Imagine you've moved out to California thinking you'd make a good life as a ranch hand. When
you get out there, there's not a lot of work but you've got yourself a job at a sawmill
near the American River. As you go about your work, you catch a glint of something shiny in
the water trough. You quickly collect the substance and put it in your pocket before
anyone else can see what you've found. After consulting an old book and running some tests,
you and your boss conclude that the shiny substance is indeed gold! While you'd expect
him to be ecstatic, you can see that your boss, Mr. Sutter, is actually quite annoyed.
"So much for my agricultural empire. I'll make sure you're all well taken care of if you and
your men at the mill can keep this a secret. We've got to secure the mineral rights before
we have a stampede on our hands. Discretion is paramount, Mr. Marshall. I mean that."
Welcome back, historians! To conclude our unit on Westward Expansion, we will explore the most
persuasive argument fpr moving west - reports of gold. And lots of it. Grab your sifting pan
and pickaxe and let's get moving. Our learning objectives are too explain why many Americans
moved to California between 1848 and 1851, describe what life was like in California
during the gold rush, and describe the impact that the California Gold Rush had on the United States.
James Marshall discovered
gold in the American River on a Swiss man's farm in Northern California during the Mexican-American
War before the land formally belonged to the United States. The land's owner, John Sutter,
swore all the workers at the mill to secrecy while he tried to secure land and mineral rights in the
area. After all, lands in California were under American control since the Navy had come through.
But the field hand was unable to keep the gold tales to himself, letting it slip that gold had
been found multiple times before returning to Sutter's land. A San Francisco man, Sam Brannan,
acquired a small vial of gold dust, bought up all the mining equipment that could be
found in the area, and ran through the streets shouting, "Gold! Gold in the American River!"
Brannan had purchased sifting pans for twenty cents the day before. They
were selling like hot cakes for fifteen dollars as Gold Fever began to set in.
Word only grew from there. Later that year, James Polk wrote to Congress,
“The accounts of the abundance of gold in that territory are of such
extraordinary character as would scarcely command belief,
were they not corroborated by authentic reports of officers in the public service.”
In other words, he was saying that there was so much gold in California, he could barely believe
it. Like it was too good to be true. The words were published in the press. Inspired by Polk's
reports, thousands of people immediately set off for California hoping for a better life.
Many families have stories of notes left behind like this one, which reads,
"Jane, I left you and them boys to procure a little property by the sweat of my brow,
so that we could have a place of our own - that I might not be a dog for other people any longer."
Between 1848 and 1851, the popular of San Francisco rose from around 1,000
people to almost 95,000, mostly for men hoping to stake a claim and strike it rich.
Life was difficult for miners in California. While those that arrived quickly were able
to find gold easily in riverbeds, it didn't take long before it was harder to come by.
For those that did find some, the sheer volume of gold entering circulation made it worth less
than it was worth back east. And the lack of products in a newly settled region, like food,
clothes, and mining equipment, made those things expensive. In a factory in 1849, an
unskilled worker could expect to make about ninety cents per day for their work. In the Gold Rush,
he might find between ten and fifteen dollars in a day, or much more on a good day. But other
people quickly found they could cut into these profits by selling items to miners at high prices.
A single egg might be sold for a dollar. In today's money, that's almost forty dollars.
And eggs only got more expensive in California as more miners arrived,
even though the average miner made less money. Some of the few women who made the trip earned
more than the men that were mining, providing cooking and cleaning services for miners.
The morals of California were confusing. On one hand, there was no formal government in
California in 1848, so no local lawmakers and no local sheriffs. Towns like Hangtown and
Whiskeytown sprang up, which were often violent as people fought and dueled over the right to mine
a specific spot. On the other hand, bringing an enslaved person and keeping the gold they mined
was often considered cheating. So white and black miners dug alongside each other and everyone kept
their own profits. By the end of the Gold Rush, accessing gold was much harder and required more
expensive methods. So rich men formed companies to build huge mines and paid workers to find gold. Of
those that made the trip on their own, many went home poorer than they started or have had to find
a different form of work, disappointed to have missed out on what they thought was a sure thing.
While the Gold Rush was short-lived, it had a number of profound impacts on the United States.
Firstly, the distribution of people in the country was already shifting west, but this
accelerated that move. Out-of-state miners arrived in 1849, and California became a state in 1850,
the fastest state to do so in the west. And of all states in the U.S. today, California
is the one with the highest population and the most votes in the House of Representatives.
This trend began in 1848 because so many people followed the California Trail.
It also led to a wave of immigration with people coming from every continent on Earth
to participate. There were immigrants from the Philippines, China, Brazil,
the Caribbean, Germany, Italy, and many enslaved people of African descent.
The Gold Rush had implications on the politics of slavery, too. Now, before you say here we go
again, another southern state enters the union and causes trouble in Congress, it's important
to note that most 49ers did not care for slavery in the mines. California became a free state in
1850 and the sheer distance between California and the rest of the country was thousands of miles.
This spurred interest in laying some transcontinental railroads,
including the railroad that prompted the Gadsden Purchase that we learned about previously.
Let's recap. In 1848, James Marshall found gold on John Sutter's land on the American River.
Sam Brannan spread the news so that he could get a rich selling mining equipment nearby. And by 1851,
over 90,000 had moved from the eastern U.S. and around the world, hoping to find gold
and get rich. Life as a miner wasn't so bad at first, but became increasingly difficult
as the easy gold was taken and better equipment was required. Scarce products and services were
so expensive that making a lot of money didn't necessarily mean that you'd be able to survive
in California for long, or that you could afford supplies needed to make the journey back east.
And eventually, only rich gold magnets were in control of the Golden State.
But the Gold Rush did have many impacts. Many people from the east moved west in a short time.
Immigrants arrived in California from all over the world. Women and non-flight miners enjoyed
more rights and acceptance in California than they would have in other regions.
And the U.S. began building railroads across the continent, bringing the country closer together.
It's pretty evident that by the middle of the 19th century,
American life was changing pretty quickly. In our next unit, be on the lookout for the
many ways that the United States became more modern and looked different than the
country that the Founding Fathers grew up. Until then, remember to always be clever.