Quotations
"Masters and Slaves in Gold Rush California"
Who were Reuben and Elizabeth Knox?
Enslavers who migrated from North Carolina to St. Luis who then hired out enslaved people in California.
What was the "Sunday claim"?
Enslaved people could stake their own mining claims and work those mines for themselves on Sundays and during the evenings (The idea had roots in the Sunday gardens idea).
"Contracts" saying enslaved people and to stay and work and would get a reward (freedom, money, contact with family, etc.) in return
How did proslavery people protect each other and their interests in 1850s California?
Laws, extralegal violence, creating proslavery communities that protected each other, migrating with family members through "chain migration"...
"Many white gold-seeking men constructed domestic labor as '_________ ________'[.]"
"women's work."
Who were Chivalry Democrats?
Transplanted, southern-born Democrats in California dedicated to making California a slave state in the 1850s.
How might enslaved people such as Burton and Scipio negotiate concessions from enslavers?
They could threaten to run away and refuse to work.
What was the Ex Parte Archy case?
California's last major fugitive slave case in 1858 where a court ruled Archy Lee would be returned to slavery but case reaction meant Lee becomes a free man
Who wrote this article?
"[T]he California Fugitive Slave Act became law on ________________."
"April 15, 1852"
Why did proslavery people migrate to the free territory of California?
"Nonetheless, the journey to California, like earlier migrations, could enable you men to live out a particular vision of white southern manhood that included independent land ownership and mastery over a household and slaves" (p. 36).
Approximately how many African Americans lived in California in the early 1850s?
2,200
Why does the reading's author claim the Archy case is a "turning point in the history of California slavery"? (p. 63).
Demonstrates the erosion of proslavery power
What is a similarity between this reading and our reading The Half Has Never Been Told?
There are several possible answers here but they might include innovations to protect slavery as long as possible in the West.
"In popular mythology, the American West stands as a kind of ultimate _______ ________ _________[.]"
"free labor landscape."
What were four kinds of unfree labor present in 1850s California?
American Indigenous indenture, Chinese debt peonage, Latin American contract labor, and slavery despite persistent myths of "the inevitability of a free labor economy in the Far West" (p. 33)
Who was Louisa from the reading?
an enslaved woman working in a San Francisco hotel with a contract saying she would be free in two years but she was forcibly returned to slavery by armed men
How did proslavery people use the "principles of comity" to bolster their legal claims?
Comity laws, in this context, said that one state will enforce the laws of another state for "temporary visitors." Proslavery people claimed they were temporary visitors in California.
How did people use Dred Scott v. Standford to justify actions in California?
They claimed the ruling protected slavery in states that did not have explicit antislavery laws.
"One Tennessean pointed out that many areas were so '______ ___ ______' that slaves could escape without fear of recapture."
"hidden and retired"
What is a significance of 1850s proslavery presence/power in California?
"Finally, this story complicates our understanding of the role that unfree labor played in western politics" (p. 33).
What is a significance of studying enslaved persons' resistance in 1850s California?
"illuminates transformations in master-slave relations that occurred when slavery moved onto free soil" (p. 33).
What is a significance of studying proslavery maneuverings in the California legal system?
Slaveholders could negotiate for slavery while redefining the institution (p. 33).
What is an overarching significance/historiographical contribution of this reading?
Many possible answers here