Gold Rush Migration Timeline

      1849 – The government in California was very tolerant of all immigrants at this time

      1850 – A civilian legislature is put in place in California and racist white miners who were afraid of foreign competition influenced the legislature. A Foreign Miners Tax was put into place to “protect” American minors. As a result of this, many foreigners had to get other jobs because mining for gold was too expensive with the new tax. The legislation was dropped the next year.

Many Mexicans came to the mines because their loss in the Mexican War had removed them from their high social position in California and they had few other options. This group faced a lot of racism from white Americans because of the Mexican War. There were also a lot of immigrants from Chile and Peru who joined the native Californians in the search for gold.

There were also quite a few Chinese immigrants who faced racism from other miners and the legislature. Due to intense racism, this group was forced away from the mines and to jobs in almost any field of work including cooks, vegetable farmers, fortunetellers, and many others. Many Chinese people moved to San Francisco to become a part of the business community. They created the first “Chinatown” at that time.

Many women who came to the west went against traditional economic roles and had great success.

A lot of African-Americans came to California as slaves but were able to buy their freedom.

      1852 – This year was the height of the Gold Rush immigration with 67,000 immigrants.

     1860 – The federal census counted 308,000 residents in California. That was almost triple the population in 1847.