In the 1870 U.S. census, "Chinese" appeared as a color category alongside White, Black, Mulatto, and Indian, and for census purposes it included Japanese people but excluded Hawaiians.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by National Archives' 1870 census form showing 'Chinese' as a color category, plus independent historical sources (Dartmouth digital history project, Census Bureau working papers, Pew Research) corroborating the Japanese-inclusion/Hawaiian-exclusion detail. [tier=gold indep_score=0.963 clusters=4 claim_tier=notable]
Sources
- Racial Reorganization and the United States Census 1850-1930 (seed:relationships_and_lifestyle)
- https://journeys.dartmouth.edu/censushistory/2016/01/22/asian-race-categorization-in-the-united-states-1910-1970/ (corroboration)
- https://www.communitysolutions.com/resources/short-history-race-question-decennial-census (corroboration)
- https://www.archives.gov/files/research/genealogy/charts-forms/1870-census.pdf (corroboration)
- https://library.guilford.edu/c.php?g=111830&p=722484 (corroboration)