| North Adams strike | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 "Chase's Chinamen"— Chinese workers | |||
| Date | 1870 | ||
| Location | 42°42′7.44″N73°6′49.97″W / 42.7020667°N 73.1138806°W /42.7020667; -73.1138806 | ||
| Goals | Eight-hour day | ||
| Methods | Strikes,Protest,Demonstrations | ||
| Resulted in | Chinese immigrants brought in from California, replacing union workers for more competitive wages | ||
| Parties | |||
| |||
| Lead figures | |||
Non-centralized leadership | |||
| Casualties and losses | |||
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TheNorth Adams strike (also called North Adams Scandal) was a strike in 1870 by shoe workers of theOrder of the Knights of St. Crispin, againstCalvin T. Sampson's Shoe factory, inNorth Adams, Massachusetts. The strike itself was broken when the factory superintendent, George W. Chase, fired the Irish workers, replacing them with newly employed seventy-five Chinese men fromCalifornia.[1] Bringing national attention to North Adams, the event started a nation-wide trend of bringing in scab labor and helped perpetuate the concept of immigrants coming to the United States to steal jobs, which led to much hostility towards Chinese immigrants across the nation.[2]
The incident sparked widespread working-class protest across the country, shaped legislative debate in Congress, and helped make Chinese immigration a sustained national issue.[citation needed] Twelve years later, the United States passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring most Chinese immigrants from entering the country. TheChinese Exclusion Act was the first major anti-immigration law in American history.[3][4][5]