The Shadow Over the Hop Harvest
A recruitment advertisement for labor captures the simmering racial tensions and exclusionary practices of the 1885 Washington hop fields.
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.
Wanted, at once, men at $2 and $2.25 per day. The Washington Territory Employment and Commercial Agency, Washington Street, next door to Judge Lear's court. The only central and reliable agency to furnish help for all trades. Also lists for sale hotels, lodging and boarding houses, saloons, cigar stores, restaurants, etc. Your house or room rented for you. Crews furnished. Collections made. Sales sold on the installment plan. Agent for Accident Insurance Company of North America. Steam and railroad tickets to and from all parts of the world. House and rooms to let. Female help in demand. City and County scrip bought and sold. Money to loan on short time and approved security. Established two years. If you want the best investments or big interest for your money, call on Geo. W. Crane.
“The only central and reliable agency to furnish help for all trades.”
This 1885 advertisement highlights the era's reliance on Chinese labor for the booming hop industry, occurring just months before the infamous Anti-Chinese Riots of 1885 and 1886 in Seattle. It reflects the precarious, commodified nature of migrant labor that continues to spark debates about housing, fair wages, and exclusionary civic power in Seattle today.
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