![]() Most of these newcomers settled in Sacramento and San Francisco. San Francisco in 1850 (public domain)įar more African Americans were successful providing services to the gold-driven economy. Other integrated mining settlements emerged including a second Negro Hill near the Mokelumne River, Union Bar along the Yuba River, and Downieville, which was founded in 1849 by William Downie, a Scotsman who led nine miners, including seven African Americans, to the location where the town was formed. ![]() Little Negro Hill was known to attract Chinese and Portuguese miners and American-born whites. In 1852, a small African American community called Little Negro Hill grew up around the lucrative claims of two Massachusetts-born African American miners working along the American River. Runaway Slave Ad, San Francisco Herald, 1852Īfrican American miners usually worked in integrated settings in Chinese, Latin American, and European companies. Working 25 miles from Sacramento in December 1851, he cleared $400 after two months of work. He returned a few weeks later with $4,000 in gold. In 1848, one African American man named Hector deserted his naval squadron ship Southampton at Monterey, California, and went to the mother lode. ![]() A few African American gold-seekers founded wealth during the gold rush. The population doubled to 2,000, still mostly men by 1852. In 1850, 952 African Americans resided in California, with the male population comprising 91 percent of that number. At least 4,000 African Americans were among those who would arrive in California by 1860 in search of gold and more generally, prosperity and freedom. After Marshall’s discovery, thousands of people came to the goldfields in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains in Northern California. The California Gold Rush, from 1848 to 1860, began after gold was discovered by carpenter and sawmill operator James W.
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