Petition of Southern Slave Owners to Bring Slaves into California Page 1

The national debate that raged over slavery during the 1850s did not bypass California. Southern slaveholders transported hundreds of slaves into the gold fields to work the mines. In addition, many free African Americans chose to join the Gold Rush. By 1852, approximately 2,000 African Americans called California home, a number that had doubled by 1860. Free or slave, however, state law remained ambiguous in terms of the civil rights of African Americans for many years. This 1852 petition by Southern plantation owners requested permission to "colonize a Rural District" with at least 2,000 "African Domestics, they will bring with them the agricultural skill and experience in the cultivation of Cotton, Rice, and Sugar, with all the appliances necessary to prepare those productions for market." Identification Information: F3679:169 (1-2), Records of the California State Legislature, Petitions to the Legislature.