Mining for Freedom: Black History Meets the California Gold Rush

By Sylvia Alden Roberts

Did you know that an estimated 5,000 blacks were an early and integral part of the California Gold Rush?

Did you know that black history in California precedes Gold Rush history by some 300 years?

Did you know that in California during the Gold Rush, blacks created one of the wealthiest, most culturally advanced, most politically active communities in the nation?

Few people are aware of the intriguing, dynamic often wholly inspirational stories of African American argonauts, from backgrounds as diverse as those of their less sturdy- complexioned peers. Defying strict California fugitive slave laws and an unforgiving court testimony ban in a state that declared itself free, black men and women combined skill, ambition and courage and rose to meet that daunting challenge with dignity, determination and even a certain lan, leaving behind a legacy that has gone starkly under-reported.

Mainstream history tends to contribute to the illusion that African Americans were all but absent from the California Gold Rush experience. This remarkable book, illustrated with dozens of photos, offers definitive contradiction to that illusion and opens a door that leads the reader into a forgotten world long shrouded behind the shadowy curtains of time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Nov 4, 2008
• ISBN: 9780595625451

Sylvia Alden Roberts

Author, lecturer and historian, Roberts began dedicating her energies to the resurrection, preservation and dissemination of African American Gold Rush history after she moved to Sonora, California in 1992. Active in community organizations, she is currently planning a second book and a museum and research center dedicated to the subject.

Book preview

Copyright © 2008 by Sylvia Alden Roberts

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

iUniverse

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ISBN: 978-0-595-52492-1 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-595-62545-1 (ebook)

iUniverse Rev. Date: 10/29/08

Sponsored by Sierra Non Profit Services

Sonora, California

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PREFACE

CHAPTER ONE:

BLACKS IN EARLY CALIFORNIA

CHAPTER TWO:

THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH AND THE NEGRO QUESTION

CHAPTER THREE:

WOMEN OF STURDIER COMPLEXION

CHAPTER FOUR:

JUST ANOTHER UNCLE

CHAPTER FIVE:

A DRAMA IN THE DIGGIN’S

CHAPTER SIX:

LOOKING BACK UPON FOREVER

CHAPTER SEVEN:

CAPITALIST OF COLOR

CHAPTER EIGHT:

A QUIET ADVENTURE

CHAPTER NINE:

A LASTING LEGACY

CHAPTER TEN:

FROM THE CROUCH OF A BOOTBLACK

CHAPTER ELEVEN:

TOO SMART TO BE A SLAVE

CHAPTER TWELVE:

A FREEDOM MINER ALBUM

AFTERWORD

APPENDIX A:

CALIFORNIA FREEDOM PAPERS

1852–1859

APPENDIX B:

THE GRAND JUBILEE OF THE COLORED POPULATION OF TUOLUMNE COUNTY AND OTHER PARTS OF THE STATE

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SUGGESTED READING

END NOTES

A project of the Mother Lode Black Heritage Foundation

missing image file Celebrating the memory

Honoring the dignity

Sharing the legacy

of all African American Gold Rush Pioneers of California

List of Illustrations

The photos and illustrations in Mining for Freedom are provided thanks to the courtesy and generosity of the following organizations and individuals. The following are listed in order of appearance.

Washing for Gold (dedication page)

The Illustrated London News Picture Library, London

Pio Pico

The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

Califia

Reproduction permission granted by artist Susan Shelton

Davis

William Leidesdorff

The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

California News

The Long Island Museum, Stony Brook

John McDougal

The San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library,

San Francisco

Oliver Wozencraft

San Bernardino Public Library, San Bernardino

Spanish Flat, 1852

California History Room, California State Library,

Sacramento

Black Mining Sites

Joe Moore, National Parks Service/African American

Historical and Cultural Society, Sacramento

George Ashe

Tuolumne County Historical Society, Sonora

City Hotel

Tuolumne County Historical Society, Sonora

Margaret Binum

Calaveras County Historical Society, San Andreas

Phoebe Eliza Ferguson

Calaveras County Historical Society, San Andreas

Biddy Mason

The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

Nancy Davis Lester

Royal British Columbia Museum, BC Archives, Victoria

(image #A01627)

Mary Elizabeth Sugg

Tuolumne County Historical Society, Sonora

Mary Ellen Pleasant

The African American Cultural and Historical Society,

San Francisco

One of the Forgotten

Tuolumne County Historical Society, Sonora

Tom Gilman

Tuolumne County Historical Society, Sonora

Samuel Cornish

Artist unknown

Property Value

Tuolumne County Recorder’s Office, Sonora

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Tuolumne County Historical Society, Sonora

John Jolly

Tuolumne County Historical Society/Leona Jolly Bray

Dan Rodgers

The Museum of Art and History at the McPherson Center,

Santa Cruz

Slave Auction

Artist unknown

African Americans Crossing the Plains

Dick Perue Historical Photos/John W. Ravage, Black Pioneers: Images of the Black Experience on the North American Frontier

William O’Hara (?)

Tuolumne County Historical Society, Sonora

A Terrible Conflagration

Columbia State Historic Park Archive, Columbia

William Ralston

California Historical Society, San Francisco

Ferguson Saloon/Jenny Lind Poster

Tuolumne County Historical Society, Sonora

Road to the Grand Jubilee

Photo by Betty Sparagna, Sonora

John Wade and Cornelius Robinson

Tuolumne County Historical Society/Edna Wilcox and Gladys Wilcox Musante

Tod Robinson

Tuolumne County Historical Society/Edna Wilcox and Gladys Wilcox Musante

William Sugg

Tuolumne County Historical Society, Sonora

The House That Sugg Built

Tuolumne County Historical Society, Sonora

Mifflin Gibbs

Royal British Columbia Museum, BC Archives, Victoria

(image #B01601)

Alvin Coffey

The Society of California Pioneers, San Francisco

George Washington Dennis

California Historical Society, San Francisco

Peter Lester

Royal British Columbia Museum, BC Archives, Victoria

(image #A01626)

John Moss

Tuolumne County Historical Society, Sonora

William Waldo

Tuolumne County Historical Society, Sonora

Tom Simpson

Tuolumne County Historical Society, Sonora

Charles Haley

Willard Library, Martich Archive, Battle Creek

Abner Hunt Francis (?)

Tuolumne City Memorial Museum, Tuolumne

Uriah Smith (1)

Tuolumne County Historical Society, Sonora

Uriah Smith (2)

Tuolumne County Historical Society, Sonora

Author Photo (back cover)

Photo by Betty Sparagna, Sonora

Acknowledgments

So many wonderful people have helped gather the research used to write this book that it would be impossible to list them all here. My apologies go to those not included below, but you know who you are, and I hope you all know that if you are not listed here, you are registered in my heart, in indelible ink, forever appreciated with my deepest gratitude.

First, my thanks go out to Bob and Sherri Brennan, owners of the Sugg-McDonald home, for being gracious enough to share some of their privacy with a curious (okay, nosy) stranger all those years ago. Most sincere thanks to local authors and historians Carlo M. De Ferrari, Patricia Perry, Sherrin Grout, Dick Dyer, Sharon Marovich, and Judith Marvin, for their professional help and moral support over the years and for not letting me know when they got sick of my questions.

Next, I could not have gathered research, details, and photos without the help of so many Tuolumne County Museum and History Center staffers and volunteers, in particular Richard Camarena, Audie Buckler, and the late (and sorely missed) Dythe-Mary Egleston.

My thanks also go out to longtime members of the community who have come forward and led me to stories, books, photos, and artifacts I might otherwise never have found. And a most heartfelt thanks to all who have attended my lectures and presentations and encouraged me with their questions and their interest.

I thank Pat Perry, Reb Silay, and Jo Ellen Hart for being my eyes and agreeing to read the manuscript and check it for content, continuity, grammar, and spelling errors. Thanks to Betty Sparagna, for her infinite patience while scanning the photos and illustrations. To Linda Clark, who traveled the publishing path just ahead of me, thanks for being my weed whacker and clearing the way through some tangles!

Thanks and much love to other friends and family: to John Beck, who saved my sanity during a computer crisis at the worst possible time; to those dear and special ones who offered financial support for my research; to my children, Jennifer Kesteloot and Rikk Roberts, for humoring me when I had no idea what I was doing; to my oldest daughter, Marjorie Oliver and my aunt, Dorothy Oliver, who always help me remember who I am and where I came from; to my dear childhood friend, Tommye Hawkins, who of all people should know better but who continues to insist that I can do anything; to Margaret Herndon, who read all the versions of the book and thought even the worst ones were great; and to my dear husband, Richard, who helped me as long as he was able.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to two accomplished and acclaimed black history authors. First, the late Dr. Rudolph Lapp, author of Blacks in Gold Rush California, for his support at the beginning of this journey. His initial encouragement to pursue the subject was invaluable to a green history buff, completely at sea about how to proceed. Finally, thanks to William Loren Katz, internationally known lecturer and author of scores of books, including The Black West, for the encouragement, time, and generosity he gave to a complete stranger on another coast.

Gratefully, affectionately, and respectfully,

Sylvia Alden Roberts

Preface

The California Gold Rush and African American history are seldom paired in the minds of either the strict historian or the casual spectator. It is assumed, if it is considered at all, that while a handful of blacks may have shared in the experience, they did so only in a secondary capacity and only as second-class citizens.

In truth, nearly five thousand blacks, from all over the world and representing backgrounds as diverse as those of their lighter-complexioned peers, were an integral part of the first decade of that unprecedented experience. These unique pioneers have been largely overlooked by researchers and historians for more than a century and a half.

The newly declared free state of California enforced strict fugitive slave laws and, among other restrictions, denied minorities the right to vote and the right to testify in court. Mired in fierce racial controversy but undaunted by the odds, black Argonauts coalesced to form one of the wealthiest, most culturally advanced, and most politically active communities in the nation.

It is my hope that this book will help dispel some injurious myths and long-standing stereotypes that limit characterization of the pre–Civil War Negro to only two categories: the happy slave, well fed on pig knuckles and watermelon, or the hapless victim—poor, downtrodden, and pitiable. Mining for Freedom was written to celebrate the memory and honor the dignity of the thousands of determined, courageous, and enterprising black men and women who were an instrumental