“John Chinaman” in Alabama: Immigration, Race, and Empire in the New South, 1870–1920

Brooks explores Chinese experiment in Alabama as a small but significant part of the work that built a new American empire after the Civil War. The investors who brought the Chinese to Alabama hoped to complete a railroad that cut through the rich coal and iron fields of north Alabama, creating a nucleus for the development of the Birmingham Industrial District. The initial phase of the Chinese experiment, consisted of local planters and businessmen contracting individually or in small groups with experienced labor recruiters who then attempted to bring in Chinese labor from Cuba and China directly.