Rock Springs Massacre
2 September 1885Chinatown, Rock Springs, Sweetwater County, WY
White coal miners attacked the Chinese quarter of Rock Springs, killing at least 28 Chinese miners and burning the district. Several hundred survivors were driven out of town; no one was convicted.
The Union Pacific's coal mines at Rock Springs, Wyoming Territory, employed hundreds of Chinese miners, hired in part to hold wages down and to break strikes - a strategy the company pursued deliberately, and which the Knights of Labor and local white miners answered by turning on the Chinese workers rather than the company.
On 2 September 1885 white miners, some armed, moved on the Chinese quarter and gave its residents an hour to leave, then opened fire and set the buildings alight. At least 28 Chinese miners were killed - some burned in their homes, some shot as they ran into the hills - and fifteen were wounded. Several hundred survivors fled onto the prairie; federal troops escorted them back days later and then remained in Rock Springs for thirteen years.
A grand jury declined to indict anyone, reporting that it could find no cause for arrest. The United States ultimately paid China an indemnity of about $147,000 while refusing to accept liability. The massacre was part of a wave of expulsions of Chinese communities across the West in the years after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Sources
- The Rock Springs MassacreWyoHistory.org, Wyoming State Historical Societywyohistory.org
- Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese AmericansRandom House (2007)Jean Pfaelzer's study of the expulsions and massacres of Chinese communities across the American West.