Gold-rush California was a crude, boisterous and often violent place. Its non-Indian population was overwhelmingly young and male — women made up only one-twelfth of the population in 1850 — and it included a greater variety of ethnic and racial groups than anywhere in the nation. As well as Americans, Irishmen, Frenchmen, Germans and Mexicans there were many thousands of Chinese who soon became victims of popular animosity and physical intimidation. The California Indians (perjoratively called “Diggers”) were treated even worse; many were massacred or forced into legal slavery. Though the California mines yielded about $200 million in the five years of the gold rush, only a handful of fortune seekers struck it rich and many of the disappointed took solace in drink and gambling. In the roaring mining camps, given such names as Poker Flat, hell’s Delight and Dry Diggings, and in boomtowns like San Francisco and Sacramento, rooms rented for $1,000 a month, eggs cost $10 a dozen, and normal social restraints ceased to operate. The miners included many desperadoes and adventurers, and crime became endemic. With the military authorities impotent, law-abiding elements set up vigilance committees to protect life and property. But miscarriages of justice were common and order was restored only some years after California became a state in 1850.

Tags: California, Gold-rush