When news first broke of the discovery of gold, it spread across the world, Chinese immigrants sailed across the pacific ocean, trading cities from South America had ship sailing for San Francisco, and the hopefuls from across the continent clashed in California. The various cultures brought different ideas and techniques on mining (The West: A Ken Burns Documentary).
Chinese immigrants spent their Sundays prospecting for gold, and they tended to be frugal with their earnings. When the frustration of limited gold gotten underneath the American citizen’s skin, they demanded that immigrants be taxed, for less competition (Paddison, Joshua: Gold Rush, Statehood, and the Western Movement). American-Indians were the most targeted group; they could be purchased as “workers”, men, women, and children (The West: A Ken Burns Documentary).
The vast majority of the gold seekers were young unmarried men, who tended to be rambunctious and impulsive. Interaction with women was rare, and non-prostitutes were special (The West: A Ken Burns Documentary). Many American-Indian women were raped by the miners, which went along with the frustration of the miners. The anger turned to genocide when 4,500 had died due to violence (California As We Saw It). And while on the trial men became frustrated with another due to opposing views. Some men vowed to use Sundays to worship god, but got frustrated when others kept moving along towards California (The West: A Ken Burns Documentary). The differences in social behavior directly lead to discrimination and violence. The frustration had bent the social groups in different ways, leaving no one a winner.
|