While writing my historical western romance, BROKEN BLOSSOMS, I relied heavily on my research with the U. S. Customs Service and their tireless fight against the never-ending smuggling of opium by the Chinese into our country. While immersed in my study, I learned that opium wasn’t the only vice smuggled in. Young, desperate Chinese women were, too, brought over to live the horrors of enslavement in San Francisco’s Chinatown brothels.
A brief mention of a woman who had dedicated her life to rescuing these women was a
young missionary by the name of Donaldina Cameron. While grieving over a broken engagement, Donaldina quit her studies to be a teacher and found herself in a career of an entirely different sort, that of doing missionary work at the Mission House, a safe place for young Chinese women run by the Presbyterian Church.
Initially, she taught the girls sewing and helped run the House, but after the manager died, Donaldina took over. Supremely devoted to the protection and nurturing of the Asian women, she kept them on a strict schedule and taught them household skills, Christian prayers and beliefs, how to interact socially in society, and so on. A fierce guardian, she fought the courts against frivolous charges to keep them out of jail and free of prostitution and the physical abuse that came with it, even going so far as to physically rescue them from brothels herself.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the practice of allowing women to do missionary work was growing and deeply appreciated. Donaldina herself accepted the Chinese culture, allowing the women their accustomed foods and decorations, yet enforcing a balance of Anglo-American customs, too, such as wearing a white dress when marrying instead of the traditional red worn by the Chinese. A somewhat amazing accomplishment since wearing white was customary at Chinese funerals, not weddings!
Donaldina never married or had children of her own. Ironically, after living in San Francisco’s Chinatown for forty years, she never learned the Chinese language. She died in 1968 at the age of 98 years. Before her death, her beloved Mission House’s name was changed to the Donaldina Cameron House, and she is credited with saving more 3,000 Chinese women from horrific enslavement.
Here’s an excerpt in BROKEN BLOSSOMS taken from my research with the U. S. Customs Service and the realistic depiction of the arrival of the Chinese into the San Francisco harbor at the time.
A horde of Chinese men, mostly in their twenties, trod next down the gangway. All of them were dressed in clean blue cotton blouses and baggy trousers. Their foreheads were shaved, and their glossy black hair was braided with silk into long queues. Carleigh recognized them as coolies, or laborers, who would work in any one of a variety of low-paying industries. They carried long bamboo poles across their shoulders. Baskets attached at each end contained their meager possessions.
A dozen or so Chinese girls followed. Though they wore tunics and trousers like other Chinese women, theirs were obviously of poorer quality; their cheeks and lips were painted a gaudy red. On their heads, they wore checked cotton handkerchiefs, the chevron of prostitution.
Ignorant of morals and the contracts they signed in China, they would service their masters in a slavery more horrible than any human being should endure. After an indelicate search by the officers, their purchasers delivered them into the charge of sallow old hags, dressed in black and carrying rings of keys at their waists.
Carleigh’s heart ached for how these girls would live. Would they ever know the warm intimacy a man’s love could give them? Would their lives always be so hopeless?
99¢ for this blog only! (Returning to full price this weekend!)
If you could dedicate your life in service to one thing, what would it be?
Pam has written 30 romances, most of them historical westerns, but she's proud of her contemporary sweet romances featuring the Blackstone Ranch series published by Tule Publishing, too! Stay up on the latest at www.pamcrooks.com
I would work towards information literacy. Too many people do not know how to find good information because a search engine lists information from any Website from any person’s views.
Oh, wow. How unusual, David Bibb. Who doesn’t run to Google when they need information these days?
Very interesting, and good for you. Search engines are here to stay, and we need to be able to use it for our own good.
Thanks for sharing!
I do volunteerism through my church, and I usually focus on the unhoused and those with food insecurity.
denise
Good morning, Denise. Homelessness and hunger are a prevalent problem and always has been. What a shame that some live so poorly in this day and age. Of course, there’s some mental illness associated as well. Certainly an honorable mission to volunteer for. The work is never-ending.
It would be something to do with children
Children – the most vulnerable alongside the elderly and infirm. Good for you.
Being a foster parent. Adding your book to my TBR list.
Good morning, Vickie. I have a neighbor who is a foster parent, and she has a swinging door with children and the disabled coming and going. I think that would be hard. I’d get attached to the little ones, and then they’d have to go somewhere else. I’d worry about their futures, too, and if they would ever have some stability in their lives.
I’ve heard there’s not enough foster parents, so good choice if it ever happens for you.
Good morning Pam! A remarkable lady indeed! Thank you for this piece of history! I am already a caregiver to my mother and I help my quadriplegic brother once a week. I was a caregiver to him for ten years before moving away 22 years ago. Many years ago when I was in the local artist guild, we had what we called Art Splash. We taught children art for a week during the summer and used the registration fee for an art scholarship to a two high school students who were artistically inclined. I would like to do the same but with less fortunate children and all summer. Some children today depend on that one meal a day during school time. I use to give extra snacks to one of our students years ago. I knew his 80 year old grandmother was left with 4 young hungry mouths to feed. I’m sure there were more students, but he was always drawing. He left an impression on me.
Anyway, I would help doing something for the children. Since I have spent close to 30 years doing while working. In some small way or another.
Wow, Tracy. You humble me. What a good and loving person you are.
I, too, helped care for my parents (my dad was in a wheelchair) but only for a short time. Nothing like what you have done. I’m sure some days were just plain hard for you.
God bless you
I would help with animals. They have no voice. I loved the blog post.
Ah, yes. Animals may have no voice, but they certainly have emotions, don’t they? Our Golden Retriever is half-human, I swear.
It truly saddens me when I hear/see circus animals being whipped during their training, or a small animal or pet that must find its own way for food and shelter or forced to live with an abusive owner.
I’m so glad you enjoyed the post. Thanks for chiming in.
Thank you for sharing. I would focus on children.
Children would need your love and help for sure, Barbara. The ways are almost innumerable. A noble passion in all ways.
Pam – what a heartbreaking journey these women faced. What a valiant woman she was to be so fearless in her calling to rescue so many Chinese women.
I love to cook, bake, and garden. I would try to feed the homeless if I could rescue one person from hunger. I have worked at a soup kitchen near here and it is heartwarming how appreciative people are to receive one meal a day.
Thank you Pam for this blog. My heart has been touched.
You’re so eloquent, Kathy. I, too, love to feed the hungry, and through my church, I donate meat loaf to dinners offered at one of the homeless shelters organized by my church.
One of the things I always wish I’d do – but I’ve been sadly misinformed how – is bringing in food and bottled water to those poor souls who have lost their homes to tornadoes lately. These people aren’t poor – they’ve just lost everything to Mother Nature’s wrath – and for a short time, they truly are homeless and hungry.
No one thinks they’ll go through something like that – until they do.
We were at the fringes of a tornado last night. All sirens in the communities were blaring. We were fortunate to not have any damage. Many seasonal residents in park model homes were not so fortunate. Hardship comes to unexpected at times. So glad you can help people through your church.
So glad you were safe, Kathy. Sounds like a close call for you. Boy, those tornado sirens just get your blood pumping, don’t they?
I have had a heart geared to helping save our unborn babies. I am 79 now, but with each passing year, my angst and horror become greater when I even have a passing thought of a child, a creation of GOD for a purpose, is aborted just as if it were a pimple one had to get rid of. It marred their life, changed their future plans, or cramped their lifestyle. Horror of horrors! It is a selfish reasoning at the least. No more soapboxing.
I know, Judy. I’m 100% with you. We need to keep praying and praying so that these tiny innocents will be saved.
rescuing, rehab and training the 1000’s wild mustangs the BLM has in confinement!
BLM, Teresa? As in Black Lives Matter?
What a wonderful woman!! Wow!! I’d devote myself to helping children. I was so very fortunate to have the parents I did, and I’d like to give others the love I had.
How wonderful, Trudy. And I bet you raised your children with the same love and devotion your parents gave to you!
I would love to be able to take in children and animals who need a safe home, and let the children learn to take care of the animals.
Wouldn’t that be wonderful? They would learn responsibility and how to love, and the animals would thrive.
We love to watch the series, “The Incredible Dr. Pol”, and he’s a huge advocate of 4-H for the very reasons I mention. Kids become better adults while caring for animals.
It would probably be doing something with children.
Children are mentioned most today, karijean. Maybe because the majority of us (if not all) are mothers? The plight of children just tugs at our heart strings and make us want to give them all the love and care they need.
I, too, have worked with children in one capacity or another seemingly forever. It is so important they get a good start and learn to love and accept all others, no matter their differences. I want to instill in them the thirst for learning and knowledge. I want them to start on a path of learning that will be followed their entire lives. Part of that would be the love of reading.
I’ve said before you’ve lived an enriched life, Pat. You would have so much to offer children – that thirst for knowledge and service.
Thank you. I have ordered Broken Blossoms and look forward to reading it.
Thank you ordering Broken Blossoms, Pat. Please enjoy Trig & Carleigh’s adventures!
I would help with children who are put into foster care. Too many adults now days are on drugs & neglect their children. This happened to our neighbor children. We have now lost track of where they are & if we could do anything to help them.
How incredibly sad, Lois. Addiction is a terrible thing, and everyone suffers. I truly hope and pray the children you mention are in a loving home. This country needs more and more foster parents–truly a sign of the breakdown of families.