American history

Collision of Cultures

The California Gold Rush was not merely an American happening -- it was a world event. Many mines, especially in the south, were worked by foreigners who came solely for the gold. Chinese, Chileans, Mexicans, Irish, Germans, French, and Turks all sought their fortune in California.

Like their American-born counterparts, foreign miners had no intention of staying in California. Their goal was to get the gold and get home. But hauling gold out of the country was a difficult operation -- bandits often preyed on foreigners. The Chinese had a unique solution.

Historian Sylvia Sun-Minnick, author of "Samfow"

"When they took the gold out of the hills and they went to send the gold back to China, how did they do it? They took it to San Francisco and melted it down into woks, frying pans, cooking utensils, pots, and when you see Chinese boarding ships to go back home, they would take these things that looked like black, sooty, cooking utensils -- and when they got home they melted that all down and there was their gold. It has been documented."

As gold became less plentiful, resentment towards foreigners grew. Under pressure, the California legislature passed the Foreign Miners Tax in 1850, a $20 per month levy payable by every foreign miner -- a tax which only fueled the growing fire of ethnic resentment.

Many foreign miners refused to pay the tax and left the country. Others, like the Chinese, stayed in California, in mining -- or in more traditional jobs in the metropolitan culture that was developing. Although there were ethnic skirmishes, most of these new residents thrived. If you had something to contribute, California would take you in. Almost instantly, the state had assembled the most diverse ethnic culture in the world.

Historian Sylvia Sun-Minnick, author of "Samfow"

"But the impetus to jump-start California and bring all the nationalities in -- that would not of happened without the Gold Rush."

Yet one ethnic group did not do well -- the original residents of California's gold country: Native Americans. Uninterested in gold or in mining -- they were almost immediately annihilated.

JoAnn Levy, author "They Saw the Elephant"

"It was genocide. Because once all of this immigration hit the mountains it disturbed the entire socioeconomic survival, the whole system, for the Native Americans here. And there were a number of them, probably 300,000. And it was quickly reduced to only 50,000. And there was just wholesale slaughter."

African Americans fared surprisingly well. Southerners who brought their slaves to help in the digging quickly found out that 49ers didn't take kindly to that idea -- but it wasn't because of an opposition to slavery. The miners had quite a different reason for objecting.

JoAnn Levy, author "They Saw the Elephant"

" The miners said they had to work for their gold, and they did not want to dig side by side with a slave who was doing it for someone else. It wasn't that they opposed slavery, it had a lot to do with self-esteem. It degraded them to the position of slaves if they were doing the same labor as a slave was doing. And they also very much resented the idea that somebody higher back was controlling people and getting the proceeds without doing their own digging."

In 1850, California was admitted to the Union as a free state -- adding to eastern tensions that would lead to the Civil War. But few in California cared much about the slavery question. There was still but one thing on the minds of nearly everyone here -- money. And money was becoming harder and harder to find.