California Gold Rush
A video introducing the gold rush.
In Jan. 1848, James Wilson Marshall discovered gold in a river in Sutter's Mill, California. This, along with several other discoveries, caused the event known as the California Gold Rush.
As you can imagine, when the gold was discovered, it was printed in newspapers all over the country.
During this time period, people of other ethnicity came to California in order to seek their fortune, most noticeably, the Chinese. At first they were encouraged to come, but typical American racism set in, and people started to force the Chinese out of the mines.
They were mainly taxed large amounts of money for mining, in order to discourage them. Many, however, decided to seek other work. This is where the Transcontinental Railroad got most of it's cheap labor.
In 1858, people became aware that there was almost no gold left, and so the wave of people coming stopped. The California Gold Rush was officially over.
As you can imagine, when the gold was discovered, it was printed in newspapers all over the country.
During this time period, people of other ethnicity came to California in order to seek their fortune, most noticeably, the Chinese. At first they were encouraged to come, but typical American racism set in, and people started to force the Chinese out of the mines.
They were mainly taxed large amounts of money for mining, in order to discourage them. Many, however, decided to seek other work. This is where the Transcontinental Railroad got most of it's cheap labor.
In 1858, people became aware that there was almost no gold left, and so the wave of people coming stopped. The California Gold Rush was officially over.
|
I was only 7 years old when daddy left. He said he was going to find gold, and bring us riches and glory. He said that there was rivers of gold, just waiting to be taken, over in California, the land of gold. He left us. We got a letter about 1 year later from him. It said that he missed us, but will come back as soon as he finds his fortune. We were all proud of daddy. 1 year later we got another letter. I was only 9 years old when daddy died.
For first hand accounts go to: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cbhtml/