The discovery of gold in California brought people from all over the world to try their hand at getting rich. Thousands of such people came from China, yet unlike many of the other immigrants, they were recruited to come, particularly from the southern Chinese region around Canton (modern Guangzhou). Miners and contractors revived the old system of indentured servitude with the “credit fare” system. Chinese men would get a loan for their passage on a ship to come to California; they would work off the loan for the employer and then try to make a living in North America. Often, such workers would send money home to take care of their families, and at least half of them returned to China once they had improved their families’ socioeconomic circumstances. The rest, however, faced racism and violence as the population in California turned on them. California’s legislature tried to regulate their travel around the state, and in an infamous court case, People v. Hall, the California Supreme Court essentially made it legal to kill Chinese migrants, so long as no white person ever reported against it.