Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This volume explores the deeply human stories of the California Gold Rush generation, drawing out all the brutality, tragedy, humor, and prosperity as lived by those who experienced it. In less than ten years, more than 300,000 people made the journey to California, some from as far away as Chile and China. Many of them were dreamers seeking a better life, like Mifflin Wistar Gibbs, who eventually became the first African American judge, and Eliza Farnham, an early feminist who founded California's first association to advocate for women's civil rights. Still others were eccentrics-perhaps none more so than San Francisco's self-styled king, Norton I, Emperor of the United States. As Gold Rush Stories relates the social tumult of the world rushing in, so too does it unearth the environmental consequences of the influx, including the destructive flood of yellow ooze (known as "slickens") produced by the widespread and relentless practice of hydraulic mining. In the hands of a native son of the Sierras, these stories and dozens more reveal the surprising and untold complexities of the Gold Rush.
Synopsis
Best Biography of the Year--Western Writers of America Spur Award. General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo was one of California's most distinguished citizens in the mid-nineteenth century. A frontier cosmopolitan and visionary, Vallejo owned vast ranchos in northern California and wielded enormous political power throughout the province. While serving as military governor during Mexican rule, he established an open immigration policy that encouraged and facilitated the American entrada to northern California. This richly textured and thoughtful biography explores the contradictions and passions of this most complex of men, shedding light not only on Vallejo, but on the formation of California as a modern state.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 271-281) and index.
Table of Contents
The gifts of fortune -- The pivotal year: 1841 -- The advent of the Americans -- A new governor brings crisis -- A small war heats up -- "Ojalâa que lo tomen los americanos ("I hope the Americans take it") -- Prelude to revolt -- "Men with nothing to lose" -- The revolt begins -- Ordeal on the Sacramento -- Murder and misdirection -- What friend Larkin will do -- A changed man -- The Californians retake the South -- The slip and slide transition -- Consequences.