Tax Collector Killed a Chinese Miner

On February 9, 1855, in Jacksonville, Tuolumne County, a tax collector shot and killed a Chinese miner who was said to be resisting the Foreign Miners’ Tax. The killing was reported as part of the routine enforcement of a discriminatory tax aimed especially at Chinese miners. A California paper would claim a few years later that a tax collector who shot and killed another Chinese miner had acted appropriately, writing that shooting "a dozen of them" would serve as a "severe lesson" for the Chinese. It shows how state power and racial violence could converge in Gold Rush California.