“The Man Filled Both My Hands With Gold and I Then Became His Slave”
“The Man Filled Both My Hands With Gold and I Then Became His Slave,” The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]), 02 April 1899. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress.
Background
Sex work in the American West has been romanticized in popular culture. But the reality was often much bleaker. For example, the arrival of thousands of single Chinese men during the California Gold Rush created a huge demand for Chinese sex workers. But the Chinese women and girls brought to the U.S. to fulfill this demand often had little choice in the matter. Some were kidnapped. Some were sold by their impoverished families. Some were fooled into thinking they were being brought to the U.S. as brides, only to be sold to brothels when they arrived.
The sex trafficking of Chinese women and girls had impacts far beyond the devastating exploitation of the individuals trapped in the system. The 1870 U.S. census revealed that 70% of the Chinese women living in San Francisco were engaged in sex work. This led to white Americans concluding that all Chinese women were sex workers and a threat to U.S. society. In 1875, the U.S. government passed the Page Act, which barred sex workers from entering the U.S. But the law failed to recognize that the women themselves were victims of exploitation, and there were larger forces working to get them into the country. The moral panic over Chinese sex workers was one of the factors that led to the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882.
About the Document
This image of a young Chinese woman being purchased was created to accompany a front-page article in The San Francisco Call. The article, published in 1899, was a tell-all interview with a Chinese woman who had been trafficked to the U.S. as a small child and then became a sex trafficker herself.
Vocabulary
- brothel: A place where men can visit sex workers.
- California Gold Rush: A period of rapid immigration and migration to California that started when gold was discovered in 1848.
- Chinese Exclusion Act: Law that barred Chinese laborers from entering the U.S.
Discussion Questions
- Why were Chinese women sex trafficked in the 1800s?
- How did the sharp increase in Chinese sex trafficking impact the larger history of Chinese immigration?
- Why is it important to investigate the realities of sex work in the American West?
Suggested Activities
- For a larger lesson about American attitudes toward Chinese women in the 1800s, teach this life story together with the following:
- To learn more about the Page Act, see Page Act, 1875 and Life Story: Polly Bemis.
- Sex trafficking remains an ongoing problem in the modern world. Ask students to research how the U.S. government is trying to end the sale of women and girls across state and national borders.
Themes
IMMIGRATION, MIGRATION, SETTLEMENT
New-York Historical Society Curriculum Library Connections
To learn more about the history of the Chinese in America, see Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion
