CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH(1848-1852)

Discovery and the Forty-Niners

• First gold discovered on John Sutter’s Mill, by James Marshall in 1848.

• After news broke thousands flooded in to attempt to find gold by 1849.

• 2/3 of forty-niners were Americans, the rest came from Mexico, South America, Europe, Australia and China.

• Most forty-niners were young and male

John Sutter

Journey to California

There were three ways to get to California from United States…

1. Overland- cutting across the country taking routes like the Oregon or Santa Fe Trail.

2. By ship to Panama in Central America, across dangerous jungles to the Pacific side.

3. By ship around the horn of South America

San Francisco Travel hub between those traveling by sea to get to California gold country

April 1848 population: 850December 1849 population: 25,000

• Major growth• Culturally diverse • Lawlessness/ fighting • Illegal activities

Life in the Mining CampsThere was “a row of canvas tents, [months later] there were two thousand men…and the streets were lined with drinking saloons and gambling tables.”-Luzena Wilson, mining wife at Coyote Diggings camp

• Fights over claim boundaries• Often took “justice” into their own

hands

“In the short space of twenty-four hours we have had murders, fearful accidents, bloody deaths, a mob, whippings, a hanging, and attempt at suicide, and a fatal duel.”-Louise Clappe

In the Field

Panning Sluice for separation of gold

from dirt with waterExcavating a river bed after the water has been diverted

• Hard, tedious work• Long days (Approximately 16 hours) digging up mud, dirt, and stones

while standing knee-deep in icy streams• “The day of quick fortune-making was gone. There are thousands of

men now in California who would gladly go home if they had the money.” –Miner, 1851

Chinese ImmigrantsBetween 1848-1852 more than 20,000

Chinese immigrated to California (In 1852, 1 in 10 Californians was Chinese)

Originally welcomed by Californians!Once mining became difficult attitudes

towards immigrants changed, especially the Chinese.

• 1852, state legislature passed law requiring foreign miners to pay monthly fee to mine.

• Most immigrants left, Chinese immigrants paid the tax and stayed

• Americans began to bully Chinese into leaving (cutting their queues (braids) and burning their shacks)

• Many Chinese then left the mines to open businesses or begin farms.

Legacy By 1852 the gold rush was over,

in that time 250,000 people flooded into California.

Positive Legacy Negative Legacy

• By 1850, California had enough people to become the first state in the far west

• Diverse group of both immigrants and emigrants

• Lots of economic opportunities

• Native American population dropped drastically from warfare and disease (between 1848-1870 population went from 150,000 to 30,000)

• Many Californios lost their land to newcomers

• Over $2 billion worth of precious metals were extracted during the Gold Rush• $81 million in gold was extracted by 1852 (then $45 million annually

through 1857)

The Compromise of 1850

In late 1849, California applied to enter the Union with a constitution preventing slavery, provoking a crisis in Congress

between supporters of slavery and abolitionists.

According to the Compromise of 1850, proposed by Kentucky’s Senator

Henry Clay, California was allowed to enter as a free state, while the territories of Utah and New Mexico were left open to decide the question for themselves.

California becomes the 31st state!!