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Cover The California Historical Society, San Francisco; All interior photos Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley except for the following: P.l0-11 The California Historical Society, San Francisco; P.15 Courtesy of the Asian American Studies Collections, Ethnic Studies Library, University of California, Berkeley

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Coming to California: The Mid-1800s

In 1850, California became the thirty-first state of the United States of America. It was a land of snow-covered mountains, hot deserts, vast swamps, and hundreds of miles of Pacific coastline. It was also a place of rich natural resources.

Just two years earlier, in 1848, California had been owned by Mexico. It was known as Alta California, or Upper California. That year, the United States bought it from Mexico-along with Nevada and Utah and parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming-for $15 million. That same year, 1848, tiny nuggets of gold were discovered near Sacramento.

In time the search for gold brought half a million people from around the world to California. After the gold rush ended, many people stayed in California. These early immigrants-especially those from China-brought changes to California and to the rest of the country.

Why did so many Chinese come to the United States in the mid-1800s? The possibility of finding gold-or "striking it rich"-was a big attraction. But there were also great hardships back in China. There had been a long period of wars and rebellions. There were also disastrous floods, famines (times when food is very scarce), and droughts (periods when there is little or no rain). As a result, many Chinese felt that they could no longer make a living in their homeland. It was this belief, as well as the promise of riches in California, that led Chinese people to make the long journey across the Pacific.

This 1851 painting of San Francisco shows a busy harbor and city populated with a mixture of people, including Chinese and Spanish.

The Gold Rush The first gold was discovered on January 24, 1848, on the

American River at Coloma, near Sacramento. In the earliest days of the gold rush, finding gold was not very hard. Gold flakes and nuggets were so plentiful that they could be seen lying at the bottom of streams, like pebbles.

It was no wonder that people soon flocked to California. They came from places such as Chile, Mexico, Ireland, France, Germany, Turkey, and China. In 1851 nearly 3,000 Chinese came to California. The next year more than 20,000 arrived. During the next 20 years, about 8,000 Chinese immigrants would arrive every year. Many were independent miners. Others worked for Chinese companies.

With so many people hunting for gold, it quickly became much harder to find. Miners learned to use pans to scoop up stream water. They then shook the pan, spilling out pebbles and dirt. Only the heavier bits and flakes of gold would be left behind. Panning for gold wasn't hard work. But it took a lot of time and patience. Later, miners started using larger pans. Soon they began digging tunnels to get gold ore buried underground.

The Chinese miners faced problems early on. As competition for gold grew, so did discrimination. Discrimination is unfair treatment because of a difference such as race. Americans of European ancestry were often hostile toward Chinese workers. What's more, in 1850 the legislature of the new state of California passed a law that discrimi­nated against Chinese and other new immigrants. This law was called the Foreign Miners License Tax Law. It charged all non-native-born workers $20 a month.

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Because of anti-Chinese feelings, the Chinese had to work in separate mining camps (above). Miners dug for gold with picks, panned gold, and washed the gold to remove any dirt (left).

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Twenty dollars was a huge amount of money back then. The tax drove many people away from mining. Some Chinese miners moved to San Francisco, where they found other work. In time, their neighborhood would become the country's first "Chinatown."

Yet many Chinese workers kept searching for gold. Even more kept arriving from China. In 1852 nearly one-third of the 67,000 people who came to California were from China. Many were very success­ful at finding gold. In fact, in 1860 about 50 percent of California's revenue, or income, was from the gold taxes paid by the Chinese.

By 1864 most of California's available gold had been stripped from the land. The gold rush was over. Many of the immigrants stayed and continued seek­ing their fortunes. But anti-Chinese feelings were still very strong. Chinese immigrants, nearly all of them men, were not allowed to work in many places. Many had to work at low-paying service jobs. Service jobs are those in which workers provide a service rather than produce a crop or a manufactured good. Some supported themselves by doing laundry, cooking, and working as servants.

At first, most of the Chinese who came to California didn't plan on staying. Many just wanted to make as much money as they could and then go back home to China. Bandits knew this. They were always on the lookout for any foreigner who might be carrying valuable goods. The Chinese hit on a clever plan to sneak their gold past these thieves. They would bring the metal to San Francisco, where it was melted down into all kinds of cooking utensils-pots, pans, and woks (bowl-shaped pans used for stir-frying). Covered with soot and grease, these gold items soon looked like everyday kitchen tools. The riches were thus hidden in plain sight.

Forced out of the gold mines by a decreasing supply of gold and increasing discrimination, some Chinese became servants.

San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1860s

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Working on the Railroad In 1863 the Central Pacific Railroad had begun building its stretch of

the first transcontinental railroad eastward, starting in Sacramento. In 1865 the railroad company started hiring Chinese workers. They were paid $28 a month. They lived in flimsy shacks they built themselves. They ate fish, mushrooms, dried oysters, dried fruit, and seaweed. The life was difficult. The work was very dangerous. It included leveling uneven roads, blasting rock, and digging tunnels. But the Chinese workers were brave, clever, and reliable.

The Chinese had made a name for themselves as excellent workers. From that time on, every new railroad company hired Chinese workers. As a result, even more Chinese came to the United States, looking for ways to improve their lives.

As the Central Pacific Railroad rounds Cape Horn, the south fork of the American River can be seen where gold was first found in 1848.

An Early Doctor Not all early Chinese immigrants were miners and railroad work­ers. Many Chinese knew how to use herbs as medicine. It was a skill that healers in their country had been practicing for hun­dreds of years. When they came to the United States, Chinese immigrants brought the seeds of special herbs and plants so that they could use them for medicine. One doctor, named Vee Fung Cheung, came to the United States in 1850. Like his father back in China, Vee was an "herbal doctor." This meant he used herbs and plants to heal his patients, who were mostly Chinese miners. His fame grew as a doctor, and in 1862 he was even asked to help the dying wife of California governor Leland Stanford. Vee made a remedy using an ancient herb and gave it to the governor's wife. Many believe that Vee Fung Cheung's treatment saved her life.

Farmers, Fishers, Builders, Shop Owners

Most of the early Chinese immigrants were farmers from the Guangdong province of southern China. However, the Chinese, like African Americans at that time, were not allowed to become citizens. Local laws prevented them from owning land.

The Chinese farmers still found ways to use their experience in their new country. Many became sharecroppers. They farmed on someone else's land and were paid with a "share" of the crop. Others helped turn 5 million acres of swamp in the Sacramento Delta and the San Joaquin Valley into farmland. The Chinese were able to raise crops that had never been grown in California before. They grew Bing cherries, frost-resistant oranges, and celery.

Many Chinese immigrants were also experienced fishers. They became some of California's first commercial fishers. They worked around San Francisco Bay, Monterey, and San Diego. They mostly fished for squid and sturgeon. They also harvested seaweed and caught shrimp and abalone.

Frederick A. Butnam's painting Chinese Fishing Village {about 1859)

Early C hinese immigrants also found work in construction. In the mining dis­tric ts, they built many of the roads as well as the ditches or gutters made to carry water. They also built long stone walls out of uncut fieldstones without using any cem.ent or 1nortar. S01ne of these walls, such as the one on the Quick R anch in M ariposa County, are still standing more than 150 years later.

M any C hinese immigrants worked in factories. They made shoes, brooms, candles, soap, and other goods. Some ran their own businesses.These often provid­ed services to other Chinese immigrants .

In the mid-1800s, few Americans were familiar with the taste of shrimp. The Chinese, however, had been catching, eating, and preserv­ing shrimp for many years. By the mid-1860s, they had begun fishing for shrimp in California. They established small villages, also known as shrimp camps, on the shores of San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. China Camp, in Marin County, was one of the biggest shrimp camps in the state. But with no one in the United States to sell to, these fishers had to dry most of the shrimp they caught and send it back to China.

Chinese shrimp fishers in San Francisco

Chinatown After the Central Pacific Railroad was finished in 1869,

many Chinese railroad workers went to Sacramento. There were so many Chinese immigrants there that the Chinese called it Yee Fow, which means "the second city."

People had started calling the Chinese neighborhood of any city "Chinatown." Sacramento's Chinatown was just a few blocks long. Yet it was lined with Chinese shops and restaurants. The people who worked in these places lived directly above them, with brightly colored balconies in front. This was the custom in China.

There were several other Chinatowns in California. Most Chinese immigrants entered the state through San Francisco's port, and many settled there. Others landed and settled in the lumber industry's port city of Mendocino. Thousands of others settled in Oroville, where they built their own religious temple in 1863.

In the 1800s most Chinese immigrants lived between two worlds-China and the United States. Many celebrated when California became a state in 1850.Yet they had also brought the traditions, food, and customs of their old coun­try to their new home. Many observed the religions they had grown up with. They also celebrated traditional Chinese festivals and holidays, such as the Chinese lunar New Year.

Theater, music, and dance have always been an important part of Chinese culture. The first performance of a Chinese opera was held in San Francisco in 1852. Several months later the first Chinese theater was built . By 1855 two Chinese-language newspapers were being published.

At the Principal Chinese Theatre in San Francisco, an audience enjoys a scene from a Chinese historical play (above right). Chinese adults and children celebrate a holiday on Stockton Street in San Francisco's Chinatown (right).

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Conflict, Discrimination, and justice

From the very beginning, most Chinese who came to the United States suffered terrible discrimination. Sometimes, it was personal and vio­lent. Other times, it took the form of discriminatory laws. For example, in 1854 the California State Supreme Court ruled that a Chinese person could not testifY against a white person in a court of law-even in a mur­der case.

The 1870s were difficult years for many Americans. There was a nationwide depression. This meant there were few jobs. Many people were poor. In California there were also bank failures and severe drought.

In 1888 this advertisement was published in a San Francisco newspaper, The Wasp.

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THE CHINESE MUST GO !

Tho Bust Goronor ana will mako tho Bust Mayor San Francisco ovor saw.

SEE THAT THE DOCTOR'S NAME IS ON YOUR TICKET.

A VOTE FOR O'DONNELL IS A VOTE AGAINST BOSSES AND THE CHINESE CURSE.

Labor unions at that time were trying to get better pay and better working conditions for their members. The fact that the Chinese were willing to work for less money made other workers angry.

There was so much anger toward the Chinese that the United States government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. The law stated that no Chinese workers could enter the United States for ten years. It also said that the Chinese who were already in the United States couldn't become citizens.

After the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, many Chinese were chased out of their homes and towns. Today this is called "the Driving Out."

There were very few places where the Chinese could turn for help. There were some district and family associations, such as the Chinese Empire Reform Association and the Chinese Protection Society. These groups served meals, offered protection, and tried to help in other ways.

Soon, the Chinese realized that they had a powerful weapon. It was the American judicial system. The courts had ruled against the Chinese in many cases. But the same laws also gave the Chinese the right to appeal, or question, those decisions . Chinese workers began pooling their money to hire the best lawyers they could find.

In time, the Chinese would challenge almost every law passed against them. Sometimes they succeeded. From the

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Newspapers would not publish articles written by the Chinese. So, the Chinese published their own booklets and newspapers to present their point of view on "the Chinese question."

1800s to the early 1900s, the Chinese brought to court hundreds of cases. These helped them gain the rights they deserved on issues such as educa­tion, citizenship, and immigration. The Chinese Exclusion Act was finally overturned in 1943.

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The Chinese have an important place in California history. They built 'California's railroads. They were a tremendous commercial force as farmers, shopkeepers, fishers, and factory and service workers. They brought with them their culture, food, language, traditions, religion, and values. Many of these are still a part of American culture today. The Chinese have added to the remarkable variety in our country. They have greatly expanded the 'definition of what it means to be an American.

Think and Respond

G) What events caused many Chinese to come to California in the mid-1800s?

0 How did Chinese immigrants contribute to the development of California's industries and culture?

0 In what ways were the Chinese discriminated against? Why did discrimination become worse in the 1870s?

@ Would you have wanted to live in California during the second half of the nineteenth century? Why or why not?

Make a Time Line Using the library or the Internet, research the development of San Francisco's Chinatown during the second half of the nineteenth century. Make a time line showing important developments in this community during that time. Compare your time line entries with those of your classmates.

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