WEBVTT - The Wild West 4: East Meets West

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<v Speaker 1>Rudyard Kipling once wrote, oh, east is east and west

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<v Speaker 1>is west, and never the twain shall meet. But that

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<v Speaker 1>all changed in the mid to late eighteen hundreds, when

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<v Speaker 1>thousands of immigrants flocked to the New Frontier in search

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<v Speaker 1>of an opportunity, a golden one, you might say. It

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<v Speaker 1>started with the eighteen forty eight California gold Rush. Soon,

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<v Speaker 1>though miners were seeking other states to find their fortunes,

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<v Speaker 1>they arrived in South Dakota on sacred Lakota land. As

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<v Speaker 1>you might imagine, people stealing indigenous property caused quite a

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<v Speaker 1>few skirmishes. By eighteen sixty eight, the Treaty of Fort

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<v Speaker 1>Laramie ensured that everyone knew that the Black Hills of

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<v Speaker 1>South Dakota belonged to the Indigenous people already living there.

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<v Speaker 1>But settlers thought that if the Lakota people considered the

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<v Speaker 1>Black Hills sacred, it had to have some sort of

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<v Speaker 1>value other than spiritual. Then, in eighteen seventy four, Lieutenant

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<v Speaker 1>Colonel George Custer found gold aloe on the French Creek. Naturally,

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<v Speaker 1>word got out and caused a sudden influx of fortune hunters.

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<v Speaker 1>American and Chinese miners from California quickly set up camp

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<v Speaker 1>that they named Deadwood after a number of fallen trees

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<v Speaker 1>found in a nearby gulch. But Deadwood's reputation as a

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<v Speaker 1>place of lawlessness grew as quickly as the population, which

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<v Speaker 1>swelled to over five thousand. The next big growth spurt

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<v Speaker 1>happened when a pair of brothers found one of the

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<v Speaker 1>largest veins of gold bearing ore in American history. As

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<v Speaker 1>a result, Deadwood skyrocketed from five thousand to twenty five thousand.

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<v Speaker 1>Murders became common, opium was freely traded, Fights broke out regularly,

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<v Speaker 1>and while settlers clashed with each other, they also had

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<v Speaker 1>plenty of run ins with the Lakota tribes and the

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<v Speaker 1>Chinese prospectors for familiarity and protection. These Chinese miners formed

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<v Speaker 1>a tight knit community that other settlers referred to as Chinatown.

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<v Speaker 1>These immigrants established businesses that catered to the prospectors and others,

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<v Speaker 1>including restaurants and houses of gambling. It was East meets West,

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<v Speaker 1>give and take, friend and stranger, all made possible by gold.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Aaron Mankee and welcome to the Wild West. James

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<v Speaker 1>Wilson Marshall had come to Colomba, California from New Jersey

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<v Speaker 1>in search of work. He'd been hired to build a

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<v Speaker 1>water powered sawmill for his boss, John Sutter. The job

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<v Speaker 1>wasn't easy, but at least he was paid. Unlike the

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<v Speaker 1>Native Americans that Sutter enslaved, Sutter controlled the colony and

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<v Speaker 1>everyone in it. Marshall spotted something shining in the riverbed

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<v Speaker 1>at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains on a

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<v Speaker 1>clear January day in eighteen forty eight. He scooped out

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<v Speaker 1>a handful and stared at the gold flakes. To his delight,

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<v Speaker 1>the whole bed sparkled with gold. At first, Marshall and

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<v Speaker 1>Sutter tried to keep the discovery a secret, which meant

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<v Speaker 1>that before along everyone along the entire western coastline knew

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<v Speaker 1>about it. In San Francisco, storekeeper Sam Brannon debated only

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<v Speaker 1>a day or two before setting out to see if

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<v Speaker 1>the rumors were true, and they were. Brandon returned with

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<v Speaker 1>a vial of gold flake not long after that. He

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<v Speaker 1>was wealthy, but his fortune didn't come from the gold.

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<v Speaker 1>It came from selling shovels and other tools to prospectors.

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<v Speaker 1>By mid June, most of the city's male population had

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<v Speaker 1>bought supplies and headed to Coloma in search of gold.

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<v Speaker 1>By August, four thousand prospectors had gone, each seeking to

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<v Speaker 1>strike it rich. Ships arrived from everywhere, Chile, Hawaii, Peru,

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<v Speaker 1>and China. Those in Boston choosing to travel by ship

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<v Speaker 1>had to take a fifteen thousand mile eight month trip.

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<v Speaker 1>The journey by land was faster and shorter, taking six

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<v Speaker 1>months in between two and three thousand miles, but it

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<v Speaker 1>wasn't without risk or hardship. Travelers faced steep mountains and

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<v Speaker 1>swift river currents. Some faced starvation and attacks from indigenous people,

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<v Speaker 1>and even others. Those on the East Coast could hardly

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<v Speaker 1>believe the news coming from out west. It seemed too

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<v Speaker 1>good to be true. A letter from one prospector to

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<v Speaker 1>the editor of the Philadelphia North America read, your streams

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<v Speaker 1>have minnows and ours are paved with gold. In December,

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<v Speaker 1>President James K. Polk confirmed in his State of the

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<v Speaker 1>Union address that California did indeed have gold. Time was

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<v Speaker 1>of the essence. Though everyone knew that there wasn't enough

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<v Speaker 1>for everyone to flock to California. Men abruptly left their

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<v Speaker 1>jobs at factories and shops. They took their life savings

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<v Speaker 1>and headed west, leaving their wives and families behind, promising

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<v Speaker 1>to return once they had struck it rich. And this

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<v Speaker 1>flood began to arrive in California by eighteen forty nine,

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<v Speaker 1>earning them the nickname the Minor forty nine ers. And

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<v Speaker 1>as you might imagine, these mining towns boomed overnight shops, saloons,

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<v Speaker 1>and gambling establishments all sprang up. Towns were overcrowded almost immediately,

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<v Speaker 1>and often without any sort of law enforcement, making them

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<v Speaker 1>the perfect place thieves and outlaws. Women who were left

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<v Speaker 1>behind on the East Coast struggled to support their children

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<v Speaker 1>or to work the farms. Finding employment outside the house

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<v Speaker 1>was difficult. Even if they managed to find a place

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<v Speaker 1>that hired women, the pay wasn't good enough to support

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<v Speaker 1>an entire family. Some of these women made their way

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<v Speaker 1>west to be with their husbands. Others believed that the

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<v Speaker 1>move would offer a change of pace and a bit

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<v Speaker 1>of adventure compared to their everyday lives back home. And

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<v Speaker 1>then there were the women who saw a way to

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<v Speaker 1>make their own fortunes in a town where everyone couldn't

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<v Speaker 1>be a miner. Out west, jobs were more plentiful. They

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<v Speaker 1>could be shopkeepers, cooks, and teachers, just to name a

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<v Speaker 1>few others took a more entrepreneurial route, studying up boarding

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<v Speaker 1>houses or becoming hotel proprietors. Due to the need for

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<v Speaker 1>these services, women had more societal power than they did

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<v Speaker 1>back out east. Out West, they could own property and

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<v Speaker 1>run a business. But life wasn't all gold and riches

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<v Speaker 1>when people moved from one mining town to another. Business

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<v Speaker 1>has failed as the populations moved on, and without access

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<v Speaker 1>to as many doctors, illnesses and injury killed many of

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<v Speaker 1>the new residents. In reality, those seeking a glamorous life

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<v Speaker 1>were unlikely to find it, but as long as the

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<v Speaker 1>mountains and rivers had gold, they would keep on trying.

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<v Speaker 1>If there were fortunes to be had, people would keep coming,

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<v Speaker 1>creating new opportunities and then, of course, dashing those dreams.

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<v Speaker 1>Chinese immigrants, which happened to be all men at that time,

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<v Speaker 1>started out as entrepreneurs while others worked for the miners.

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<v Speaker 1>Discrimination kept them from living among the white residents, but

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<v Speaker 1>they set up their own city within San Francisco. Like

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<v Speaker 1>the area in South Dakota, the settlers there called it Chinatown.

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<v Speaker 1>In eighteen forty nine, twenty year old Ah Toy stepped

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<v Speaker 1>off a boat traveling from China. She was a foreign woman,

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<v Speaker 1>alone in a foreign land. San Francisco was already a

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<v Speaker 1>bustling town, but like the Chinese men who came seeking gold,

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<v Speaker 1>Ah Toy was determined to make her mark. It's unclear

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<v Speaker 1>if the ship arrived from Hong Kong or another port.

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<v Speaker 1>She arrived alone, though, although there seems to be a

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<v Speaker 1>couple of theories about why that is. In one story,

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<v Speaker 1>a Toy was the captain's mistress. He offered her safe

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<v Speaker 1>passage and enough money to start a life in San Francisco.

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<v Speaker 1>Another story is that her husband died during the travel,

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<v Speaker 1>leaving her alone to navigate a new life on her own.

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<v Speaker 1>Regardless of how she came to America, some believed that

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<v Speaker 1>a Tooy arrived with her feet bound, a common practice

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<v Speaker 1>in China's upper classes. Where Victorian England coveted women with

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<v Speaker 1>tiny waists, Chinese men preferred those with tiny feet. A

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<v Speaker 1>foot size no more than three inches was prized the most.

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<v Speaker 1>Those with feet longer than five inches or more were

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<v Speaker 1>considered undesirable. Binding became a way of preventing women's feet

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<v Speaker 1>from growing longer, although it also left them disfigured. With

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<v Speaker 1>a new life came new freedom and a toy removed

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<v Speaker 1>her bindings. Without a husband, she needed to find work,

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<v Speaker 1>which wasn't exactly plentiful for women, especially minorities, but she

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<v Speaker 1>managed to find employment with the trader who hired her

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<v Speaker 1>as his servant. The gold rush brought thousands of immigrants

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<v Speaker 1>from China. Soon enough, one third of San Francisco's population

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<v Speaker 1>was Chinese. American miners found the increasing numbers posed too

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<v Speaker 1>much competition for the gold that they wanted, so in

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<v Speaker 1>eighteen fifty, California enacted a law requiring all immigrants to

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<v Speaker 1>pay a twenty dollars per month foreign miners license. Additionally,

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<v Speaker 1>racial minorities, including Native Americans, Mexicans, African Americans, and Chinese

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<v Speaker 1>immigrants were limited in their right to vote, to own property,

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<v Speaker 1>or even participate on juries. Marriages between races were absolutely prohibited.

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<v Speaker 1>Mining became too expensive for Chinese miners, and those who

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<v Speaker 1>stayed in the area had little choice but to find

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<v Speaker 1>other ways to earn a living. One of the most

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<v Speaker 1>common occupations was doing laundry for the prospectors. This allowed

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<v Speaker 1>them to keep any gold dust or flakes that they

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<v Speaker 1>found on the miner's clothing or in the washing water.

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<v Speaker 1>Some of them, though, pivoted to other businesses, opening restaurants,

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<v Speaker 1>gaming halls, retail shops or shoe repair A few ran

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<v Speaker 1>opium houses or pharmacies, and those who still hoped to

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<v Speaker 1>strike it rich left California for other states that did

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<v Speaker 1>not require an expensive license. Black Hills, South Dakota became

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<v Speaker 1>one of those popular destinations. But women in the West

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<v Speaker 1>didn't have the same opportunities as men. Longing for a

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<v Speaker 1>life that didn't continue to leave her in poverty, a

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<v Speaker 1>toy noticed how other women were earning a living with

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<v Speaker 1>limited opportunities. Some of them had turned to sex work.

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<v Speaker 1>She noticed that there was no shortage of men willing

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<v Speaker 1>to pay, driving the price for their services higher than

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<v Speaker 1>other forms of employment. Their lifestyle was purely for economic reasons,

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<v Speaker 1>so the women kept the liquor flowing at saloons and

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<v Speaker 1>dance halls. The average age of a customer there hovered

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<v Speaker 1>around twenty, although some were as old as fifty, others

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<v Speaker 1>were just thirteen. Regardless of though, the women all have

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<v Speaker 1>the same goals make money, marry well, and get out

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<v Speaker 1>of the business. This was more difficult, if not impossible,

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<v Speaker 1>for minority women. Now the number of men in relation

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<v Speaker 1>to the available sex workers determine the price in a town.

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<v Speaker 1>Sometimes the women made ten dollars or the approximate equivalent

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<v Speaker 1>of about four hundred dollars today. At night, the women

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<v Speaker 1>worked in bordellos. The money and the opportunity to find

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<v Speaker 1>and marry a rich prospector brought in women from all

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<v Speaker 1>over Europe. Ah Toy watched these women rise in society.

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<v Speaker 1>The most beautiful European and American women worked in the

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<v Speaker 1>better parlor houses and bought the finest dresses. They entertained

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<v Speaker 1>the most influential and wealthiest men in San Francisco. Sex

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<v Speaker 1>work was a profitable business in mining towns, but it

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<v Speaker 1>was also dangerous, and while some women earned enough to

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<v Speaker 1>make a fresh start elsewhere, ah Toy realized that the

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<v Speaker 1>real money was in the running of the brothel. She

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<v Speaker 1>decided to set her goals high. One day she would

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<v Speaker 1>run a brothel of her own, but first she needed money.

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<v Speaker 1>A Toy set up her shop in a shack just

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<v Speaker 1>four feet wide by six feet tall in Chinatown. Her

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<v Speaker 1>slender body, good looks, and infectious smile allured many men.

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<v Speaker 1>While most of her clients were miners, she kept some

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<v Speaker 1>of San Francisco's social elite company as well, including a

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<v Speaker 1>French writer living in the area and California's Senator David Broderick.

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<v Speaker 1>Broderick's fixer, Charles Dwayne, was quoted as saying that a

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<v Speaker 1>Toy was the finest looking woman he had ever seen,

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<v Speaker 1>and that made her stand out, which was important. San

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<v Speaker 1>Francisco was home to nearly twenty five thousand people. A Toy, though,

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<v Speaker 1>was the only Chinese sex worker in the city, which

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<v Speaker 1>made her popularity grow. More Chinese women came in on

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<v Speaker 1>steamships and men lining the harbor streets to greet them.

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<v Speaker 1>The women were auctioned to the highest bidders willing to

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<v Speaker 1>pay for their services. For a Toy, business was more

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<v Speaker 1>than good. In a year, she opened her own parlor,

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<v Speaker 1>hiring women knew to the city. San Francisco had plenty

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<v Speaker 1>of brothels and enough customers to go around. San Francisco's

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<v Speaker 1>first Madam, Irene McCready, owned two previous establishments that burned

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<v Speaker 1>to the ground. When she rebuilt a third time, she

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<v Speaker 1>chose a brick building and if they weren't going there,

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<v Speaker 1>they were going to. Another famous madam, Belle Cora, who

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<v Speaker 1>ran a posh bordello on DuPont Street. Now there were

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<v Speaker 1>other brothels in town, although perhaps not as stylish as

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<v Speaker 1>MacCready's or Cora's. The lesser establishments kept to the basics

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<v Speaker 1>of furnishings a wash bowl, a chair, and a bed.

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<v Speaker 1>Like the more upscale Madams, A Toy wanted a more

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<v Speaker 1>upscale business at Tooy's first parlor house, opened on Pike Street.

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<v Speaker 1>Instead of the basics, she insisted on stylish furniture and

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<v Speaker 1>embroidered cushions. She was a shrewd businesswoman with a reputation

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<v Speaker 1>for being tough, and frequently took clients who refused to

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<v Speaker 1>pay right to court. The problem was that technically her

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<v Speaker 1>establishment wasn't legal, so when a Toy took dead beats

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<v Speaker 1>to court, she had to choose her complaint care carefully,

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<v Speaker 1>citing failure to make appropriate compensation for services rendered. But

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<v Speaker 1>it turned out that a Toy wasn't the only entrepreneur

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<v Speaker 1>in Chinatown. Chinese gangster Ye A Tai offered protection to

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<v Speaker 1>businesses that paid him, and trouble for those who didn't.

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<v Speaker 1>He should have known that when he tried to extort

0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:22.760
<v Speaker 1>a Toy, she would fight back. Yi Aah demanded that

0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:26.560
<v Speaker 1>a toy pay him a protection tax, and she declined.

0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:29.840
<v Speaker 1>If she wanted protection, she knew exactly where to find it.

0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:32.920
<v Speaker 1>The police station was just down the street from her parlor.

0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:37.080
<v Speaker 1>Although the court dismissed her lawsuit, ye A quickly found

0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:40.480
<v Speaker 1>himself behind bars for assault and grand larceny. When he

0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:43.560
<v Speaker 1>was released a year later, he never bothered a toy again.

0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.760
<v Speaker 1>The law changed for Chinese immigrants in the mid eighteen fifties.

0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:51.040
<v Speaker 1>The taxes loving on immigrants and minorities forced many of

0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:56.040
<v Speaker 1>them to move. Miners, fishermen, laundry operators, and brothel owners

0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:59.760
<v Speaker 1>earned less income as a result. A Toy, who operated

0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:03.320
<v Speaker 1>so vereral brothels across the city began to feel those effects.

0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:06.439
<v Speaker 1>The source of her problems was a group of Protestant

0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:09.560
<v Speaker 1>men who formed the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance in

0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:13.520
<v Speaker 1>eighteen fifty one. Their mission was to stamp out prostitution

0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:17.520
<v Speaker 1>along with other unregulated vices. Although they were a small

0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:20.640
<v Speaker 1>subset of the city, they had connections with prominent and

0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:24.600
<v Speaker 1>highly influential people in authority. In eighteen fifty four, the

0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:28.960
<v Speaker 1>city passed in ordinance against brothels Mexican and Chinese brothels

0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:32.000
<v Speaker 1>were the first to be shut down, and authorities arrested

0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:34.760
<v Speaker 1>A Toy. She was released a short while later, but

0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:37.800
<v Speaker 1>the city was changing. Soon there would be no more

0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:42.000
<v Speaker 1>minority owned brothels left. Then, in eighteen fifty five, the

0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:45.680
<v Speaker 1>gold Rush officially ended in San Francisco. Although many of

0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:48.520
<v Speaker 1>the better known brothels managed to stay open, there was

0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:52.160
<v Speaker 1>no longer room or clientele for entrepreneurs like a Toy,

0:14:52.600 --> 0:15:04.920
<v Speaker 1>so she shuddered her business then returned to China. In

0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:08.920
<v Speaker 1>eighteen sixty, San Francisco began reinventing itself from a wild

0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:12.840
<v Speaker 1>West mining town to something more upscale. Authorities cracked down

0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:16.520
<v Speaker 1>even harder on Chinese brothels, passing eight new codes against

0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:20.520
<v Speaker 1>prostitution between eighteen sixty six and nineteen oh five. Chinese

0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:23.000
<v Speaker 1>women were jailed for five days and fined upwards of

0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:27.360
<v Speaker 1>fifty dollars that's roughly eight hundred dollars today. White sex workers,

0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:31.080
<v Speaker 1>though mainly seemed to be exempt. A Tooy did return

0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:34.160
<v Speaker 1>to the United States in eighteen sixty. Although she could

0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:36.880
<v Speaker 1>no longer work in her former profession, she enjoyed the

0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:40.480
<v Speaker 1>companionship of several long term partners, and yet she never

0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:44.080
<v Speaker 1>married any of them. Why what Laws known as anti

0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:48.240
<v Speaker 1>missagenation laws prevented those in mixed race relationships from marrying,

0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:52.240
<v Speaker 1>and those laws remained in effect until nineteen forty three.

0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:55.440
<v Speaker 1>More regulations and laws followed to curb the influx of

0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:59.640
<v Speaker 1>Chinese laborers immigrating and mass to the United States. President

0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:03.160
<v Speaker 1>chess U A. Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act in

0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:06.640
<v Speaker 1>eighteen eighty two, setting a ten year ban on workers

0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:09.200
<v Speaker 1>coming from China. Although she may not have come to

0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:12.080
<v Speaker 1>the United States seeking gold, at Toy did earn a

0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:16.120
<v Speaker 1>considerable fortune. She also made her mark on history. She

0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:18.880
<v Speaker 1>was the second ever Chinese woman to arrive in San

0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:22.360
<v Speaker 1>Francisco and became the first Chinese sex worker. It said

0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:25.000
<v Speaker 1>that miners often raced to her shanty and that the

0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:28.760
<v Speaker 1>men standing in line wrapped around the block. A Tooy

0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:33.000
<v Speaker 1>had become San Francisco's first Chinese madam and opened several brothels.

0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:35.800
<v Speaker 1>She managed to navigate life in one of Chinatown's most

0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:39.560
<v Speaker 1>dangerous locations too. Most brothels were tucked away in alleys

0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:42.600
<v Speaker 1>with opium houses. As far as the city was concerned.

0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:45.520
<v Speaker 1>If the establishments were not on the main roads, they

0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:48.560
<v Speaker 1>would turn a blind eye. But there's a darker side

0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:50.880
<v Speaker 1>to that. While many Chinese women who came to the

0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:54.120
<v Speaker 1>United States to work in brothels did so willingly, others

0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:57.080
<v Speaker 1>did not. You see, some were kidnapped back in China

0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:00.600
<v Speaker 1>and then sold into the business. Then in America, brothel

0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:03.720
<v Speaker 1>owners and wealthy men seeking a mistress would buy them

0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:07.879
<v Speaker 1>at an auction. It was horrifying, an alternate version of slavery,

0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:12.280
<v Speaker 1>and deeply dehumanizing. In the end, the crackdown on sex

0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:15.679
<v Speaker 1>work ended a Toy's livelihood. And while many a miner

0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:18.600
<v Speaker 1>lost and found a fortune during the gold Rush, it

0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:21.720
<v Speaker 1>seems that ah Toy was wise with her money. Reportedly

0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:25.320
<v Speaker 1>she had earned and saved a considerable fortune. Ah Toy

0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:28.680
<v Speaker 1>lived a quiet life after closing her business and disappeared

0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:31.360
<v Speaker 1>from the spotlight. The last time her name was recorded

0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:34.040
<v Speaker 1>it was in the nineteen twenties to announce the news

0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:37.040
<v Speaker 1>of her death. But she lived a life that stood

0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:40.920
<v Speaker 1>out from the crowd. Like Belcorra, Madame MacCready, and other

0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:43.360
<v Speaker 1>women of the Wild West who were denied a way

0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:46.280
<v Speaker 1>to earn a living, ah Toy quickly learned how to

0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:50.240
<v Speaker 1>command power and financial security in a strange New Land.

0:17:50.880 --> 0:18:00.919
<v Speaker 1>For them, the West was won with sex. The story

0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:03.560
<v Speaker 1>of San Francisco and the gold Rush certainly takes on

0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:06.000
<v Speaker 1>a new appearance when viewed through the lens of the

0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:09.000
<v Speaker 1>immigrants who played a key role from service jobs to

0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:13.119
<v Speaker 1>sex work. The Chinese experience was bleak, always uphill, and

0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:16.720
<v Speaker 1>usually surrounded by prejudice. But of course there is always

0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:19.880
<v Speaker 1>more to the story. Stick around through this brief sponsor

0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:22.920
<v Speaker 1>break to hear my teammate Ali Stead tell you one

0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:30.400
<v Speaker 1>more tale from San Francisco.

0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:34.159
<v Speaker 2>In the years since the gold Rush, Chinatown continued to grow,

0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:37.800
<v Speaker 2>so much so that the boom in population would present

0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:42.159
<v Speaker 2>a problem. Throughout the late eighteen nineties, San Francisco's Chinatown

0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:45.680
<v Speaker 2>had become a bustling neighborhood filled with shops, restaurants, and homes.

0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:48.600
<v Speaker 2>That was all about to change, though. In March of

0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:52.639
<v Speaker 2>nineteen hundred, forty one year old Wongchut King, a Chinese

0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:56.040
<v Speaker 2>immigrant who had come to America nearly two decades earlier,

0:18:56.560 --> 0:18:59.440
<v Speaker 2>wasn't feeling well. He worked hard at the lumber yard

0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:04.240
<v Speaker 2>not far from his home. Home, however, was a generous

0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:07.760
<v Speaker 2>word for his living conditions. The dank room he and

0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:10.679
<v Speaker 2>several other men shared wasn't fit for the rats that

0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:14.800
<v Speaker 2>frequently visited, much less other human beings. The men rented

0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:18.240
<v Speaker 2>the space from the Globe Hotel on DuPont Street. Small

0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:21.399
<v Speaker 2>and dank, the men took turns sleeping on the floor

0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:24.160
<v Speaker 2>and mere feet away. Wong and the others had dug

0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:27.160
<v Speaker 2>a small pit to use as a toilet. They had

0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:31.439
<v Speaker 2>no other options. Chinatown residents were busy celebrating the lunar

0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:34.840
<v Speaker 2>New Year, and ironically, it was the Year of the Rat.

0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:38.200
<v Speaker 2>Wong wasn't up for celebrating, though, he had come down

0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:41.359
<v Speaker 2>with a fever, chills, and body aches. He consulted a

0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:44.240
<v Speaker 2>Chinese doctor, who could do little for the swollen lymph

0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:48.280
<v Speaker 2>nodes in Wong's neck and groin. Soon, his fever raged

0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:51.840
<v Speaker 2>higher and he couldn't keep food down. Before long, he

0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:55.879
<v Speaker 2>slipped into a coma and passed away. When the city's

0:19:55.920 --> 0:20:00.640
<v Speaker 2>undertaker received his body, he faithfully reported Wong's symptoms, which

0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:04.080
<v Speaker 2>prompted city health officials to come down and inspect the body,

0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:08.880
<v Speaker 2>and what they found horrified them. Wong had died from

0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:12.600
<v Speaker 2>bubonic plague, and officials now had a problem on their hands.

0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:16.040
<v Speaker 2>Board of Health members met and debated late into the night,

0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:19.920
<v Speaker 2>finally deciding to quarantine Chinatown, hoping to stop the spread.

0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:23.280
<v Speaker 2>The root cause of bubonic plague had only been discovered

0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:26.560
<v Speaker 2>a few years prior. Until then, people believed that the

0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:30.760
<v Speaker 2>plague was transmitted from germs through open wounds or food,

0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:34.800
<v Speaker 2>or even bad air. The real cause was a tiny

0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:38.399
<v Speaker 2>bacterium spread by rats, or more precisely, the fleas than

0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:42.359
<v Speaker 2>infested those rats. Within a week, eight more people in

0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:46.200
<v Speaker 2>Chinatown had died, though that number might have actually been higher.

0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:50.840
<v Speaker 2>Doctors converged going door to door searching for potential victims,

0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:54.720
<v Speaker 2>but their search turned up empty. Doctors did report on

0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:58.280
<v Speaker 2>the deplorable conditions families were living in, all of which

0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:02.000
<v Speaker 2>were the perfect breeding ground for the plague. They also

0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:06.200
<v Speaker 2>believed that residents were hiding sick family and friends, rightfully

0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:11.240
<v Speaker 2>fearing racial backlash and poor treatment. Public health officials initiated

0:21:11.280 --> 0:21:14.000
<v Speaker 2>a massive clean up effort, but it was too little,

0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:18.520
<v Speaker 2>too late, and the death toll continued to rise. Doctor

0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:22.320
<v Speaker 2>Joseph J. Kinyon, a leader in disease prevention, wanted to

0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:26.880
<v Speaker 2>warn San Francisco residence of impending infection. Politicians and business

0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:31.240
<v Speaker 2>owners did not. A senator from San Francisco even stood

0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:34.600
<v Speaker 2>on the Senate floor and shouted that doctor Kenyon should

0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:39.280
<v Speaker 2>hang for spreading disinformation. These upstanding citizens, however, did not

0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:43.480
<v Speaker 2>fear the disease. They feared economic loss, and a smear

0:21:43.560 --> 0:21:49.040
<v Speaker 2>campaign to discredit Kenyon's reputation began in earnest newspapers claimed

0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:52.080
<v Speaker 2>that the doctor and city health officials were spreading fear

0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:56.919
<v Speaker 2>of plague in order to fleece taxpayers out of money. Meanwhile,

0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:02.000
<v Speaker 2>government officials, including the governor himself, denied the outbreak even existed.

0:22:02.800 --> 0:22:06.400
<v Speaker 2>Doing otherwise, they feared would undoubtedly harm the state's produce

0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:11.640
<v Speaker 2>industry worth over forty million. Governor Henry Gage proposed that

0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:14.680
<v Speaker 2>it be made a crime for anyone to publish reports

0:22:14.840 --> 0:22:19.359
<v Speaker 2>or articles about the plague outbreak without express written permission

0:22:19.560 --> 0:22:23.119
<v Speaker 2>from the California Board of Health. Doctor Kenyon, of course,

0:22:23.600 --> 0:22:27.960
<v Speaker 2>would never receive such permission. Over the next fourteen months,

0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:31.439
<v Speaker 2>the city covered up more deaths, plague or not. The

0:22:31.480 --> 0:22:35.480
<v Speaker 2>public was beginning to panic, and many blamed the Chinese

0:22:35.480 --> 0:22:39.160
<v Speaker 2>community for the outbreak. In April of the following year,

0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:44.240
<v Speaker 2>United States Surgeon General doctor Walter Wyman ordered doctor Kenyon

0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:49.359
<v Speaker 2>to leave San Francisco, though Gage continued to protest, Some,

0:22:49.800 --> 0:22:53.760
<v Speaker 2>like the governor of Texas, didn't believe him. He threatened

0:22:53.760 --> 0:22:56.399
<v Speaker 2>to stop all trade with California until they had the

0:22:56.400 --> 0:23:00.159
<v Speaker 2>outbreak under control, and asked federal investigators to step in.

0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:04.760
<v Speaker 2>Gage intended to declare the state had eradicated the disease,

0:23:05.040 --> 0:23:08.560
<v Speaker 2>if only to save face, But in early July, another

0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:11.879
<v Speaker 2>resident of Chinatown died, and by summer's end a dozen

0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:15.719
<v Speaker 2>more were dead. The federal government descended to investigate and

0:23:15.760 --> 0:23:18.879
<v Speaker 2>began to prove Governor Gage was covering up the truth.

0:23:19.560 --> 0:23:22.800
<v Speaker 2>Gage insisted the federal government was wrong and that men

0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:26.800
<v Speaker 2>had died from syphilis, but as more deaths occurred, voters

0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:29.719
<v Speaker 2>were losing faith in him, and they showed their disapproval

0:23:29.720 --> 0:23:32.040
<v Speaker 2>by voting against him in the nineteen oh two election.

0:23:33.000 --> 0:23:36.679
<v Speaker 2>The succeeding governor, George Pardie, eventually put an end to

0:23:36.760 --> 0:23:40.840
<v Speaker 2>the epidemic. In nineteen oh four, Grim.

0:23:40.760 --> 0:23:43.800
<v Speaker 1>And Mont Presents The Wild West was executive produced by

0:23:43.800 --> 0:23:47.520
<v Speaker 1>me Aaron Manky and hosted by Aaron Mankey and Alexandra Steed.

0:23:48.000 --> 0:23:50.800
<v Speaker 1>Writing for this season was provided by Michelle Mudo, with

0:23:50.920 --> 0:23:54.840
<v Speaker 1>research by Alexandra Steed, Sam Alberty, Cassandra de Alba, and

0:23:54.920 --> 0:23:58.320
<v Speaker 1>Harry Marx. Fact checking was performed by Jamie Vargas, with

0:23:58.440 --> 0:24:02.800
<v Speaker 1>sensitivity reading by Stacy partial Jensen. Production assistance was provided

0:24:02.880 --> 0:24:06.840
<v Speaker 1>by Josh Thain, Jesse Funk, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.

0:24:07.160 --> 0:24:09.440
<v Speaker 1>To learn more about this and other shows from Grim

0:24:09.480 --> 0:24:46.399
<v Speaker 1>and Mild and iHeartRadio, visit Grimandmild dot com