Life and Death on the Edge: 19th Century Chinese Abalone Fisheries on California’s Channel Islands

Summary

Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Chinese immigrants built the first commercial abalone fishery along the western edge of North America. These fishers harvested tons of abalone meat and shells from intertidal waters and shipped their products to markets in mainland China and America. Chinese abalone harvesting sites still are preserved on California’s Channel Islands, and over the last decade archaeologists have become increasingly interested in documenting the material record.  Using historical documents, immigration files, and archaeological evidence we illustrate the lifeways, activities, and, at times, deaths of these maritime pioneers.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Being Chinese: Current Scholarship on the Chinese Diaspora in 19th-Century North America   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 325