Project 2

                “Our nation is built upon a history of immigration, dating back to our first pioneers, the Pilgrims. For more than three centuries, we have welcomed generations of immigrants to our melting pot of hyphenated America: British-Americans; Italian-Americans; Irish-Americans; Jewish-Americans; Mexican-Americans; Chinese-Americans; Indian-Americans” (Ami Bera). This shows the diversity that makes up Americans and the people wanted to seek better opportunities here. Throughout this paper I will talk about how this work reflects history’s social, political and economic context. When it comes to history there is nothing better than a primary source and the four different stories from the Chinese immigrants are the greatest examples of the hardships that they had to go through to experience a so-called better life in America during the Gold Rush.

            First up, the social aspect of history that these immigrants had to go through. They faced a ton of social hardships for how hard they worked. A lot of Chinese immigrants moved to the U.S. during the gold rush in hopes of becoming incredibly wealthy. However, they didn’t receive the warmest welcome, they faced racism, robberies and murders while trying to make a living mining. According to an article written by PBS a Yankee miner said, “Chinamen are getting to be altogether too plentiful in the country” (pbs.org). This shows that there were many negative thoughts about how the Americans welcomed the immigrants. Instead of greeting them with open arms, the Americans shunned them for being a different race and how they talked and certain mannerisms that they would consider weird but to the immigrants it was their culture. The same article states “In May 1852 the state imposed a Foreign Miners Tax, the second such tax on non-Americans in two years. This time, a levy of $3 per month was explicitly directed at the Chinese miners. And, as predicted, violence increased” it was also stated that “200 Chinese miners had been robbed and four murdered at Rich Gulch” (pbs.org). They went through all this struggle to come to America to become social pariahs. It’s crazy to see how they were specifically targeted because they were different than the others. Socially, these Immigrants were definitely not at the top of the food chain of society. It’s almost haunting to see how we could have treated these people so horribly. In our text book we see that four different immigrants decided to speak out on how they were living, and one in particular shows how he was treated horribly by his peers and, because of that, was given a terrible outlook on life. He stated “he holds the pipe as his family fortune goes down its hole. Look at him: Soon he will be six feet underground” (Anonymous Chinese Immigrants, 355). This man put his entire family fortune into pursuing the riches in the American land but quickly finds out that Americans are ruthless and will do anything to put someone down for a profit especially a recently emigrated minority.

            Next up is the political aspect. It’s funny, currently Americans have a problem with the Mexican immigrants that move to this country and most are being incredibly racist and targeting them politically to try and “preserve” American ideals. But, look about three centuries ago, and find that the same politics ruled, just targeting the Chinese-Americans as opposed to the Mexican-Americans nowadays. The pbs article stated that “the court extended California law that African Americans and Native Americans could not testify in court to include Chinese. The reversal made it impossible to prosecute violence against Chinese immigrants” (pbs.org). I find it crazy how that was able to be allowed to pass. It shows the political racism that the Americans had toward these immigrants. History has been littered with political racism in America and you would think that would have changed but, according to recent politics, that is not the case. They say history repeats itself and it couldn’t be any more true.

            Finally, the economic context. Within the four different poems written by the anonymous immigrants, the different economic status was different for each one. The fourth poem shows how they are trying to make a living and wishing others “may you claim a mine full of gold. May wealth soothe your soul. Hosts and guest, so gaily, raise the jade winecups” (Anonymous Chinese Immigrants, 355). This shows that they were actually doing well for themselves despite the challenges of immigration. They were drinking wine, which in most historical writings, highlighted wealth and importance. So, it seems like they were economically doing well. Even though it seems some did well, a lot didn’t as well. The pbs article states “Chinese men moved into other occupations, including the laundry business, domestic service and later railroad building” (pbs.org). This also shows that they were forced to leave the gold mining and pursue other jobs. But, because of their status as immigrants they were forced to do jobs that provided a service to the Americans. That is not fair at all to these immigrants because they worked hard to make a fortune but because they are not white Americans, they are forced to work for them not with them.

            Throughout this paper I showed how the four different stories from the Chinese immigrants are the best primary sources of what they had to go through as people who tried to seek a better life. I also talked about the history of racism and hardships that came with the immigration. I believe that the Gold Rush was not as great as it seems because it harmed many people of a different race but then again, that has been the theme throughout all of American history for all races.

Works Cited

“Chinese Immigrants and the Gold Rush.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goldrush-chinese-immigrants/.

Hicks, Jack, and James D. Houston. The Literature of California. University of California Press, 2000.