The Shadow of the Anti-Chinese Expulsions
As tensions boiled over against Chinese laborers in Washington Territory, a trial in Seattle reveals the deadly climate of vigilante violence and the complicity of local officials.
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.
The interest in the case which has occupied the court all this week has lost none of its intensity, judging from the crowds filling the courtroom. The defendant, Perry Bayne, is on trial following the violent expulsion and murder of Chinese hop-pickers in Squak Valley in September 1885. Testimony suggests a deeply entrenched local movement to forcibly drive Chinese laborers from the valley. Witness accounts detail a night of terror, where Chinese tents were attacked, revolvers were fired, and property was burned. George W. Tibbetts, a local storekeeper and Justice of the Peace, who was also implicated in the violence, testified to his own store serving as a 'headquarters' for the community, though he denied involvement. Bayne, in his defense, claimed he only accompanied the crowd to negotiate for the Chinese to leave peacefully, despite testimony placing him and others at the scene of the carnage armed with weapons. The atmosphere in the valley, driven by fear and bitter anti-Chinese sentiment, had been exacerbated by news of similar violent expulsions elsewhere, such as in Wyoming, creating a climate where such atrocities were viewed by many as necessary community action.
“The general feeling in the valley was opposed to Chinese being employed there. During my residence, Chinese had never been employed there before.”
This trial offers a haunting look at the 'driving out' era of the 1880s, when anti-immigrant vigilante violence was not only common but often sanctioned by local power brokers like the Justice of the Peace. Today, the story resonates as a reminder of how quickly civic institutions can be subverted by organized hate groups, an enduring challenge in the history of Washington's labor and housing struggles.
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