The Battle Over the Memory of the Chinese Expulsion
A fiery rebuttal to external accounts of the 1886 anti-Chinese riots in Seattle.
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.
Bartlett, a senator who recently resided in Portland, published in the San Francisco papers a statement of what occurred in Seattle on the 7th and 8th of February, which he claims is a 'straightforward and authentic account of the affair.' It is a colossal, inexcusable, unjustifiable lie. Bartlett claims the Citizens' Committee of Vigilance went to the Chinese quarters quietly and without arms to ask them to leave. He claims they willingly agreed to board the steamer Queen of the Pacific. At 10 a.m., the news came to the ear of Governor Squire, who caused the alarm bells to be rung to assemble the municipal officers and pro-Chinese whites. Governor Squire did not cause the alarm bells to be rung, and he did not call the two militia companies 'in the face of protests against the alleged necessity.' Bartlett claims that after the steamer left, the citizens marched back in triumph, and that a group of 'Home Guards' armed with Winchester rifles and revolvers attacked them. He claims Judge Thomas Burke and the Rev. K.M. Banks fired their rifles into the crowd, killing Charles Stewart and wounding four others. This is a continuation of lies; there is nothing of truth in it.
“It is a colossal, inexcusable, unjustifiable lie.”
This article highlights the immediate political struggle to define the narrative of the 1886 anti-Chinese expulsions in Seattle. Much like contemporary debates over historical memory and local news, the P-I editors were desperate to dispute external reports that painted the city's mob violence as anything other than a chaotic, armed confrontation. The event remains a foundational, dark chapter in the city's civic identity.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.