The California Gold Rush
The Rush for Gold
• January 1848, while building a sawmill, James Marshall
discovered gold. This would lead to a huge migration
(movement of persons from one country/locality to
another).
• In 1849, thousands of gold seekers set out for CA. 3
options:
-Sail down around S. America and back up to CA
(danger = storms)
-Travel the trails cross-country (danger = landforms
and hardships)
-Cross the Isthmus of Panama (danger = diseases)
The Gold Seekers
• 2/3 = American. Mostly white, but Native Am., slaves
and free blacks also worked the mines. Foreign miners
came from Mexico, Europe, S. America, Australia, and
China.
– By 1851 – 1 in 10 immigrants = Chinese. They would often
take over abandoned mines (when the “easy gold” was
gone) and work hard to profit.
• Small mining camps grew into towns. Reality was
harsh: few got rich… exhaustion and disease common…
work difficult and basic supplies expensive.
Final Impact of the Gold Rush
• Opportunities and Turmoil: CA admitted as a free state in 1850.
Outlawed slavery, but African Americans did not have voting rights.
• Native Americans and Foreigners: Thousands of Native Americans
died from disease/lost their land. When the easy gold was gone,
American miners world force immigrant miners off land.
• Foreign Miners’ Tax: CA legislature passed law taxing immigrant
miners $20 a month. Most couldn’t afford this and gave up mining
to become very profitable shop, restaurant, and laundries owners.
Economic Effects of Statehood
• Port city of San Francisco became huge for
banking, manufacturing, shopping, and trade.
Population in CA created a huge demand for water 
complicated new system.
– Nationally, CA’s statehood upset the balance between
free and slave states. Southerners feared Northerners
would use majority to abolish
slavery in the entire U.S.  Conflict.