The Integration of the West

When California outlawed slavery in 1850 within it boundaries, the gold mines became places where a mixture of races and nationalities came together in search of wealth. 

Mary Ballou wrote home that she lived in a mining camp called "Negro Bar" where French, Dutch, Scotch, Jews, Italians, Swedes, Chinese, and Indians were all panning for gold.  Some of the women who worked in the mining camps had comes as slaves, sold by their masters to families headed West.

Even before the discovery of gold, California had been settled by men and women of Mexican,

Indian, and African descent.  According to the 1790 census, 18% of the population were of something other than Anglo-American origin.  By 1849, San Francisco had its own "mutual Benefit and Relief Society" of Afro-Americans.  By 1854, the city had three black churches and within 10 years, three black newspapers as well.

Oregon, on the other hand, was less hospitable to blacks than many who came West had hoped.  The territory passed laws prohibiting admission to black settlers in general.   In 1857 when Oregon became a state, the Free Negro Admission Article proposed for the state constitution, was defeated and the small number of blacks who had made their way to Oregon lived uneasily until the Emancipation Proclamation six years later.

Next time...we'll look at individual Afro-American pioneers who shaped our western civilization.
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Today in Pioneer History:  On June 16, 1884, the first roller coaster in America opens at Coney Island, in Brooklyn, New York. Known as a switchback railway, it was the brainchild of LaMarcus Thompson, traveled approximately six miles per hour and cost a nickel to ride.