African Americans in the Gold Rush

The Gold Rush of 1848–1855 drew people from North America and other parts of the world who hoped to strike it rich. Among them were individuals of various races and nationalities, including Chinese, Hawaiians, and Latin Americans. African Americans who likewise flowed into California included free and enslaved persons. Many were successful in panning and mining for the precious mineral; still, although California was a free state, fugitive slaves were frequently held and returned to enslavers by local authorities.

Background

California was a part of Mexico until the end of the Mexican War, which took place from 1846 to 1848. Many American, German, and Irish settlers had previously moved into the region and operated ports around the San Francisco Bay. The settlement, Yerba Buena, was operated under Mexican law until 1846. The Mexican War began in April, and in July, the American warship Portsmouth sailed into the bay. US Navy officers raised the US flag in Yerba Buena and claimed it for the United States.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which was signed on February 2, 1848, ended the conflict and relinquished 525,000 square miles of territory to the United States. Mexico received $15 million as part of the transaction. This territory also included all or part of the modern-day states of Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. California was admitted to the Union on April 1, 1850, as the thirty-first state.

According to the US Census of 1850, about 962 free Black people lived in California. In 1852, a reported 300 enslaved Black individuals were working in the gold fields of the state. Many of the Black people living in California arrived before the Gold Rush. Most were brought to the region by members of the military, including a few women. A free Black man who became successful before the gold rush was merchant, entrepreneur, and ship captain William Alexander Leidesdorff, who is believed to be the first African American millionaire. He was born on St. Croix in what is now the US Virgin Islands in 1810, and arrived in California in 1841. Among his accomplishments, Leidesdorff built a shipyard, a warehouse, and in 1847, the first hotel in Yerba Buena. Leidesdorff was a friend of John Sutter, whose property launched the California Gold Rush, and accepted Native American slaves from Sutter as payment for a debt. Although Leidesdorff died in May 1848, before gold fever had spread around the globe, his property near Sacramento later was found to be rich with the mineral.

On January 24, 1848—about a week and a half before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed—carpenter James W. Marshall was working along the South Fork of the American River on property owned by Sutter. A measles epidemic had killed most of the enslaved Native Americans who labored on Sutter’s ranch. He was looking for a new source of income and hired Marshall to build a sawmill. Some of the enslaved Native Americans were digging for the project when Marshall saw gold flakes in the mud. The two men agreed to keep this find a secret, but news of the discovery began spreading quickly that summer, and by early 1849 hordes of hopefuls were arriving in the state. Sutter lost control of his ranch as squatters moved in and thieves stole his livestock and other goods. The new state of California voided his land grant, which had been made by Mexico.

The Gold Rush had a profound effect on California. Before 1848, the non-native population was less than one thousand, but by the end of 1849 it was about one hundred thousand. Towns appeared and grew within a few days as ’49ers arrived. The surface gold was mostly gone by 1850 and mining operations, which were much more dangerous, were established. Hydraulic mining, which was developed in 1853, scarred the landscape, but mining had already peaked in 1852. Few of the people who arrived in the state found the wealth they dreamed of. Both Sutter and Marshall died in poverty.

Overview

News of the discovery at Sutter’s Creek was carried by major newspapers in New York and other cities where populations of educated free Black people lived. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass reprinted a letter in his paper, the North Star, claiming that California was full of gold. Other antislavery publications also covered the news. A notable letter published in 1850 in the Liberator was from thirty-seven African American men who announced that they had established a mutual-aid society to help one another and newcomers. The men said they were earning from $100 to $300 a month.

Some African Americans were famously successful ’49ers. Entrepreneur Reuben Ruby of Maine was the son of an enslaved North African. He succeeded with a taxi business in Portland, Maine, before moving to New York City, where he opened and operated a restaurant. He boarded a ship in 1849 when he heard about the gold discovery. He spent four weeks digging along the Stanislaus River and found $600 worth of the mineral. Soon after news of his success was reported in New York, a mining company comprising Black men set sail from New York City for California. Many of those in the North who had escaped enslavement may have felt the free state of California offered them a greater chance at freedom because the US Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 required that enslaved persons be returned to enslavers.

Many Black individuals gravitated to mining claims established by African Americans. Chinese and Portuguese miners frequently worked side by side with Black miners in these communities as well. In 1849, a group of African American men established a mining claim in Sacramento County called Negro Bar. The claim was located along the American River on property that had belonged to Leidesdorff. The men mined it for almost a year, then moved north to claims at Negro Hill and Massachusetts Flat. They and other African Americans who arrived later continued to work these claims until the late 1850s. Many of them then settled in towns and cities in northern California, although a significant population traveled to British Columbia, Canada, to work the gold fields starting in 1858. While they had hoped for better treatment because of the government’s perceived welcome of African Americans to the territory, they largely faced the same discrimination in the North, and many returned to the United States after the American Civil War.

Few miners became wealthy. However, many Black individuals established businesses to offer services to miners in the towns and cities that mining built. Among these were two men from Philadelphia, Mifflin Gibbs and Peter Lester, who opened a boot and shoe business that served customers in California and as far north as Portland, Oregon. Massachusetts native James P. Dyer opened the New England Soap Factory in San Francisco in 1851.

While the majority of African Americans and others were men, a small number of women also arrived during the gold rush. Mary Ellen Pleasant was an abolitionist from Massachusetts and, like her husband, a worker on the Underground Railroad. The couple moved to San Francisco in 1852 to avoid problems with enslavers. She opened restaurants to serve miners and by 1875 had become extremely wealthy, while she continued to work on the Underground Railroad.

Life was in most ways as difficult for Black individuals in California as it was elsewhere. Despite the opportunities they found, they still were denied equal rights. The California Legislature passed a law in 1850 banning African Americans, Chinese people, and Native Americans from testifying in cases in which the defendants or plaintiffs were White. Black people did not have the right to testify until 1863. African Americans were likewise denied the right to an education.

Enslaved in a “Free State”

While many free Black individuals sought their fortunes in the gold fields, others were delivered there to toil in slavery. Scholars believe that one-third of African Americans in California were illegally enslaved. Many white miners were opposed to slavery, which they felt gave enslavers an unjust advantage. Many California delegates who declared California a free state in 1849 were miners. These California delegates ensured that the state constitution outlawed slavery, but they did not ensure that African Americans or Native Americans had civil rights. Local authorities generally supported enslavers and an 1852 law allowed slave catchers to take Black individuals they claimed were escaped slaves.

The case of Robert Perkins, Carter Perkins, and Sandy Jones demonstrates California’s fickleness regarding enslavement. The three men were enslaved by Mississippian Charles Perkins, who took them with him to mine for gold in 1849. Charles Perkins did not strike it rich and was unable to pay for the return trip to Mississippi for the men that he enslaved. Robert Perkins, Carter Perkins, and Sandy Jones struck a deal with Charles Perkins; they would continue to work in California, and when they fulfilled their end of the bargain, a friend of the enslaver would release them. The three men established a business moving freight in gold country and became wealthy. The 1852 slave law stated that any Black person who had been enslaved when he or she entered California before statehood remained the property of the enslaver. Charles Perkins demanded that the men be returned to him, and the legal system imprisoned them. The California Supreme Court voided their freedom agreement and had them returned to Mississippi.

Another famous fugitive slave trial occurred in 1857. Archy Lee escaped his enslaver, Charles Stovall, but was captured and put on trial. Evidence showed that his enslaver had illegally hired Lee out to other people in California. State law banned lengthy stays in California by enslaved persons and enslavers, but Lee had been forced to work for others for more than a year. The court ruled in Lee’s favor, but his enslaver appealed to the state Supreme Court, and he was immediately rearrested. The California Supreme Court ordered Lee to be turned over to Stovall. Free Black individuals and White abolitionists had police arrest Stovall for kidnapping, and the case returned to the state Supreme Court. This time the court freed Lee, who left California for Canada during the 1858 Frazier River Gold Rush.

Stephen Spencer Hill likewise escaped enslavement in 1854. He left the steamship Urilda the night before he was to leave for Arkansas with an enslaver, Owen R. Rozier. Rozier told authorities that Hill stole money and his gold watch when he left. What Rozier may not have known was that Hill’s white neighbors had organized the man’s escape by making a fool of Rozier. The men, called the Gold Spring Boys, did not believe that Rozier had a claim to Hill and had tried for months to help him escape. An Arkansas man, Wood Tucker, had originally taken Hill to California to mine. Tucker eventually returned to Arkansas, but Hill bought his freedom. He remained in California, where he bought land and farmed. He mined for gold to pay for farm equipment. Rozier arrived, claiming that Hill was Tucker’s property. The local sheriff jailed Hill, who by law was barred from testifying in court. The Gold Spring Boys found an attorney and harvested Hill’s crops. However, the court ruled against him, and he was handed over to Rozier. The night before the ship was due to sail, the Gold Spring Boys got Rozier drunk, so Hill could slip away. He was not found and Rozier took over his farm.

Bibliography

“African Americans in the Gold Rush.” Public Broadcasting Service, 2006, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goldrush-stephen-hill/. Accessed 8 Mar. 2022.

Caesar, Clarence. “Key Points in Black History and the Gold Rush.” California Department of Education, 11 Mar. 2021, www.cde.ca.gov/ci/hs/im/didyouknow1.asp. Accessed 8 Mar. 2022.

“California Gold Rush.” History, 16 Apr. 2021, www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/gold-rush-of-1849. Accessed 8 Mar. 2022.

“Gold Rush and Shattered Dreams.” American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, 2019, www.aclunc.org/sites/goldchains/explore/gold-rush.html. Accessed 8 Mar. 2022.

“Gold Rush Era to 1900.” Calisphere University of California, 2005, calisphere.org/exhibitions/47/african-americans-gold-rush/#overview. Accessed 8 Mar. 2022.

Helm, Matt. “Archy Lee Case, 1858.” BlackPast, 10 Nov. 2007, www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/archy-lee-case-1858/. Accessed 8 Mar. 2022.

Lapp, Rudolph M. Blacks in Gold Rush California. Yale UP, 1977.

Schneider, Benjamin. “The Incredible Story of William Leidesdorff, San Francisco’s Black Founding Father.” San Francisco Examiner, 9 Dec. 2021, www.sfexaminer.com/news/the-incredible-story-of-william-leidesdorff-san-franciscos-black-founding-father/. Accessed 8 Mar. 2022.

Southard, Sophia. “African Americans and the Gold Rush.” Library of Congress Blog, 2 Feb. 2021, blogs.loc.gov/inside‗adams/2021/02/african-americans-gold-rush/. Accessed 8 Mar. 2022.