Queens of the Mines features the authentic stories of gold rush women who blossomed from the camouflaged, twisted roots of California. These are true stories, with some of my own fabrication of descriptive details. It is recommended that you start this series from the first episode. In this episode of Queens of the Mines, we begin the story of The Queen of Revenge from the California Gold Mines. A brave woman, from Mexican Alta California, who’s racial status determined her fate. First, an introduction peering into the discriminations of the time.  This is a true story, from America’s Largest Migration, The Gold Rush.

Preface Works Cited:

Sarah Shank Hist 133 Project Paper Mythology of the Mother Lode  12/3/18

The Mariposa Gazette. November 4th-December 23rd, 1865.  Issue no. 19-26.

retrieved from: https://cdnc.ucr.edu/

Smith, Stacy L. 2013. Freedom’s Frontier: California and the Struggle over Unfree Labor, Emancipation, and Reconstruction. University of North Carolina Press.

The Placer Herald (Rocklin, Ca) Sept 11 1852

Swifty

 

In 2018, I was learning how to work from home, and had recently started researching gold rush characters for a Historical Fiction Novel that I intended on writing. My best friend Sarah who lived across the street was taking a 19th century US History class at UC Merced, and living across the street. Sarah was writing a paper titled the Mythology of the Mother Lode, which I will quote many times in the next few minutes. We studied and giggled on my front porch and during this time, Sarah opened my eyes to how the modern day collective memory of the Ol’ West that I was trying to write about, was often romanticized. Mostly remembered as a vast, wide open land that was ripe with resources, ready to be conquered and claimed by any individual. As long as that individual was ambitious, strong and persistent enough with endless possibilities for those who braved the terrain. This was all with little mention of the racialized experiences. It became clear how one’s race, gender, and the related labor restrictions could hinder one’s chance at hitting the motherlode or gaining economic upward mobility, and it also decreased their assumed value in society. Sarah began studying old newspaper archives. What better documented the beliefs, values, norms, traditions, politics and social settings than the newspapers of the time? She would Call me, or run across the street to my house to share her findings. We found clear examples of racism against Mexican, Black, Chinese, and Native people who were living locally and across the country. One morning, both bundled in bath robes, Sarah showed me the winter issue of The Mariposa Gazette from 1865. The issue demonstrated how the Native California Indians were clearly devalued. In addition to several brief reports of “killing Indians,” the article that we both found most disturbing was a front page story consuming upwards the entirety of the page. A detailed account of Yosemite’s beauty. It seemed sweet. Until you read on, and the writer boasts, "no white man had ever looked upon its sublime wonders until 1851, when we came here in pursuit of Indians... coming to kill and exterminate." It stuck with me, and I think about it all the time.  If you are a person that visits Yosemite, I hope you can find your own way to honor the lives lost the next time you are there. The lives of those who were the original keepers of one of our planet's most beautiful gifts. The Placer Herald casually mentioned a Lynching “a negro, lynched at beals bar for stealing a watch.” Chinese locals were referred to as "Celestials" and "Moon-eyed Devils”, illustrating the casualness and normality of the devaluation of Chinese people. We read President Johnson’s statement, "I should try to introduce negro suffrage gradually, first to those who have served in the army, those who could read and write and perhaps a property qualification of $200. It will not do to let negros have universal suffr