For a brief time in the 1870s, North Adams, Massachusetts, was home to the largest population of Asian immigrants in the eastern United States and the scene of an important episode in the 19th century struggle for workers’ rights.

By Kendra Knisley

A Mill Town

Located at the confluence of two branches of the Hoosic River, North Adams was an ideal setting for a mill town to grow. By 1850, Adams was home to more factory workers than farmers. The town’s northern village boasted a brickyard, ironworks, sawmill, textile manufactures, machine shops, marble works, and makers of cabinets, wagons, and sleighs. Many of the factory workers were immigrants and by the late 1860s, about one-third of the town’s population was foreign-born.

In 1868, $7 million of goods were produced by dozens of North Adams factories. The Hoosac Tunnel was being built to link the town to larger cities by railroad. After nearly 200 workers died over more than 20 years of construction, it finally opened in 1875.

Railroads made it faster and less expensive for factory owners to ship their goods around the country. The most important railroad of all, the transcontinental, was completed in 1869. It relied on the labor of roughly 15,000 Chinese workers, who suffered abysmal conditions and abuse.

“Many of the factory workers were immigrants and by the late 1860s, about one-third of the town’s population was foreign-born.”

The Chinese Labor Force Before 1870

Of the 63,199 Chinese people reportedly living in the continental U.S. by 1870, 99.4% lived in western states or territories.

Chinese workers became vital to the transcontinental railroad’s success in 1864, when a labor shortage threatened its completion. Two companies were racing to lay tracks. Central Pacific, which hired mostly Chinese immigrants, started in Sacramento, California, while Union Pacific, which hired mostly European immigrants, started in Omaha, Nebraska. The work was grueling and almost all done by hand.

The Chinese laborers were paid less than their white counterparts, forced to work longer hours doing more dangerous tasks, to live in tents and find their own meals, and were beaten on the job. Three thousand Chinese railroad workers went on strike in June 1867 to protest some of these conditions.

The strike was broken when Central Pacific took the appalling step of withholding food supplies from the workers, who were in a remote part of the Sierra Nevada Range. After six years of construction, the railroad ultimately cost an estimated 1,200 lives, including hundreds of Chinese workers, and between $35-60 million.

The Knights of St. Crispin

In 1870, the Order of the Knights of St. Crispin was one of the nation’s largest and most powerful labor unions, with about 50,000 members. Many of the union shoemakers, including those working in Calvin Sampson’s North Adams factory, were immigrants from Europe or Canada.

Sampson was one of North Adams successful industrialists. A shrewd businessman, he built a thriving footwear enterprise, including a shoe store on Main Street and factories on Eagle and Marshall Streets. The Marshall Street facility, built in 1868, was designed for efficiency and equipped with the latest machinery. Sampson wanted to maximize profits by paying as few workers as little as possible to make as many shoes as they could as quickly as possible.

Sampson forced his employees to work ten hours a day. He refused to listen to their concerns about conditions and the replacement of skilled crafters with machines. In April 1870, the workers voted to strike for better wages and a shorter workday. Instead of negotiating, Sampson fired the Crispins and tried to replace them with men from nearby towns. The union members convinced the other laborers not to work for Sampson.

In response, Sampson sent his superintendent, George W. Chase, to California. His mission was to hire “75 steady, active, and intelligent Chinamen” as unwitting strikebreakers. Chase recruited boys and men between 16 and 22 years old. They signed three-year contracts, agreeing to eleven-hour workdays for half the union member’s wages – just 90 cents a day. Sampson agreed to pay for the Chinese workers’ transportation (including travel back west after three years), housing, and heat. Only one of the new employees spoke English, the overseer Charlie Sing.

Meeting at Union Station

When they arrived by train on June 13, 1870, the Chinese workers, mostly teenagers, were met at North Adams’ Union Station by thousands of onlookers. Everyone in the crowd was expecting a stir. Some were hostile and prepared for violence. Most had never seen a person of Asian descent before. Sampson hired a group of private police, who escorted his new employees to the factory without serious incident. Once the crowds dispersed, they were brought outside and photographed by the factory.

Newspapers around the nation reported on the events in North Adams. Many were curious to learn how Sampson’s experiment would work and what it would mean for the larger movement for workers’ rights. The Crispins held mass meetings in dozens of cities, including North Adams, but it was soon clear - the Sampson strike had been broken.

Aftermath

Days later, other striking workers nearby voted to take a wage cut and go back to work, rather than risk losing their jobs. Within a few months, more eastern industrialists began hiring Chinese laborers to replace union workers. Many Americans unjustly targeted the Chinese workers with racist tirades and resentment, both in person and in the press. Few directed their rage at the avaricious businessmen.

Sampson considered his experiment a great success. Not only did he pay his employees less than before, but the Chinese workers also outshone the union crafters in productivity. At the time, Scribner’s Weekly estimated that the Chinese workers saved Sampson over $40,000 the first year (that’s more than $800,000 today!) Capitalizing on these profits, Sampson brought in 50 more Chinese workers in 1871. 

Unfortunately, there are no known records of what the Chinese workers thought about their arrival or what they endured while living in North Adams. Most lived together in the dormitory Sampson built for them. He also invited Christian missionaries and mandated the employees to attend Bible studies. Some townspeople soon offered English classes to “the Celestials,” as the Chinese men were called, while others ostracized them.

In addition to photographs taken at work, many had portraits of themselves taken by local photographers. Sometimes they brought props that seemingly reinforced their Chinese identity, like tea sets and porcelain vases, to be photographed with. Some dressed in traditional Chinese tunics and posed as sitters in traditional Chinese portrait paintings while others appeared to embrace Western fashions.

Most of the workers chose to leave after their contracts were fulfilled. Only five Chinese men remained in North Adams by 1880. One of the most prominent who remained was Lue Gim Gong, who was just 16 when he was hired by Sampson. He developed a close friendship with the Sunday school teacher, Fannie Burlingame, and eventually moved in with her. With her help, Lue became an American citizen in 1887. They later moved to Florida, where Lue was called ‘the Citrus Wizard” for developing frost-resistant strains of grapefruit and orange that are still grown today (often sold as “Valencia”.)

“ Many Americans unjustly targeted the Chinese workers with racist tirades and resentment, both in person and in the press. Few directed their rage at the avaricious businessmen.”

Legacy

The completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 marked the beginning of a nationwide movement to demonize Chinese people in the United States. The anti-union actions of Sampson and other capitalists led many white Americans to unfairly blame Chinese people for low wages, poor working conditions, and other social ills. Politicians capitalized on this sentiment to pass discriminatory laws directed at Chinese Americans. Rampant nativism and xenophobia ensured the bigotry extended to other Asian immigrants as well.

Asian people faced discrimination and violent attacks across the country. One of the largest mass lynchings in U.S. history occurred in Los Angeles in October 1871, when 19 Chinese men were murdered by an angry mob. Throughout the 1870s and eighties, bills were brought before state and federal legislatures that discriminated against people from China and other Asian countries, particularly women who were generally assumed to be sex workers. By 1882, Chinese laborers were prohibited from entering the U.S. It was the first restriction on immigration in American history and remained in effect until 1943.

While the Chinese Exclusion Act has ended, anti-Asian discrimination continues in the U.S. Verbal and physical attacks against Asian Americans, particularly women, spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Stop AAPI Hate, nearly 3,800 attacks were reported between March 19, 2020 and February 28, 2021. Many of the same racist and sexist stereotypes of the 1870s are still perpetuated 150 years later.