Brokering Servitude. Andrew Urban

      

      BROKERING SERVITUDE

      CULTURE, LABOR, HISTORY SERIES

      General Editors: Daniel Bender and Kimberley L. Phillips

      Working the Diaspora: The Impact of African Labor on the Anglo-American World, 1650–1850

      Frederick C. Knight

      Class Unknown: Undercover Investigations of American Work and Poverty from the Progressive Era to the Present

      Mark Pittenger

      Steel Barrio: The Great Mexican Migration to South Chicago, 1915–1940

      Michael D. Innis-Jiménez

      Fueling the Gilded Age: Railroads, Miners, and Disorder in Pennsylvania Coal Country

      Andrew B. Arnold

      A Great Conspiracy against Our Race: Italian Immigrant Newspapers and the Construction of Whiteness in the Early 20th Century

      Peter G. Vellon

      Reframing Randolph: Labor, Black Freedom, and the Legacies of A. Philip Randolph

      Edited by Andrew E. Kersten and Clarence Lang

      Making the Empire Work: Labor and United States Imperialism

      Edited by Daniel E. Bender and Jana K. Lipman

      Whose Harlem Is This, Anyway? Community Politics and Grassroots Activism during the New Negro Era

      Shannon King

      Health in the City: Race, Poverty, and the Negotiation of Women’s Health in New York City, 1915–1930

      Tanya Hart

      Trotskyists on Trial: Free Speech and Political Persecution since the Age of FDR

      Donna T. Haverty-Stacke

      Forging a Laboring Race: The African American Worker in the Progressive Imagination

      Paul Raymond Din Lawrie

      Suspect Freedoms: The Racial and Sexual Politics of Cubanidad in New York, 1823–1957

      Nancy Raquel Mirabal

      Brokering Servitude: Migration and the Politics of Domestic Labor during the Long Nineteenth Century

      Andrew Urban

      Brokering Servitude

      Migration and the Politics of Domestic Labor during the Long Nineteenth Century

      Andrew Urban

      NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

      New York

      NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

      New York

       www.nyupress.org

      © 2018 by New York University

      All rights reserved

      References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

      ISBN: 978-0-8147-8584-3

      For Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data, please contact the Library of Congress.

      New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      Also available as an ebook

      To the memory of my grandmothers,

      Rose Rosenblum and Adelle Urban

      CONTENTS

       Acknowledgments

       A Note on Language

       Introduction

       1. Liberating Free Labor: Vere Foster and Assisted Irish Emigration, 1850–1865

       2. Humanitarianism’s Markets: Brokering the Domestic Labor of Black Refugees, 1861–1872

       3. Chinese Servants and the American Colonial Imagination: Domesticity and Opposition to Restriction, 1865–1882

       4. Controlling and Protecting White Women: The State and Sentimental Forms of Coercion, 1850–1917

       5. Bonded Chinese Servants: Domestic Labor and Exclusion, 1882–1924

       6. Race and Reform: Domestic Service, the Great Migration, and European Quotas, 1891–1924

       Epilogue

       Color Plates

       Notes

       Index

       About the Author

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      The doctorate program in History at the University of Minnesota nourished me with a vital intellectual and activist community. I am grateful to Anna Clark and Doug Hartmann for all of their support and feedback. Kevin Murphy is a dear friend and role model. His commitment to the public humanities as a basis for critical social engagement continues to inspire me. My advisors Donna Gabaccia and Erika Lee put me on the right path, and their imprint can be seen throughout this book. I can only hope I have done justice to the education I received from them. To this day, I still count on both Donna and Erika for support and encouragement.

      At Emory University, Leslie Harris’s impact as a mentor cannot be properly qualified. The chance to work with the innovative Transforming Community Project was a formative experience.

      There are so many colleagues and friends who helped me along the way. My apologies for any omissions.… I would like to thank Isra Ali, Bob Barde, Al Barrion, David Brecher, Candace Chen, Frances Chen, Janna Emig, Heather Fife, Lucas Klein, Nelson Lichtenstein, Allison Lorentzen, Heather Lukes, David Madden, Jeff Manuel, Molly McGarry, David McNeill, Brighde Mullins, Peter Philips, Eric Richtmyer, Maggie Russell-Ciardi, Liz Sevcenko, Michael Sullivan, Evan Taparata, Julia Thomas, Katie Tsuji, Sue Urban, Amity Wilczek, and Aaron Windel.

      Nicole Heater deserves a special line of thanks for the years of patient support that she offered me. This book would not have been possible without her help.

      I would like to thank Bill Creech and Angela Tudico of the National Archives.

      I have benefitted from opportunities to present my book at a number of workshops and conferences. These include the United States in the World writing group