Beneath the Surface of Tenement Life: The Dialectics of Race and Poverty during America’s First Gilded Age

Orser, Charles E.

doi:10.1007/bf03376853

Cited by 12 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 18 publications

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“…The late nineteenth to early twentieth century in the United States was a time of profound social transformations, marked by the emergence of the working class, the abolition of slavery, and substantial waves of immigration (Orser 2011; Susman 2003). Although laborers contributed to the nation's growth during late nineteenth-century industrialization, racialized groups continued to face discrimination and sometimes violence from dominant society.…”

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confidence: 99%

Self-Reliance and Pig Husbandry in Los Angeles Chinatown (1880–1933): New Evidence from Dental Calculus Analysis and Historical Records

Wang,

Ng,

Serrao-Leiva

2023

Am. Antiq.

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This study explores the pig-raising practices of Chinese migrants in Los Angeles Chinatown during the Chinese Exclusion Era. Chinese butcher shops sold pork meat, and previous research indicates that they likely sold the more profitable parts outside of Chinatown for additional income while consuming cheaper cuts themselves. Using dental calculus analysis and archival research, this study further explores how Chinatown residents relied on pork to thrive in an anti-Chinese environment. Dental calculus results suggest that Chinese migrants raised their own pigs with food waste and by-products from rice fields; this pork was then sold to meat markets or consumed within the community. The analysis of immigration records indicates that Chinese butcher shops provided employment opportunities as well as housing, banking, and immigration support for Chinese migrants. Pig raising, therefore, not only supplied a source of meat for Chinese migrants but also supported a range of social and financial services for a marginalized group that faced everyday discrimination from dominant society. Overall, this study traces the labor and networks that small businesses in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries needed to source and distribute pork, and it highlights how a Chinese diasporic community developed a pork production system to resist racism.

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confidence: 99%