Latin American and French Miners Protest the Foreign Miner’s Tax (with text supports)
French- and Spanish-speaking miners posted this notice around Sonora County, California in May, 1850. The month before, the California legislature had passed a Foreign Miners’ Tax that required immigrant miners to pay $20 every month for the privilege of mining in the state. In reality, the tax was only collected from non-white miners, while English, Irish, German and Scandinavian miners were not forced to pay it. In protest, Sonora miners raised their nations’ flags over their camps and advertised a meeting to decide what to do. After a mob of alarmed Americans marched into Sonora, the foreign miners drafted a statement to the governor, saying they would accept a lower tax of $4 or $5.
Source | Unknown author, public notice, circa May 1850; quoted in Sucheng Chan, “A People of Exceptional Character: Ethnic Diversity, Nativism, and Racism in the California Gold Rush,” California History, Vol. 79, No. 2, Rooted in Barbarous Soil: People, Culture, and Community in Gold Rush California (Summer 2000), 44—85.
Creator | Unknown
Item Type | Pamphlet/Petition
Cite This document | Unknown, “Latin American and French Miners Protest the Foreign Miner’s Tax (with text supports),” SHEC: Resources for Teachers, accessed September 28, 2023, https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/1812.
Creator | Unknown
Item Type | Pamphlet/Petition
Cite This document | Unknown, “Latin American and French Miners Protest the Foreign Miner’s Tax (with text supports),” SHEC: Resources for Teachers, accessed September 28, 2023, https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/1812.
