hey kept on—year after year. Dejected, disappointed, many would never return home to loved ones back east—they would die in California, broken by a dream that never came true.Collision of CulturesThe 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 ...
