Sydney Ducks
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The Sydney Ducks was the name given to immigrants from Australia in San Francisco, during the mid-19th century. Because of the prevalent nativism in the United States at the time, along with the well-known British penal colonies in Australia, these immigrants were stereotyped as criminals, and were blamed for phenomena such as an 1849 fire that devastated the heart of San Francisco, as well as the rampant crime in the city at the time
Undoubtedly, there were criminals among the Sydney Ducks who operated in gangs, but the community also included sailors, longshoremen, teamsters, wheelwrights, shipwrights, bartenders, saloon keepers, washerwomen, domestic servants, and dressmakers. The largest proportion (44%) were born in Ireland and migrated during the Great Irish Famine, first to Australia as laborers and then to California as part of the Gold Rush.[1][2]
The alleged criminality of the Sydney Ducks was the catalyst for the formation of the Committee of Vigilance of 1851. The vigilantes usurped political power in the city, conducted secret trials, lynchings, and deportations, which effectively decimated the Sydney Ducks. The area where the Sydney Ducks clustered, the base of Telegraph Hill, was originally known as "Sydney-Town," but by the 1860s was called exclusively by its better-known name, the Barbary Coast.
[edit] References
- ^ Ricards, Sherman L.; George M. Blackburn (February 1973). "The Sydney Ducks: A Demographic Analysis". The Pacific Historical Review 42 (1): 20–31.
- ^ What is a Vigilante Man? White Violence in California History by Mike Davis.
[edit] External links
- "The Sydney Ducks," from Barbary Coast by Herbert Asbury (New York, 1933). A nativistic depiction of the Sydney Ducks as criminals and undesirables.
