Historiography

There has actually been a fair amount of information that has been written about the discrimination of African Americans, Chinese immigrants, and Indigenous People during the California Gold Rush. Not just including those populations, but there is also a good amount of information related to other populations like Latinos, Europeans, and out-of-state Americans. However, just between the three groups researched in this exhibit, there are a lot of similarities that these groups faced during the gold rush. One of the main being that they were used as a source of cheap-labor. This also caused them to be marginalized populations. In learning about the California Gold Rush, especially in school, many of these narratives are missing or not fully told. Oftentimes, these events and the discrimination of the different groups can be isolated from one another which lessens the ability to understand how widespread discrimination was during the California Gold Rush. Having this information all in one place makes it easier to connect the experiences of the groups and helps individuals gain a better understanding of the situation.

Authors Judy Yung, Gordon H. Change, and Him Mark Lai of Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present have been referenced as respected historians and their research article has been referenced multiple times. Their main focus was on finding new and fresh materials and avoiding previously published documents. They focused on the racial discrimination and class exploitation by white settlers expanding into the West. The information they provide is similar to that of some Indigenous experiences because they also faced being exploited for their labor and being forcibly displaced. Reviews of their work see it as a tremendous resource to learn about the Chinese American experience. 

In addition, Mark Kanazawa’s journal article “Immigration, Exclusion, and Taxation: Anti-Chinese Legislation in Gold Rush California” has also been cited at least 16 times, showing that it is a good source of information. Kanazawa is an economics professor, thus giving more credibility towards his understanding of the different anti-Chinese policies that were passed. His work further talks about the exploitative practices behind Chinese labor while also adding that Chinese immigrants were an important source of revenue for the state itself because of the large number of immigrants.

Sucheng Chan’s research article “A People of Exceptional Character: Ethnic Diversity, Nativism, and Racism in the California Gold Rush,” is one of the most cited sections of the whole work of California History. She is a well-renowned historian in the study of Asian Americans. Though, this work also contains information related to Africans, not just Chinese immigrants. She does a great job of introducing the discrimination of both African Americans and Chinese immigrants and then pointing out some of the similarities that these populations faced at the time. She consistently built upon previous information from other populations to create a more fleshed out narrative about Chinese immigrants. This article cites Rudolph Lapp, who is another author whose information is referenced in this exhibit. 

In terms of the African American experience in the California Gold Rush, Lapp’s Blacks in Gold Rush California has been well regarded with quotes like “Thoroughly researched, intelligently organized, and effectively presented,” by Kenneth Wiggins Porter with the American Historical Review and “This study does a great deal to fill a void in a field where so little has been done,” by W. Sherman Savage from Southern California Quarterly. 

On the front of Indigenous People, James J. Rawls cites primary sources in his research article like Edward Gould Buffum’s “Six Months in the gold mines : from a journal of three years’ residence in Upper and Lower California,” which is also referenced in this exhibit. James J. Rawls is also regarded as a well-distinguished historian. His work explains some similarities to African Americans in that both Indigenous and Black people existed in California before the gold rush and how some were independent miners and some were owned or controlled as cheap labor.