The Black 49ers

One of those 49ers was Southern slaveowner Charles Perkins and several associates, who made their way to the California gold mines with three slaves in tow: Robert Perkins, Carter Perkins, and Sandy Jones. When Charles failed in short order at his own mining venture, he left the three men behind and returned to Mississippi. However, where the master failed, the slaves succeeded, starting a profitable business hauling supplies to remote mining camps.

Charles then declared them fugitives under the Fugitive Slave Act in a case that ultimately went before the California Supreme Court, which sided with Charles. However, the three men got the last laugh when the ship carrying them back into bondage docked in Panama and they escaped, never to be recaptured.

Their story is a reminder of the entwined promise and peril that the Gold Rush presented to Black Americans. It was a chance to build a business and a life denied to them in much of the United States; but it was also a chance that could still be revoked as law and State reached the frontier.

Not all black 49ers were slaves. Entrepreneurially-​minded free blacks, both men and women, traveled to the area on their own volition, especially from New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. They relocated to the territory with hopes of striking it rich at a time when the black community comprised less than 1% of the state population according to the 1850 census, a mere 962 black residents in total.

Among the first to make the trip was entrepreneur Williams Leidesdorrf, a biracial man, who came to California by way of the Virgin Islands in 1841. By 1844, he had become a prominent San Francisco area landowner (then called Yerba Buena) and later became the U.S. Vice Consul to Mexico. (Remember that California had previously been Mexican territory.)

By the latter part of 1848, over 10,000 miners in total–many from Oregon, Hawaii, and Mexico–had made the trek to the Sierra foothills, which were east of Sacramento in a region including Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Mariposa, Nevada, Placer, Tuolumne, and Yuba Counties.

In 1849, a small group of black miners made one of the earliest mining claims in Folsom, California on a plot of land once owned by Leidesdorrf known as Negro Bar. Originally a large gravel bar nestled along the south side of the American River just west of Folsom’s Rainbow bridge, the area was established as an encampment by black miners seeking to unearth a steady yield of gold dust.

Negro Bar, while a mining camp, didn’t develop into a full mining town like others that had sprouted up throughout California. Rather, it was a smaller tent and cabin community erected to shelter those who panned for fortunes along the river. It did grow into a prime location for those seeking gold away from the hills that were often overrun with other miners.

However, the majority of this black mining community had departed the area by 1852, relocating to nearby camps in some of the more elevated regions known as Negro Hill, Little Negro Hill, Negro Flat, and Massachusetts Flats. In these areas, black miners often formed mutual aid associations for protection and provision.

Several Black Americans built appreciable wealth from the gold fields and mines, but many more prospered by launching businesses such as hotels, laundries, and restaurants that catered to those pouring into the territory.

One of the most well-​known black entrepreneurs to indirectly benefit from the Gold Rush movement was self-​made millionaire and prominent abolitionist Mary Ellen Pleasant. After inheriting a sizeable fortune, she made her way to California during the gold fever. Having taken note of the newly wealthy, male-​dominated society in central California, she deployed her substantial culinary and housekeeping skills, multiplying her fortune tenfold.

There are many other examples of black individuals and communities who found success in the mining districts. Black prospector Edmington Bynum arrived in California in 1850 after making the trek from Mississippi with his slave master. While working for wages on his master’s ranch in the Calaveritas Creek area, he eventually secured enough gold by prospecting to send for his wife and kids. The family then worked on the ranch for several years, finally securing sufficient funds to purchase their freedom.

In 1851, Samuel W. Pearsall, another black prospector, was the first to discover the rich deposits of “Negro Hill” in Mokelumne Hill. Upon arriving in town, he had inquired among a group of white miners where he could dig. They then directed him to the top of the hill, where they were certain that no gold deposit would be found.

But there he discovered one of the richest repositories of gold in the area, fueling a wave of new black prospectors. Over a mere four months, Pearsall and his partner made $80,000 (equivalent in purchasing power to around $2,850,748.72 today), from their claim alone.

Despite financial gains among those Black Americans that had relocated to the aims, California’s enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1852, combined with the fact that blacks could not testify in court, had a chilling effect on any lasting progress towards racial equality.

With waves of slave holders and slaves arriving in California, questions emerged around the legality of slavery in a techically free territory. By way of the Compromise of 1850, the Gold Rush accelerated California’s entry into the union.

That same year California officially became a free state although the spirit of the law suggested otherwise. Practically speaking, slavery prevailed across the Golden State for years. In large part that was due to the 1853 Fugitive Slave law, which mandated that enslaved blacks who fled their captors and escaped to California could be captured and forcibly re-​enslaved despite the state’s free status.

According to historian Sylvia Alden Roberts, author of the book Mining for Freedom: Black History Meets the California Gold Rush, the history of Black Americans and the gold rush “is clearly a complicated one, and it’s often overlooked.” Even so, Black 49ers “coalesced to form one of the wealthiest, most culturally advanced, and most politically active communities in the nation.”

Despite these persistent roadblocks, the Gold Rush period symbolized a period of immense opportunity for Black Americans, underscoring how economic and political liberty must work hand in hand. As Roberts concludes, “In a single decade, the California Gold Rush affected the lives of thousands of blacks from every lifestyle. In turn, their stories affected Gold Rush history, California state history, American history, and the history of women.”