CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH

1851 – 1876

In 1849, there were only fifty-four Chinese immigrants residing in California. However, when tales of immense gold in California reached China, several hundred Chinese immigrants came to the United States in the following year. The influx of aspiring miners reached its peak in 1852 as 20,000 Chinese immigrants landed in San Francisco, accounting for 30 percent of all immigrants during the gold rush era. Those who arrived too late were willing to partake in back-breaking work on the transcontinental railroad, which connected the Atlantic to the Pacific. For a short period, these Chinese immigrants were commended as cheap labor. But as prices, rents, and values plummeted and unemployed Americans stood among thousands of Chinese immigrants—a conspicuous body of un-American competition—an anti-Chinese movement swept the region.