During the Reconstruction Era there were a number of schemes hatched by white plantation owners and industrialists to increase immigration to the region. The attempts to encourage European immigration to the states of the former Confederacy were notorious failures, but what about the effort to bring in Chinese immigrants? A look at the statistical table below based on the 1860, 1870, and 1880 Censuses is all you need to see how that whole thing worked out:
As can be seen in the table, virtually no Chinese were living in the South in either 1870 or 1880. Still, I often encounter people online who insist that the post-war South had a remarkable number of Chinese immigrants. This is simply not true. Nearly all Chinese immigrants settled on the West Coast and their children rarely moved east. The only non-Pacific Coast states with significant numbers of Chinese residents bordered on the Pacific States, had significant mining operations, or were along the routes of the Western railroads. Lousianna, with 71 Chinese in 1870 and 489 in 1880, was the only Southern State with more than a handful of Chinese. Most former-Confederate states could fit all of their Chinese residents into a medium-sized living room. For example, in 1880 Virginia had six Chinese and South Carolina had nine. I guess an optimist would say that South Carolina experienced a 900% increase over its 1870 Chinese population of one in 1879!
Three-out-of-four Chinese lived in California during these times. When they moved away from that state, they did not head South. Four of the former-Confederate states had fewer than 20 Chinese each in 1880!
I wonder if the Myth of the Southern Chinese is related to the Myth of the Black Confederate?
Source: Statistics of the Population of the United States at the Tenth Census (June 1, 1880) page 979
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I don’t think so. It was idea discussed, IIRC, even if it didn’t happen. I remember that European immigrants were “imported” or at least encouraged to settle in the South during the postwar era.
Thanks for commenting Matt. There were several states where either private committees or public commissions were set up to encourage European immigrants to move to the Post-War South. I will be posting some information on these in coming months. I will also be looking at Census statisitcs to see if any of these led to a meaningful migration. The handful that I have looked at all failed, but there may have been some that worked. I am not sure yet.
A useful corrective post based on census data, flawed as they are, which are better than exaggerated conclusions and/or hopes.