An excerpt from Untold Tales of Old British Columbia (Ronsdale Press, 2024)
During the summer of 2019, while sitting at the bar of the Bent Mast Pub in Victoria, I met a recent arrival to our city who had relocated from California.
What started as a casual conversation led me to comb my personal archives of historical notes and documents; this gentleman’s relocation to Victoria was motivated solely by the memory of his mother, who had been born there.
As we discussed his story further, I found out his ancestors — the Lee family — had come to Victoria at the height of the 1858 Fraser River gold rush and the founding of Canada’s oldest Chinatown.
In my opinion, current history writings have not sufficiently pursued the connection to San Francisco of these early Chinese who moved up the Pacific Slope.
The Chinese peoples of California, like their Black and Hispanic counterparts, were increasingly discriminated against by the exclusionary legislation and practices of California gold rush society.
As the California historian John Hittell wrote in the early 1860s of the “anti-Chinese mob”: “The white miners have a great dislike to Chinamen, who are frequently driven away from their claims, and expelled from districts by mobs. In such cases the officers of the law do not ordinarily interfere, and no matter how much the unfortunate yellow men may be beaten or despoiled, the law does not attempt to restore them to their rights or avenge their wrongs.”
Just three years before the B.C. gold rush, Chinese merchants based in San Francisco made an appeal to the American public, asking that their rights be respected.
Recorded in the Sacramento Daily Union on September 12, 1855, “The Appeal of the Chinese Merchants” stated: “to the American citizens — Americans: We, the undersigned, Chinese merchants, come before you to plead our cause, and that of our countrymen, residents of San Francisco, or diffused throughout California.
“We come to ask for the moral and industrious of our race liberty to remain in this State, and to continue peaceably and without molestation in our various labors and pursuits … Neither injustice nor severity has been spared us … Instead of the equality and protection which seemed to be promised by the laws of a great nation to those who seek a shelter under its flag, an asylum upon its territory, we find only inequality and oppression.
“Frequently before the Courts of Justice, where our evidence is not even listened to — where, if it obtain a hearing, by favor, but rarely is any account made of it. Inequality before public opinion — which is so far, apparently, from considering us as men, that many of your countrymen feel no scruple in making our lives their sport, and in using us as the object of their cruel amusement. Oppression by the Law, which subjects us to exorbitant taxes imposed upon us exclusively — oppression without the pale of the law, which refuses us its protection, and leaves us a prey to vexations and humilities, which it seems to invoke upon our heads by placing us in an exceptional position.
“Believe us, we have exaggerated nothing in this picture … We see well that you appear to desire our departure … [but] can they, at a given moment, provide themselves with the means of quitting this country in a body, in order to seek elsewhere some less inhospitable land.”
Berkeley law professor Charles McClain has stated that the 1855 session of the California legislature “was perhaps the high-water mark of anti-Chinese sentiment” for the whole of the 1850s, and a more than compelling reason to relocate to the new El Dorado of the north.
Two of the many Chinese companies that were apparent signatories to this 1855 petition were Sam Wo and Hop Kee.
Just three years later, in 1858, Hop Kee and Company had contracted Allan, Lowe and Company (Governor James Douglas’s favoured merchant house in San Francisco) to transport three hundred Chinese people to Victoria.
These early Chinese pioneers to British Columbia were likely labourers working under contract.
As Hittell noted: “The common laborers are brought to the state under contract to work for several years at a low rate of wages (from four to eight dollars) per month; and they usually keep these contracts faithfully. The employers in these cases are either the companies or associations of Chinese capitalists. The Chinamen generally are very industrious; indeed they are the most industrious class of our population, and also the most humble, quiet, and peaceful. The merchants are considered to be very faithful to their promises, and in San Francisco they can get credit among their acquaintances quite as readily as other men in similar branches of business.”
As historian John Adams has noted, it is likely that just as “Captain Jeremiah Nagle of the SS Commodore had discussed the plight of the blacks in California with James Douglas during the early spring of 1858 when discrimination there was at a peak” (resulting in Douglas’s invitation to Black people “to settle under the freedom of the British flag”), a similar invitation would have been extended to the persecuted Chinese peoples of California.
This is not surprising, considering that Douglas was himself a mixed-race Scottish West Indian who had experienced firsthand the growing racist, exclusionary policies adopted in Old Oregon.
Chinese in California were particularly hard hit by the institution of the foreign miners head tax, in addition to being routinely driven from their claims. For example, in 1858, Euro-American miners in Mariposa, California, ordered Chinese immigrants to leave their community within 48 hours.
Clearly, many did so. The San Francisco Bulletin reported on May 21, 1858, that three of the leading “aristocratic” businessmen left on the Panama for the Fraser River mines to prospect the country and make further preparations for those who would follow, the newspaper suggesting “that nearly the entire Chinese population … will leave for the British Possessions.”
Before B.C.’s Confederation with Canada, Chinese miners — like all other gold seekers regardless of race — were not forced to pay a foreign “head tax” but, rather, had to participate in a universally applied Crown licensing system. Crown privilege (as instituted in B.C.) appears in marked contrast to some of the more notorious “individual rights” practiced in California.
In this sense, Oregon was very much like California.
Hittell, again writing in the early 1860s, recorded the similar exclusionary laws under the title of the “Inferiority of Colored Persons” that stated that only white males were equal before the law and in a criminal case men who had distinct proportions of Black or Indian blood could not testify against a white man.
It’s worth pointing out that Chief Justice Matthew Baillie Begbie certainly insisted on the admissibility of Chinese testimony in local courts of law, unlike south of the border — making B.C. a comparative land of both mercantile and individual freedom.
To my mind, when placed in this context, Douglas’s offer of equality under the law for all — which had become imperial policy — becomes more than understandable, and a unique welcome for the times extended to Chinese people, too.
As a consequence, starting in 1858, members of the Chinese merchant class of San Francisco took the necessary steps to purchase the first of twenty town lots in Victoria that formed the nucleus of what is still the oldest Chinatown in Canada.
Who were some of these Chinese pioneers?
While it is well known that Kwong Lee and Company were established in Victoria in 1858, surprisingly little research has been undertaken to establish their historic connection to other Chinese merchant companies operating in California prior to the Fraser River gold rush.
From my research in the B.C. Archives, it appears that Kwong Lee and Company were working as the northern agents for Hop Kee and Company of San Francisco, and the archival trail provides a fascinating collection of documents (financial papers, receipts and so forth) that confirm this.
More importantly, the names of individuals noted on these documents, in effect, link our 1858 Chinese gold seekers to one of the most prominent and highly regarded members of the early nineteenth-century Chinese transpacific trade.
The B.C. Land Titles and Survey Branch holds the original town lot register for Victoria commencing in 1858. It highlights the frenzied rush for real estate that occurred at this time.
The Sacramento Daily Union reported on June 24, 1858, that “Sam Wo & Co., and Hop Kee & Co., the Chinese merchants, have purchased an entire square for Chinese purposes. No more lots are now sold by the Government; the rush on the land office was so great that it was thought proper to close it.”
It’s easy to locate the identity of the Chinese representatives from San Francisco in the original Victoria town lot register for 1858. Both Chang Tsoo and Chaok Fan purchased some twenty separate lots, and there seems to be evidence that the Hudson’s Bay Company provided ongoing financing.
In particular, Chang Tsoo is directly associated with Hop Kee and Company of California. Not only was this company protesting discriminatory policies in California, but also was the leading mercantile house that established Canada’s oldest Chinatown in Victoria.
In my personal conversations with the historian Lily Chow, we are convinced that Kwong Lee was, in fact, a branch of Hop Kee. But it is another name found on invoicing notes written from Victoria to San Francisco in 1858 that is particularly intriguing: Tong K. Achick.
Tong Achick had been educated at the Morrison Education Society School in Hong Kong in the 1840s. In the aftermath of the Treaty of Nanking, the British required interpreters for their new consular activities in port cities such as Shanghai. Achick was quickly drafted into the public service; few Chinese people were fluent in English at the time.
By 1847, Achick was appointed interpreter in the Magistrate’s Court of Hong Kong, before travelling with his uncle to the California gold rush in 1852. As Smith notes: “Although only 24 years of age, Achick soon became an important leader and spokesman for the Chinese community in California. His English-language education and intimate knowledge of Western ways qualified him for this position.”
Achick continued his interpreter’s role while in California and quickly became a leader of the Chinese community who made direct representations to the governor of California.
Smith quotes the missionary Speer: “This is the individual whose efforts last Spring (1852) in behalf of his countrymen, were the chief means in turning the tide of public opinion in their favour, when those unfriendly to them made the attempt to expel them from the country. And if he remains here, there is no man whose influence will be more felt among the large bodies of emigrants of his own race already in the State, or coming in the spring.”
Documents in the B.C. Archives suggest that Achick came to Victoria in 1858 and there is a clear connection between Tong Achick, Chang Tsoo, Hop Kee and Company and the Fraser River gold rush of 1858 that demands further research.
Clearly, these early Chinese pioneers of the Pacific Slope came not only for gold but also, in the case of British Columbia, a better home.
After James Douglas retired, the new governor, Arthur Kennedy, received an address from Victoria’s Chinese merchants that speaks directly to the kind of persecution they escaped from.
Reported in the British Colonist on April 5, 1864, it stated in part: “Chinese mind feel much devoted to Victoria Queen, for the protection and distributive rule of him Excellency old Governor Sir James Douglas, so reverse California ruling when applied to us Chinese country men. Us believe success will come in obeying rulers, not breaking links, holding on to what is right and true. In trading hope is good and look out large; big prospects for time to come.
“The maritime enterprises will add up wonderfully and come quick. China has silks, tea, rice, sugar, &c. Here is lumber, coal, and minerals, in return, and fish an exhaustless supply, which no other land can surpass.
“In ending, us confident in gracious hope in thee, first degree and first rank, and first link, and trust our Californian neighbors may not exercise prejudice to our grief.”
The letter was signed Tai Soong & Co., by Tong Kee Yan; Woo Sang & Co., by Chang Tsoo and Kwong Lee & Co., by Lee Chang, Tong Fat.
As reported in the Colonist, the governor’s reply to the address went through Lee Chang, who interpreted the governor’s words: “[T]hat he was very happy to receive their address. It was the desire of her Gracious Majesty the Queen and the Imperial Government to render equal justice to people of every nationality in her dominions, and he assured them that the Chinese population in this colony would be protected in their lives and property as well as any other of her subjects. His Excellency said he thought very highly of the sentiments expressed in their address, and said they showed a great knowledge of trade and commercial principles. He hoped they would also show the community that they would not be wanting in obedience to the laws, and they might depend on always receiving the protection of the laws.
“His Excellency remarked that he had always found the Chinese an orderly and industrious people, and he hoped they would keep up the same good reputation in this colony. He then courteously dismissed the deputation.”
So, here we see quite plainly that James Douglas had “reversed” the California policies of prejudice and intolerance and this fits well with the governor’s own views on the matter.
Seen from this contextual perspective, I believe the words of Douglas written in 1858 to Labouchere, secretary of state for the colonies, must be given substantially greater credence. He declared that the government granted, within Vancouver Island, protection for political exiles as long as they obeyed the law and led quiet and honest lives.
The attraction of British Columbia was gold, but for those outside full American citizenship, B.C. represented much more than the potential for economic gain. In the case of the Chinese, it was a rush not only for gold but freedom itself.
A fifth-generation British Columbian, Daniel Marshall is an author, professor, curator, documentarian and researcher focusing on untold stories of BC’s rich history.
