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Foreign Minors Tax Of 1852

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• A t first Chinese immigrants were welcomed in California. But what caused the political climate to turn against the Chinese? A mericans started to see the Chinese (along with other immigrants like the French, Mexican, Chilean, ect) as competition for discovering gold in the gold fields. Americans felt that since gold was found on American soil, whoever should find gold and have any access to it should be an American and not a foreigner. They felt that they would take whatever measure they had to to prevent any foreigners from finding any and striking it rich. They also claimed that since so many Asian immigrants were working as laborers but didn’t actually want to be American citizens, it was discouraging Americans from different states from coming to California in search of gold. • E xplain the foreign minors tax of 1852: which group was targeted; how did this tax relate to the Naturalization Act of 1790; how much was collected from these minors; what percent of all of California’s state revenue came from this tax? T he Chinese were targeted for the miners tax of 1852 because the intention was to drive Chinese immigrants away from the gold fields to make way for white Americans. The exact purpose for the minor 's tax as stated by Governor Bigler was that, “the state will use its police power to prohibit the immigration of Chinese into California” (p. 81). He also suggested forcing Chinese to pay huge taxes just to be in the state of California and to prohibit contract

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