Rock-Throwing Crowd, One-Dollar Fine: Ah Sam’s Day in Court
A Chinese man targeted by a Pike Street crowd was convicted of assaulting a boy in that crowd, but the judge reduced the penalty to $1 and costs after hearing the provocation.
Ah Sam, the Chinese man who was cheered by the crowd on Pike Street Sunday afternoon, was fined $1 and costs Monday afternoon in municipal court for assault and battery on W. R. Gardner, a small boy. Judge Rinehart said he was satisfied Ah Sam was the particular object of rock-throwing by a crowd of which Gardner was a member, but that did not justify the assault. In view of the mitigating circumstances, however, the fine was placed at $1 and costs.
“Judge Rinehart said he was satisfied Ah Sam was the particular object of rock-throwing by a crowd of which Gardner was a member, but that did not justify the assault.”
The item is a reminder that racial violence in 1890s Seattle was often ordinary—rock-throwing by a crowd, then a courtroom where the target was punished. The judge’s acknowledgment of provocation did not erase the power imbalance, and the case belongs to the longer history of anti-Chinese exclusion in Washington.
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