Works Cited and Secondary Source Summaries

Works Cited

"A Chinese Slave." San Francisco Bulletin. 64.24 (May 1887): 2. America's Historical Newspapers. EBSCOhost. Web. 13 April 2010.

"Bondage of Chinese Women." San Francisco Bulletin. 37.95 (Jan. 1874): 3. America's Historical Newspapers. EBSCOhost. Web. 13 April 2010.

Gentry, Curtis. The Madams of San Francisco. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc, 1964. Print

"Law Intelligence." Daily Placer Times and Transcript. 5.1495 (Dec. 1854): 2. America's Historical Newspapers. EBSCOhost. Web. 13 April 2010.

Martin, Mildred Crowl. Chinatown's Angry Angel. Palo Alto, California: Pacific Book's Publishers, 1977. Print

McClain, Laurence Wu. "Donaldina Cameron." Chinese America: History and Perspectives (2001): 76. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 14 Apr. 2010

Peiss, Kathy and Thomas G. Paterson. Major Problems in the History of American Sexuality: Documents and Essays (Major Problems in American History Series). Houghton Mifflin Company, March 2001.

Sridharan, Mohini. "Prostitution in the Early Chinese Community." Dartmouth College. N.D. Web. 13 April 2010.

"The Chinese Conspiracy Case." San Francisco Bulletin. 36.106 (Aug. 1873): 4. America's Historical Newspapers. EBSCOhost. Web. 13 April 2010


Summary of Prostitution in the Early Chinese Community, 1850-1900
This article begins by describing one of the maine reasons that Chinese prostitution was so prevelent in San Francisco. According to Sridharan, this reason is the extremely lop-lobsided ratio of Chinese men to women in the cite. He states "In 1850, there were only 7 Chinese women versus 4010 Chinese men in San Francico and in 1855, women constituted only two percent of the total Chinese population in America." These circumstances, caused by strict cultural rules that prevent women from traveling alone and the large amount of raciscm that Chinese people faced in America, resulted in many men turing to prostitution and most of the women into the profession because there were not many other jobs. The article also describes the sufferings of these women which included beatings, contracting venereal disease, and becoming addicted to drugs.
Sridharan goes on to describe how Americans reacted to the prostitution that was running rampant in their city. The first way people reacted was to become even more prejudice against the chinese. One quote makes the claim that "not on virtuous Chinawoman has been brought into this country." The second way people reaced was to take charge of the situation themselves and try to help. The Presbyterian Mission home was one of the most successful institutions in rescueing Chinese prostitutes. Overall, this article gives insight into the reasons behind Chinese prostition, the effects on the girls, and the reactions of the Americans to the situation.

Summary of Bondage of Chinese women
This article is was a piece that appeared in the San Francisco Bulletin in 1874 and explains one case that was going on in the city in regards to the owner of a brothel named Kim Lin. The article talks about several of the girls who worked in the brothel, one in particular who was named Ah Loy. This woman was abducted from Shanghai, brought to America, and forced into the sex slave industry. After working for one madam for several months, she met a man named Ah Yin, a man who became determined to free her from the brothel and marry her. Kim Lin agreed to free Ah Loy, but only on the condition that Ah Yin pay for her as according to Lin, he actually owned the body of Ah Loy. The article describes when the two men went to court and Lin produced an actual document of sale, on which a contract between the woman and owner is drawn up. The contract states that there is an assumed indebtedness to her owner, and when bought, she will receive the payment and then automatically hand it over to her previous owner. The end of the article explains how Ah Loy stated that if her previous owner were to murder her lover, she too would want to die.
Throughout the article, the author refers to all the Chinese people as mongrels or heathens. This shows the overall racist attitude that was prominent in the American community towards the Chinese immigrants.

Analyzing the Sand Creek Massacre Letters

To start class today, I’d like you to take just a few minutes and identify three key parts to the rhetorical event that today’s reading covers. First, tell us something important about the context that these letters emerged out of. Second, identify a key moment in the letters themselves that you thought was especially persuasive. Third, what did you think was the most important consequence of these letters?

Summary (or Description) of Your Primary Text

Before class on Wednesday, please post (here as a comment) a 250 word summary (or description) of the primary text that you'll be using for our current assignment.

Reflecting on Our First Assignment

Take a few minutes and reflect on what it was like to write your blog post about The Laramie Project. Describe your writing process and tell the rest of us about how your piece changed from your initial ideas to your final draft. How did your research shape the argument you made about the film? What observations or feedback did your peers give you about your draft that helped you revise? Ultimately, what did you learn about research, writing for a more public audience, or The Laramie Project by working on this assignment?

What's In a Name?

In Shakespeare’s "Romeo and Juliet," Juliet grapples with the hatred of her family, the Capulets, for that of her beloved Romeo, the Montague family. “What’s in a name?” she asks him, trying to understand the power and influence of a simple surname, “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Names and titles, she realizes, are human creations, little more than superimposed categories used to give information. Although her question is deceivingly simple and superficial, Juliet in fact makes a profound statement in regards to tolerance. Where names and labels divided and inspired hatred in Shakespeare’s story of love, the Tectonic Theater Company use the power of titles to their advantage, using a title to give clues about their modern day investigation of hate and acceptance in a small Wyoming town. As the title suggests, “The Laramie Project” is not about a twenty-one year old college student brutally beaten and murdered for his sexual orientation. Rather, it is a story of the people of Laramie, an investigation of the town, documenting the residents’ thoughts and reactions, framed by the hate crime that ended Matthew Shepard’s life.

“I want to hear from the people of the town,” Moisès Kaufman explains to the head of the Theatre Department at the University of Wyoming in one of the very first scenes in the play. As author of the play and founder of the Tectonic Theater Company, Kaufman explicitly states the purpose of the interviews, and therefore the purpose of “The Laramie Project.” From the very beginning, he tells the audience that the play is about Laramie. He immediately introduces the idea that it is a story about how the town and its residents were influenced by Matthew’s death. With Kaufman and “The Laramie Project” in mind, Ryan M. Claycomb explores this modern and innovative stage production, a hybrid of documentary and drama, in the Spring 2003 issue of the "Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism." He writes, “Contemporary oral history plays tend to focus less on ‘what happened’ than on the discourse that surrounds crisis events.” Applied directly to “The Laramie Project,” the play is more concerned with the repercussions and results of Matthew’s murder than the actual murder itself. According to Claycomb’s model, the horrendous hate crime against Matthew is an impetus for dialogue, and the theater company, led by Moisès Kaufman, is interested in that discussion and the resulting change in Laramie, Wyoming. As Kaufman himself explains of the project: “I want to hear from the people of the town.”

Published in the Spring 2002 edition of Modern Drama, Amy Tigner further supports this notion in her article “The Laramie Project: Western Pastoral.” Although she focuses her essay primarily on her own personal thesis, she explores how “The Laramie Project” documents the results of Matthew’s murder in Laramie, Wyoming. “‘The Laramie Project,’” she says, “tells of the community attempting to come together after the tragic death of Matt Shepard. [It] quintessentially presents the… effect on the town,” she asserts, and “[tracks] how this event [has] affected their lives and how they themselves have changed.” As Tigner describes, “The Laramie Project” follows the changes that occur in Laramie as a result of Matthew Shepard’s death. These changes can be seen in how characters are depicted and what moments the play chooses to highlight. For example, in the beginning of the play, Detective Sergent Rob Debree is shown as unsympathetic, treating McKinney and Henderson’s brutal hate crime like any other murder in Laramie. He, like many other townspeople, did not understand or approve of homosexuality. Compelled by the death of Matthew Shepard, however, Debree begins to question his previous beliefs and judgments. The transformation is complete towards the end of the show, when he explains that his new opinions have been a challenge for him. “I’ve lost some buddies,” he admits, “but I don’t care.” Citing the story of Debree and others like it, “The Laramie Project” focuses on this individual choice to reevaluate and change on account of Matthew’s murder. The Tectonic Theatre Company includes these testimonies to chronicle the change they embody, or as Tigner writes, to show “how this event [has] affected their lives.”

The murder of Matthew Shepard is central to “The Laramie Project.” It was Matt’s death that brought the Tectonic Theatre Company to Laramie, Wyoming. It was the incomprehensible act of hate committed against Matthew that inspired change in the townspeople. Surprisingly though, Matthew Shepard is not a character in the play. As Amy Tigner writes in her article, Matthew Shepard is a “hero… marked by his absence.” He is mentioned almost constantly throughout the play, but he fails to be represented as a person or character in the show. As an audience member, one gets the idea that he is presented merely as an event or an idea. He becomes a point of reference in the play, used to qualify the reactions of the townspeople. For example, Laramie resident Harry Woods describes the homecoming parade following Matthew Shepard’s death. In a powerful and emotional scene, he remembers how “the tag at the end of the parade” walking in memory of Matt grew to be “bigger than the entire parade.” The people of Laramie are walking to honor Matt, but this scene is relevant because it shows the great sympathy and support that has grown in Laramie over time. Matthew is merely the qualifier. His death gives context to the events that followed, giving importance to that mob walking the streets of Laramie. Just as Harry Woods’ testimony is powerful because it shows that the townspeople of Laramie have changed in the wake of Henderson and McKinny’s hate crime, Matthew’s murder is important as the momentum behind that change.

Setting out for Laramie, Wyoming, Moisès Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Company aimed to investigate the effects of Matthew Shepard’s untimely death. They interviewed townspeople to understand the personal reactions and changes resulting from such a heinous crime. As the title of the play suggests, they set out to examine the town Laramie in reference to Matt. Although he is not an active character in the show, he is important as a single event that shook every single townsperson. Matthew Shepard and the event of his death frame their testimonies and validating their responses. Pulling the pieces together, the Tectonic Theatre Company created a meaningful documentary and play, commenting on homophobia in a modern day rural town.

-Ryan Schultz

Political Fallout

    Following the death of Matthew Shepard there was pause amongst politicians on how to respond to the murder. Several called for further hate crimes legislation and others called for not acting without the due diligence of having the time to reflect upon the murder and analyze the actions leading to the murder. The various responses however were very much along party lines, there was a renewed push by the Clinton Administration to further extend hate crime legislation to cover crimes based on a person's sexual orientation while there were calls from Republicans not to respond with hate crime bills. Several bills that would add hate crime protections to people of different sexual orientation had been introduced in various stages from the 90's through the early 2000's, on several occasions the bill failed in committee, on another occasion it was filibustered, and on another it was dropped under a threatened veto from then-President Bush. It wasn't until the 111th Congress that a bill titled the "Matthew Shepard Act" was attached to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 that it was passed and signed into law by President Obama. During the Congressional hearings on the bill Attorney General Eric Holder became the first A.G. to testify in favor of the bill, stating that "more than 77,000 hate crime incidents were reported by the FBI between 1998 to 2007, or 'nearly one hate crime for every hour of every day over the span of a decade.'" The bill finally extended hate crime provisions, at the federal level, to cover crimes based on ones sexual orientation, eleven years after the murder of Matthew Shepard.
    As of 2008 there are several states who do not cover attacks based on a person's "Sexual Orientation or Gender" as a hate crime, which are; Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming. In fact as of 2008, Wyoming, which is where the hate crime movement to include sexual orientation started due to the death of Matthew Shepard, has no hate crime laws at all. Wyoming does not cover hate crimes based on; Motivated Violence, Civil Action, Race, Religion, Ethnicity, Sexual Orientation, Gender, Disability, and Vandalism. From 2000 to 2008 there were, on average, 1,510 hate crimes based on Sexual Orientation throughout the United States and overall there were 9,500 hate crimes committed. A simple, non in depth analysis would reveal that the states listed are, for the most part, heavily conservative in nature. However it is important to understand that it does not mean conservatives are pro-hate crime. In order to fully comprehend the position of those states it is important to know why they oppose hate crime legislation. There are two sides to the hate crime debate. Those who are not in favor of hate crime laws believe it causes an unjust bias towards those who the laws do not protect. Why should the murder of a homosexual be treated harsher than a murder due to a robbery? They believe that it is not in the best interest of a society meant to be "fair and equal" if certain groups have more protection than others. Furthermore they believe that by making a crime a "hate crime" it can pit one group of people versus another, if a white male murders a homosexual then it would ignite anger between the two groups if it was shown to be a hate crime. However those in favor argue that a crime perpetrated on someone who represents a much larger portion of the society, as in a murder due to someone's sexual orientation, hurts society as a whole and can cause backlash amongst groups. A recent example would be the murder of Matthew Shepard, his murder, which was based in part on him being a homosexual, would be viewed (by those who favor hate crime legislation) as an attack on the homosexual community as a whole. They believe that hate crimes harm society as a whole and so hate crimes legislation is meant to be used as a significant deterrent.
    It would appear that the United States of America did little in the years after his death to protect those who are subject to hate crimes. The bipartisan control of the United States government created excellent gridlock on partisan issues. Republicans were wary of passing hate crime legislation as they are opposed to it and, at the time, controlled Congress. It wasn't until 2009 that Democrats controlled two branches of government and managed to pass the bill. The larger question it brings up is how ought the United States treat hate crimes, each party has their view on the issue and will not accept the other side's viewpoints. Republicans accuse Democrats of using "normal murders" to pass "silly legislation", "The hate crimes bill that's called the Matthew Shepard bill is named after a very unfortunate incident that happened where a young man was killed, but we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn't because he was gay. This -- the bill was named for him, hate crimes bill was named for him, but it's really a hoax that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills." (Rep. Foxx R-N.C.) Until Americans are willing to have an honest discussion about what place society holds for hate crime legislation and whether it would be easier to implement a nationwide standard in regard to the issue the "hate" between the two sides will not disappear and the vitriol between them will continue to get worse while ordinary citizens are subject to various nationwide standards.

Manipulation of Nature

The debate over whether mankind is naturally good or evil has been present in society since the beginning of human history, and I’m sure, will continue until the end of time. I believe in the inherent goodness of people, but no matter which side you believe, one critical thing must be taken into account: humans, no matter what their natural moral instincts may be, no longer exist in their natural environment. Think about it. People went from living in the wilderness, unprotected and isolated from everything except the few people, animals, and landscapes that existed in their immediate surroundings to being constantly looked after and in touch with the rest of the world. We no longer exist in our natural environment and this has obviously had an effect on our innate instincts. The farther we drift from the way our species began, the farther we will drift from the way our species naturally acted.


As David Brooks put it, in the New York Times, “Human beings are virtuous and free in their natural state. It is only corrupt institutions that make them venal.” Because we are surrounded by millions of different people and beliefs each and every day, we must work harder to avoid the “corruptness” of society and let our innate goodness dominate, but many people are able to accomplish this. In Laramie, Wyoming when Matthew Shepard was murdered for being gay in October of 1998, the majority of people who were involved in the case exemplified a great deal of kindness; only a select few could be considered evil. The actions and opinions of most citizens in the town demonstrate that the majority of people respect human life and have instincts that drive them to help others. So what about society, and Laramie in particular, caused the perpetrators to commit such a heinous crime?


On the night that they brutally beat and abandoned Matthew, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson showed absolutely no respect for human life. Instead of seeing another person in their victim, all they saw was a gay man, a type of being they had learned to hate. McKinney and Russell had been brought up in a society that appears to live by the “live and let live” philosophy. However, it seems that this philosophy is really just another version of the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy, and it fosters hatred by not openly discussing important issues. When someone is not taught that a certain thing is okay to speak about, the assumption is usually that it is wrong. It is this philosophy that I believe played a major role in the hatred towards, and subsequently, murder of Matthew. It is likely that the people who McKinney and Henderson were surrounded by did not explicitly condone hatred of homosexuals, but it is obvious that they also did not explain that this hatred was wrong. When this is coupled with the fact that our society as a whole is ruled by biased laws and has the major religion constantly debating whether or not homosexuality is wrong, it is not surprising that the perpetrators inherent goodness was sacrificed and pushed aside by evil.


However, other people grew up just as these boys did, but unlike the boys, the majority of the townspeople shared appalled and disgusted opinions towards the incident. They were able to overcome the corruption around them, and demonstrate inherent goodness in the most dire of times. The first example of someone who demonstrated naturally good instincts was Aaron Kreifels, the first person to discover Matthew in the field. Kreifels reacted immediately, without any information, because his instinct was to help the person who needed him simply because “it was a human being.” Reggie Fluty, the Laramie police officer who cut Matthew down from the fence also demonstrates the victory of natural goodness in a person. When Fluty arrived on the scene, she knew nothing other than the fact that he was a human being in need of her help. It did not matter who he was, what had happened to him, or why. In the Laramie Project, she describes the scene and explains that the only thing running through her mind was, “Don’t hesitate,” because you cannot just let a human being suffer like that. Reggie Fluty’s actions were the epitome of naturally good instincts in a human being, so much so that she even risked her life by exposing herself to his blood. As I said earlier, the farther we move away from our natural environment, the more our behavior will change. This could explain why Reggie Fluty acted the way she did, because small towns are closer to nature than big cities. When humans first began, one of their first priorities was to look after their kin, and similar values are still held in small towns, like Laramie, today. People look out for others, because they believe that everyone will look out for them. In “Sociobiology,” Paul Magnarella explains that “I would be expected to save a drowning man . . . only if I could expect him to reciprocate in the future by saving or protecting my life.” So what was different between McKinney and Henderson and someone like Fluty? I believe it is the fact that Fluty had spent her whole life isolated in Laramie, a small seemingly innocent town, but the two boys had been more exposed to the outside because of generational characteristics like the internet and television. Therefore, society’s immorality was able to affect the perpetrators on a deeper level than Fluty.


Laramie, Wyoming is probably as close to nature as a person can come without forfeiting all of society’s comforts. This is why the majority of people living in the town are able to easily demonstrate innate goodness towards others. But the fact that acts of evil are still committed here shows that the human institutions that have come to control our lives has caused many people, especially those who are younger and have been more exposed, to lose a great deal of that natural decency. Nearly all of the townspeople recognized the fact that no matter what lifestyle Matthew Shepard had been living, a human life had been taken, and that was wrong. The anomalies of the people who did not see taking another’s life as unjust had been manipulated by their upbringing in a corrupt world. After viewing The Laramie Project, I am more sure than ever in my belief that people are inherently good, and more skeptical than ever of the way society has developed.