North Adams strike

The North Adams strike was a strike in 1870 by shoe workers of the Order of the Knights of St. Crispin, against Calvin T. Sampson's Shoe factory, in North Adams, Massachusetts. The strike itself was broken when the shoe factory superintendent, George W. Chase, employed seventy-five Chinese men from California.[1]

North Adams strike
"Chase's Chinamen"— Chinese workers
Date1870
Location
42°42′7.44″N 73°6′49.97″W
GoalsEight-hour day
MethodsStrikes, Protest, Demonstrations
Resulted inChinese immigrants brought in from California, replacing union workers for more competitive wages
Parties to the civil conflict
Mill management
Lead figures
Non-centralized leadership Calvin T. Sampson George W. Chase
Casualties and losses
Arrests: 2

Legacy

The incident sparked widespread working-class protest across the country, shaped legislative debate in Congress, and helped make Chinese immigration a sustained national issue. Twelve years later, the United States passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring most Chinese immigrants from entering the country. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first major anti-immigration law in American history.[2][3][4]

References

Sources

  • Anthony W. Lee (2008). A Shoemaker's Story: Being Chiefly about French Canadian Immigrants, Enterprising Photographers, Rascal Yankees, and Chinese Cobblers in a Nineteenth-Century Factory Town. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691133256.
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