Abstract
This thesis studies the formation of the historical impression of an incident. The Emily Incident in 1821 has been generally regarded as a significant event during early history of Sino-American relations (1784-1844), and an important case affecting Western impression of Chinese Laws. This thesis studies firstly studies the proceedings of the incident, discovering that the accused sailor Francis Terranovia did throw a pottery jar and hit the deceased, but his motive cannot be determined. The self-splitted Americans manipulated the testimonies and so on to ressit the Chinese from law enforcement, and their trade was later stopped, before the sailor was handed over to Chinese authorities and punished by death penalty very quickly. On the other hand, the Anglo-American views and acts were contradictory with the contemporary international convention, and the Sino-Foreign conflict of concepts did appear during the trial and conviction. After the event, all kinds of messages were transmitted to the United States and England, arousing some discussions. Information in America tended to emphasize the barbarity of violent Chinese jurisdiction, and the legal manipulations during the indicent were not widely spreaded. In England the information both criticized the Chinese barbarity and accused the pusillanimity of the wavering Americans, justifying British policy in China. Generally, both English and Americans regarded the said sailor as innocent and was persecuted. This case was frequently mentioned by Anglo-American publications in the following two decades, and was more cited by the English to exemplify the state of the Chinese and Americans, thus formed the impression that the case was a result of barbarous Chinese laws. This impression then became the conceptual foundation of the Americans when considering making treaties with China. But the issue of consular jurisdiction which connected with these legal conflicts was not formally discussed until Caleb Cusing was sent to China as commissioner and learning that the English had acquired similar rights in their treaties with China. The Su-Aman case, which happened during Sino-American negotiation for treaty, became an immediate asset for Cushing to overthrow the Emily precedent, acutallizing the right similar to consular jurisdiction on the ground of positivism.