Please see the biographical information on Reverend William Speer above, for Document 2. Speer wrote this defense of Chinese immigrants in response to anti-Chinese laws passed in the early 1850s by the California legislature, specifically the laws establishing, and then raising, the Foreign Miners License Tax. This law imposed a hefty monthly tax on Chinese miners and included provisions for aggressive tax collection methods. Speer’s defense of Chinese immigrants made an impression on lawmakers in the state, though he was not alone in fighting to have the laws repealed: heavy taxes were driving away Chinese miners and lowering the profits of many others in the mining trade, and taxes on Chinese immigrants directly hurt the shipping companies that brought them to America. Throughout the short time Speer spent in California, he advocated passionately and often effectively for the rights of Chinese immigrants and worked hard to help this immigrant group. He also held what we now consider racist and patronizing views of the Chinese that seem at odds with his humanitarian efforts. In this way, he is a great example of the contradictions common among American missionaries of this era.

Please see the biographical information on Reverend William Speer above, for Document 2. Speer wrote this defense of Chinese immigrants in response to anti-Chinese laws passed in the early 1850s by the California legislature, specifically the laws establishing, and then raising, the Foreign Miners License Tax. This law imposed a hefty monthly tax on Chinese miners and included provisions for aggressive tax collection methods. Speer’s defense of Chinese immigrants made an impression on lawmakers in the state, though he was not alone in fighting to have the laws repealed: heavy taxes were driving away Chinese miners and lowering the profits of many others in the mining trade, and taxes on Chinese immigrants directly hurt the shipping companies that brought them to America. Throughout the short time Speer spent in California, he advocated passionately and often effectively for the rights of Chinese immigrants and worked hard to help this immigrant group. He also held what we now consider racist and patronizing views of the Chinese that seem at odds with his humanitarian efforts. In this way, he is a great example of the contradictions common among American missionaries of this era.