state-sanctioned fees and the threat of extra-legal violence in the city's streets.
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