Donaldina Cameron
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Donaldina Cameron (July 26, 1869 – January 4, 1968) was a New Zealand-born American
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...
who was a pioneer in the fight against slavery in San Francisco's
Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...
, who helped more than 2,000 Chinese immigrant girls and women escape from forced prostitution or
indentured servitude Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract called an " indenture", may be entered voluntarily for a prepaid lump sum, as payment for some good or s ...
.''The White Devil's Daughters: The Women Who Fought Slavery in San Francisco's Chinatown'', Alfred A. Knopf, 2019. She was known as "Fahn Quai" or the "White Devil" of Chinatown, as well as the "Angry Angel of Chinatown" and "Lo Mo".


Early life (1869–1900)

The youngest of seven children, Donaldina was born into a Scottish family that lived on a sheep farm in New Zealand. She moved with her family to
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
when she was three and a half. During her childhood, she had very little contact and experience with immigrant populations while living on a large sheep ranch in the
San Gabriel Valley The San Gabriel Valley (), sometimes referred to by its initials as SGV, is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, with the city of Los Angeles directly bordering it to the west and occupying the vast majority of the southeastern ...
. Family friend Evelyn Browne, the former president of the Occidental Board of Foreign Missions, took Cameron to the Presbyterian Home in San Francisco, in an effort to expose Donaldina to the world around her. At the home, Donaldina met Margaret Culbertson and, in 1895, she became a sewing teacher there. Culbertson and the Presbyterian Home acted as a place of refuge for women forced into sex slavery and freed indentured female Chinese servants, where they could be safe from the outside world and get an education. Together, Culbertson and Cameron worked to rescue Chinese immigrants until Culbertson's death in 1897.


Background

The
Chinese Exclusion Act The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a United States Code, United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law made exceptions for travelers an ...
of 1882 was the first piece of federal immigrant legislation in the United States. It prohibited immigrants from any area considered "undesirable", which included most of Asia. It also barred Chinese women from entering the United States, unless they were already married to men in the United States. Originally passed to prohibit the sex trafficking of East Asian women and an influx of East Asian male laborers, it instead created a dangerous and illegal system where young women would present forged papers that said they were already members of Chinese families in the United States. This phenomenon was dubbed the "paper daughters". The women, often referred to as
mui tsai ''Mui tsai'' (), which means "little sister"Yung, ''Unbound Feet'', 37. in Cantonese, describes young Chinese people, Chinese women who worked as domestic servants in China, or in brothels or affluent Chinese households in traditional Chinese soc ...
s, were sold as domestic servants or forced prostitutes by the
tongs Tongs are a type of tool used to grip and lift objects instead of holding them directly with hands. There are many forms of tongs adapted to their specific use. Design variations include resting points so that the working end of the tongs d ...
(criminal societies). These women lived brutal lives, usually dying within five years. During this time San Francisco City Hall, run by
Abe Ruef Abraham Ruef (September 2, 1864 – February 29, 1936) was an American lawyer and politician. He gained notoriety as the corrupt political boss behind the administration of Mayor Eugene Schmitz of San Francisco during the period before and after ...
and
Eugene Schmitz Eugene Edward Schmitz (August 22, 1864 – November 20, 1928), often referenced as "Handsome Gene" Schmitz, was an American musician, musical director, and politician. He served as the 26th mayor of San Francisco from 1902 to 1907, in office dur ...
, took kickbacks from the tongs, resulting in very little government action against this problem. The Chinese Six Companies was a Chinese organization that attempted to stop the tongs, but eventually collapsed when the Chinese Tong (slavery leaders) infiltrated the organization.


Mission life (1900–1934)

Two years after Culbertson's death in 1897, Cameron became superintendent of the Presbyterian Home at the age of 27. She continued the mission of the Home, saving young Chinese immigrant women from sex slavery and indentured service. Contemporary sources referred to this work as "the only foreign mission enterprise ever carried on ''in'' the United States". Friends and relatives of these girls would leave clandestine messages for Donaldina at the Presbyterian Home, indicating the house where a girl was held captive. Often, criminal tong members, who nicknamed her "Jesus Woman" and the "White Devil", would threaten Cameron and the home. She once spent a night in a San Jose
jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various cr ...
while seeking the release of a Chinese woman. However, Cameron continued her mission. She was sometimes called "Fahn Quai" (), translated variously as "White Spirit", "White Witch", or "White Devil"—a sensational racial epithet that newspaper and magazine reporters helped spread. She was also dubbed the "Angry Angel of Chinatown", which would later become the title for a biography. Once freed, Chinese women were forced to reside at the Presbyterian Home (where they were not allowed outside without an escort) and to convert to Christianity. While some Chinese immigrant women welcomed conversion and saw Donaldina as a savior, nicknaming her "Lo Mo" () (which she translated as " loyal mother"), and others had mixed feelings about this forced conversion. In April 1906, the great San Francisco earthquake and fire forced the evacuation of the Presbyterian Home. Cameron returned the night of the earthquake through the blazing city to retrieve a logbook that detailed her guardianship over the girls at the home, thus ensuring their safety from being forced back into servitude or prostitution. The home was destroyed in the earthquake and was rebuilt in 1907 at 920 Sacramento Street, where it still stands today. Cameron wrote extensively, seeking to gain financial support for her mission, in publications including ''Women and Missions'' and a pamphlet titled "The Yellow Slave Traffic". This writing often furthered orientalist depictions of Chinese women, but also challenged popular preconceptions that such women were incapable of integrating into American society. She also founded two homes for Chinese children, many of them orphans or the children of the rescued women. The Chung Mei Home housed young boys, while the Ming Quong Home was for girls. The former Chung Mei house is today part of the Windrush School in El Cerrito, California, and the Ming Quong Home is now a part of
Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in ...
in Oakland, California. In 1935, a third Ming Quong home—the "baby house"—was founded in
Los Gatos Los Gatos (; ; ) is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population is 33,529 according to the 2020 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area just southwest of San Jose in the foothills of t ...
, California. Younger Chinese American girls were taken care of here until they were old enough (age 13) to move to Oakland. That home today is part of nonprofit EMQ FamiliesFirst.


Later life and legacy (1934–1968)

Cameron retired from her missionary work and the Presbyterian Home in 1934. She is credited with saving and educating over 2,000 Chinese immigrant women and girls. Before her death, she was considered something of a "national icon", and her life story was told in three biographies, some with fictional elements. While most attention has been focused on Cameron, her work was made possible by Tien Fuh Wu and other aides, who also took part in dangerous rescues, translated for Cameron, and advocated for trafficked women. In 1942, the Presbyterian Home was renamed the Donaldina Cameron House. The building still stands today in Chinatown in San Francisco. It serves as a multi-service nonprofit agency serving the local Asian communities through supportive youth programs, social services, and counseling. After retirement, Donaldina moved to
Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...
in 1942. She died on January 4, 1968, at the age of 98.


In popular culture

Miranda Raison Miranda Caroline Raison is a British actress who is best known for playing Jo Portman in five seasons of '' Spooks'' (MI5) and Nellie Davenport in HBO's ''Warrior''. She originated the title role in Howard Brenton's ''Anne Boleyn'' at Shakespe ...
portrays Cameron in the American television series ''Warrior'' (2019) as Nellie Davenport. The
historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the Setting (narrative), setting of particular real past events, historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literatur ...
novel, ''The Paper Daughters of Chinatown'' (2020) by Heather B. Moore includes a fictionalized depiction of Cameron. The book "The Phoenix Crown" (2024) by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang, presents a fictional story set within Chinatown and other areas of San Francisco with many mentions of Cameron and her work.


See also

* Tye Leung Schulze: Cameron mentored Schulze, who would assist Cameron in saving enslaved Chinese in San Francisco.


References


Further reading

* Hasley, Karen J.: "Gold Mountain" (Denver, CO: Outskirts Press, 2012) character in work of fiction * Martin, Mildred Crowl: ''Chinatown's Angry Angel, The Story of Donaldina Cameron'', (Palo Alto, California: Pacific Books, 1977) * Moore, Heather B.: "The Paper Daughters of Chinatown" (Salt Lake City, UT: Shadow Mountain Publishing, 2020) * Pascoe, Peggy. (1990). ''Relations of Rescue: The Search for Female Moral Authority in the American West, 1874–1939''. New York: Oxford University Press. * Wilson, Carol Green: ''Chinatown Quest'', (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1931 and 1950) * Wong, Kristin and Kathryn: "Fierce Compassion, The Life of Abolitionist Donaldina Cameron" (Saline, Michigan: New Earth Enterprises, 2012)


External links


The Donaldina Cameron House Home Page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cameron, Donaldina 1869 births 1968 deaths New Zealand emigrants to the United States American Presbyterians American Presbyterian missionaries Female Christian missionaries Burials at Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles New Zealand activists New Zealand women activists Chinatown, San Francisco Presbyterian missionaries in the United States American anti-prostitution activists People from San Francisco People from Palo Alto, California