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Ah Toy (sl=Aa3 Coi2; Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: the Qing Period, 1644-1911 18 May 1829 – 1 February 1928) was a Chinese American sex worker and pimp in San Francisco, California during the California Gold Rush, and the first Qing dynasty sex worker in San Francisco. Arriving from Hong Kong in 1848, she became the best-known woman in the American frontier.
Ah Toy was described as a determined and intelligent woman; frequently using the San Francisco Recorder's Court (1977). 9780891740155, Comstock Editions, Incorporated. ISBN 9780891740155 to protect herself and her business from exploitation.Jacqueline Baker Barnhart, The Fair but Frail, p. 47 She opened a chain of brothels in 1852 and 1853, hiring girls from China. Ah Toy also faced pressure from male Chinese leaders, specifically Yuen Sheng, also known as Norman As-sing, who did not like the idea of a woman leading the brothel industry in the city.Taniguchi, Nancy J. “Weaving a Different World: Women and the California Gold Rush.” California History 79, no. 2 (2000): 141–68. .
By 1854, however, Ah Toy could no longer take her grievances to court. In the case People v. Hall, the California Supreme Court reversed the conviction of George Hall, who had murdered a Chinese man, extending a California law that African Americans and Native Americans could not testify in court to include the Chinese.SCOCAL, People v. Hall, 62 Cal.2d 104, last visited Tuesday May 7, 2013 While this law was not directed at sex workers, it handicapped Ah Toy's ability to protect herself from the domineering Chinese tongs that had long sought to control her and her business. Coupled with the anti-prostitution law of 1854, which was carried out mainly against the Chinese, the strain of her business became too great and Ah Toy withdrew from San Francisco's sex work business in 1857, announcing her departure to journalists.
In 1857, she returned to China as a wealthy woman, intending to live the rest of her days in comfort, but she returned to California by 1859. From 1868 until her death in 1928, she lived a mostly quiet life in Santa Clara County, often living with numerous partners over the decades, many of whom she legally could not marry because of anti-miscegenation laws in California that prevented people of descent from marrying white people. Ah Toy returned to mainstream public attention with her death in San Jose on 1 February 1928 at age 98,Gentry, Curt (1964) The Madams of San Francisco; p. 65 about three months before her ninety-ninth birthday.
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