The 1849 Gold Rush prompts the increase in Chinese immigrants to the west coast from 4,018 in 1850 to 34,933 in 1860. Upwards of 90% are male miners, arriving by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company at the port of San Francisco. They are unwelcome and immediately stereotyped as an inferior, un-Christian and dangerous species, and a “foreign miner’s tax” of $3.00 per month (half their average earnings) is imposed on them. In response they protect themselves by working as teams, not individuals, and in less popular sites. Still their numbers grow to 64,199 in 1870 and may labor on laying the transcontinental railroad tracks and in agriculture. Then in 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act banning further immigration of laborers for ten years is signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur.
Chinese man with fan
