February 25. 2004
______________
B lack H istory M
onth
Slavery Past Confronted in California
Man sheds light
on controversial
history
(AP) — Californians like to
think of their state as a free
wheeling, tolerant place, one that
entered the Union back in 1850
unbesmirched by the stain of
slavery.
But Joe Moore says there’s
just one problem with that sunny
vision of the past — it isn’t true.
Though it was admitted to the
Union as a “free state,” slavery
still existed in 1850s California,
and Moore is leading a project
to shed light on its contradictory
history.
Hisproofisinprint:inan 1852
ad announcing the public auc
tion of a black man valued at
$300; newspaper accounts of
fugitive slaves who were ar
rested; and, county records cer
tifying slaves bought their free
dom from their owners.
Moore and a team of re
searchers have uncovered these
and other, often overlooked
pieces of California’s past after
months of digging through the
archives of museums, historical
societies and libraries across the
state.
“We believe this is one of
America’s lost stories,” said Guy
Washington, regional coordina-
torforthe National Underground
Railroad Network to Freedom
project, who has worked closely
with Moore.
“It doesn’t fit our image of
California as the land of free
dom and opportunity, a place
where everyone can go and have
Mary Ann Carlton-Wyatt shows pages from her family Bible,
dating to the late 1800s, to Joe Moore at the campus library of
California State University in Sacramento.
a new start. W e’re not comfort
able with that part of our his
tory,” he said.
Moore and researchers at
California State University, Sac
ramento have been converting
the documents into digital files,
and plan to post them on the
Internet. When completed, the
new online archive will provide
insight into the challenges blacks
faced in California of the 1800s.
“The story that’s being told is
the diversity and richness and
the determination of a small com
munity in the 19th century,” said
Shirley Ann Wilson Moore, a
history professorat Sacramento
State who is supervising student
researchers and is married to
Joe Moore.
After gold was discovered
near Sutter’s Fort in 1848, blacks
joined a stampede of others mi
grating West, hoping to strike it
rich.
For those early black pio
neers, the state’s policies ap
peared promising. California’s
first constitution, adopted in
1849, dictated that: “Neithersla-
very, nor involuntary servitude.
unless for the punishment of
crimes, shall ever be tolerated in
this State.” A year later, under
the Compromise of 1850, Cali
fornia was admitted to the Union
as a free state.
For blacks and others, Cali
fornia was “a place to come and
reinvent themselves,” Shirley
M oore said. “ For A frican-
Americans, California repre
sented a place where, at least
legally, slavery did not exist.”
But many found California a
tar cry from the land of oppor
tunity they’d envisioned. Offi
cials were unwilling tochallenge
slaveholders who brought slaves
into the state. And other laws,
such as one allowing people to
bring slaves into the state if they
stayed only temporarily, under
mined the constitution, Shirley
Moore said.
■M M M M M S N N M S N S M M M I
atch a game o f high
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Reference source: http://
www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/
p502.pdf
■MMMn
■aMHMHSMBaaaHHBMSBaBBSHHnaMMMMHaSMSM
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