Clash of Cultures & the Discovery of Gold      123456

Discrimination in the Goldfields

In 1852 California passed a Foreign Miner's Tax. The new tax required all foreign miners who did not want to become citizens to pay a hefty monthly fee to state officials. Even if they had wanted to, Chinese laborers were not allowed to become U.S. citizens. The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited citizenship to “free white persons,” preventing Asians from becoming citizens. Although the Foreign Miner's Tax affected other foreign miners such as French and Mexicans, it was applied most forcefully to Chinese miners, who faced extreme racial hatred. This hatred and discrimination was fed by rumors of Chinese success in the goldfields. Easily accessible gold was running out, and groups and individuals battled one another for what remained.

Building the Great Railways

The hostility directed toward the Chinese, as well as the rapid disappearance of available gold, left many Chinese miners hungry and homeless. They were denied work in the more skilled professions, and it was difficult for them to find jobs of any kind.

By the 1860s, when construction of the first transcontinental railroad got under way, the railroads needed laborers to perform the very dangerous work of blasting tunnels and laying ties over the treacherous terrain of the High Sierra. Generally free to choose their own jobs, the majority of white men in California avoided this hazardous work. Railway managers pointed to China’s Great Wall as proof that the Chinese were capable of the labor required. Railroad executives determined that Chinese workers were cheap and easy to manage. They received around $26 a month for a workweek of six 12-hour days, and they had to provide their own food and tents. White workers, however, earned $35 a month or more and were furnished with food and shelter. Thanks in large part to Chinese laborers, the railway was completed in 1869.

After their great contribution to the transcontinental railroad, the Chinese faced further discrimination when the U.S. passed the Naturalization Act of 1870, which allowed African Americans to become citizens while continuing to exclude Asians.

Many former railroad workers turned to farming to make ends meet. By 1880, Chinese workers comprised one-third of the agricultural labor force in California. Others moved to cities such as San Francisco and worked in the few industries permitted to them, such as laundries.