As most folks do, when I think of the term “Gold Rush”, it conjures up images of the West! Images of cowboys and crusty old miners ruthlessly and savagely staking their claims. Immigrants coming by boat, folks on foot, horseback, and covered wagon form all over the US to rape and pillage the land that was newly acquired from Mexico through the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo… California. But let me tell you about a gold rush of another kind, in another place, even more significant. It was the actual first documented discovery of gold in the United States! Fifty years earlier…in North Carolina!
The California Gold Rush in 1849 was the catalyst event for the state that earned them a spot in the U.S. union in 1850. This was not the first gold rush in North America; however, it was one of the most important gold rush events. The story of how the gold was discovered and the stories of the 49ers are well known. Men leaving their families in the East and heading West in hopes of striking it rich are the stories that most of us heard about when we learn about the California Gold Rush. Professors and scholars over the last two decades from various fields of study have taken a deeper look into the Gold Rush phenomena. When California joined the Union in 1850 it helped the U.S. expand westward just as most Americans had intended to do. The event of the Gold Rush can be viewed as important because it led to a national railroad. It also provided the correct circumstances for successful entrepreneurship, capitalism, and the development modern industrialization. The event also had a major influence on agriculture, economics, and politics.
The Susan Lee Johnson article, “Bulls, Bears, and Dancing Boys: Race, Gender, and Leisure in California Gold Rush,” illustrated how Anglo-men in the mining towns coped without Anglo-women present. The pattern of behavior from men in the Californian Gold Rush is reminiscent of the female gender roles assumed by men in the early establishment of Jamestown, Virginia. Although, factors such as; inadequacy, spare time, and clashing cultural concepts about the womanhood and race in California created more exaggerated distortions to the behavior of Anglo men.
Sylva, Seville A. A Thesis-Foreigners in the California Gold Rush. California: University of Southern California. 1932.
...gration in population, help the California economy by building many businesses and caused violent conflicts between diverse groups of people. The Gold Rush in 1851 changed California.
In 1849, the California Gold Rush attracted the massive people immigrated to gold finding from all over the world. The gold-seekers travelled by the ship boarding in San Francisco port or by feet to leave their hometown and families from west because they believed that they could gain more money and had a better life than their original place. In the early days of California was an unknown place however after the gold-seekers arrived to California growth rapidly with crowded population. Later, the Rocky Mountains establish to be a state which called California. The gold-seekers came over to California because they wanted to achieve their goals for a better life, as they experienced by their hard working and created lots of the potential development in this gold place.
Viewed from this perspective, freedom in pre-industrial frontier America was freedom from a dominant and centralized federal government and towards what Turner termed “that restless, nervous energy; that dominant individualism” (Turner, 17). This definition is supported by writers like William Legget, and John C. Calhoun, who argued against the consolidation of broad political power in the hands of a few. However, that kind of freedom hinged on the opportunity for economic mobility for those seeking it,...
of men with desires to strike gold, slowed the settlements growth by making gold the
A gold fever was arising. It was the talk of the country in the mid 1800’s. Worth about $1,000 per ounce today, gold meant great wealth in the 1840’s and 50’s. The news of gold findings in California soon spread worldwide. Many people were quick to react hearing that gold had been founded in California. California was a place of chaos during the gold rush of 1849. A plot of land that went for $15 in 1847, was later sold for $40,000 after the discovery of gold(Heinrichs, 23). Cities formed and California’s economy increasingly grew. A railroad was built which connected California to other states farther east in the United States because flocks of people continued migrating with the hopes of wealth. The gold rush drew much needed attention to California making it a crucial event to decisions about California in the future. The gold rush of 1849 resulted in the rapid growth of California ultimately leading to statehood and westward expansion.
Foner, Eric. "Chapter 9." Give Me Liberty!: An American History. Brief Third ed. Vol. One. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. N. pag. Print.
When Spaniards colonized California, they invaded the native Indians with foreign worldviews, weapons, and diseases. The distinct regional culture that resulted from this union in turn found itself invaded by Anglo-Americans with their peculiar social, legal, and economic ideals. Claiming that differences among these cultures could not be reconciled, Douglas Monroy traces the historical interaction among them in Thrown Among Strangers: The Making of Mexican Culture in Frontier California. Beginning with the missions and ending in the late 1800s, he employs relations of production and labor demands as a framework to explain the domination of some groups and the decay of others and concludes with the notion that ?California would have been, and would be today, a different place indeed if people had done more of their own work.?(276) While this supposition may be true, its economic determinism undermines other important factors on which he eloquently elaborates, such as religion and law. Ironically, in his description of native Californian culture, Monroy becomes victim of the same creation of the ?other? for which he chastises Spanish and Anglo cultures. His unconvincing arguments about Indian life and his reductive adherence to labor analysis ultimately detract from his work; however, he successfully provokes the reader to explore the complexities and contradictions of a particular historical era.
California was becoming known for its entrepreneurial opportunities; soon many were coming to California, not to work in the mining filed, rather to set up business and cater to the mining communities. Soon there were saloons, hotels, and red light districts spread throughout San Francisco and outer mining communities. Women who were forced to rely on men to support them back home, came to California and were able to work and support themselves in these towns.
The United States, possibly more than any other country, was not very welcoming during the early 1900s. Foreigners, who were uneducated about America’s customs, were unable to find jobs or prevent swindlers from causing their already insufficient wealth to subside. Because of this, Jurgis and his family’s economic and social lives changed drastically. For insta...
The Golden Age did wonders to advance the lives of the rich, however it did little for the lives of the poor. The lower class was highly neglected by society in the 1920s. The standard of living declined instead of improving for the poor; they faced falling rates in healthcare, education, wages, and consumption. Their lack of wealth left them to be victims of the business boom of the 1920s. However, the absence of money did not impede the poor from attempting to live a meager version of the rich’s lifestyle. Destitute women tried to imitate affluent women’s style by wearing similar fashion and makeup, but it they were run-down versions of the true affluent women’s style. The men merely attempted to reach the level of the wealthy by constantly working. Yet, they could never gain enough hours or a steady income to move up from the lower class. The poor’s constant need and want to be like the rich was part of the reason they were ridiculed and ignored by the rest of society. The other part was because they were poor; in the 1920s it was unheard of to mingle with people who were not of the same social class. The rich stuck with the rich and the poor stuck with the poor. This was an unspoken rule of society that everyone
Living situations and housing was also affected by the gold rush. As forty niners poured into California, the towns and villages quickly filled up, resulting in the growth of already established cities such as San Francisco. Also ...