Heathen Slaves and Christian RulersAndrew, Elizabeth Wheeler
History
Heathen Slaves and Christian Rulers
Andrew, Elizabeth Wheeler
Prostitution -- China -- Hong Kong
produced by the Inspector, which he found in A-Neung's house, from
Canton to the writer's sister-in-law in Hong Kong, urging that as
the owner had lost money on the "present cargoes," a higher price
must be set on them and the sale hastened, as soon as the letter
should arrive, and word returned that they had been disposed of;
also directing that "after the transaction, one cue-tassel and one
shirting trouser" were to be taken back and sent to Canton by the
hand of a friend at first opportunity. (This as a pledge of good
faith.)
A-Neung, first defendant, declared that she was "a widow,
supported by her son-in-law now in California. Mine is a family
house. The girls are visitors at my house." The second defendant,
Tai-Ku, daughter of the preceding, declared herself to be a
married woman, and that her husband was in California, on a
steamer; that the girls were not hers, and that she was "not in
the habit of sending girls to California." The third defendant
deposed that she came from Canton to ask A-Neung for some money,
and added: "I never buy and sell girls." Fourth defendant claimed
to be utterly ignorant of the girls being sent to California, and
said she was supported by Tai-Ku; the fifth defendant declared she
knew nothing of the buying and selling of girls; and the sixth
defendant claimed she had gone to the house to obtain the payment
of a debt; she was discharged.
The sentence was:--First, second, third, fourth and fifth
defendants to find two securities, householders, in $500 each,
to appear at any time within the next six months, to answer any
charge in any court in the Colony.
Whether the girls were sent to California to swell the number of
wretched slaves on the Pacific Coast, or remained in slavery in
Hong Kong, there is no record to be found; nor, even with abundant
evidence concerning this licensed brothel which the Inspector
himself declared he was long familiar with as a place "where young
girls were kept to be shipped off to California," and with the
evident collusion between A-Neung and Tai-Ku with the son-in-law
and husband respectively of the two women, situated most favorably
on a steamer for managing this wicked business at the California
end of the line, and with all the testimony of the neighbors and
the girls, yet no effort was made by the Registrar-General to
punish these people for trafficking in human flesh.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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