To view the full contents of the sheet, including source citations, click the link below to open the sheet in a new tab/browser window:

Full Lethal Anti-Chinese Violence Spreadsheet Link

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The earliest cases of racial violence against Chinese immigrants in the U.S. and its territories known to this project occurred in the 1850s, almost immediately after the first large-scale wave of Chinese immigration began. Patterns of Chinese immigration, and anti-Chinese violence as a result, changed after the early 20th century when the effects of immigration restriction became more pronounced. As such, although racial violence did not end after 1910 by any means, this project nevertheless focuses temporally on the six decades between 1850 and 1910.

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This project focuses on cases of anti-Chinese racial violence within the geographical boundaries of the United States and its territories. Although anti-Chinese violence also occurred in Canada, Mexico, and elsewhere during the period and was arguably connected to the American system of anti-Chinese nativism, the database does not currently reflect these cases. It is the editor's future goal to research the historical geopolitical contexts of anti-Chinese violence outside of the U.S. and ultimately include those incidents in the discussion.

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The sheet is organized by victim, and includes Chinese who perished as a result of racial violence, which this project defines as violence committed by non-Chinese perpetrators. For a list of nonlethal violence against Chinese in the U.S. organized by case, navigate using the header at the top of this page. Ethnicity is determined by the sources cited in the spreadsheet; although it is possible that a source has misidentified a victim, the editor has determined the cases listed to be credible. The spreadsheet attempts to take an approach that is both quantitative and qualitative, and lists cases that include white perpetrators as well as other ethnicities, including Native Americans. Although racial violence against Chinese perpetrated by whites was undoubtedly different in cause from that perpetrated by Native Americans, this spreadsheet does not differentiate. Instead, it only seeks to provide these cases for readers to draw their own conclusions. Incidents that sources have included as an example of anti-Chinese racial violence but have not elaborated on perpetrators’ identities have been attributed to the generic “anti-Chinese nativists.”

 

This list includes murders, fatal lynchings, and other incidents of racial violence where Chinese victims perished intentionally or otherwise. Cases that cannot be reasonably determined to have included Chinese victims who died or non-Chinese perpetrators have been omitted. Lastly, this list only includes what might be called "popular" or "extralegal" violence. "Legal" executions or summary executions performed by the state or state actors, such as on-duty, legally-appointed law enforcement, have been omitted.

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This list only includes cases known to the editor that fit the aforementioned qualifications, and should not be considered complete or exhaustive. Cases that the editor is still working to verify qualifying details, such as the ethnicity of the victim, the perpetrator, or to confirm the case's existence at all, will be added to the list when they can be confirmed. New cases will be added to the list as they are discovered.

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Lastly, the "Corresponding Case" column is used to connect cases in this list with entries in the "Nonlethal Violence" database that correspond to the same incident. To view the case that corresponds with applicable victims listed below, find the corresponding number in the same column on the Nonlethal Violence spreadsheet.

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This spreadsheet is sorted by date first, state/territory second, and place third. The sources credited are listed in order of publication date.

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