Chapter 6 The Gold Rush Flashcards
Claim:
area a miner said belonged to him or her
area a miner said belonged to him or her is a ____
claim
Entrepreneur:
A person who sets up a new business
A person who sets up a new business is ___
entrepreneur
How did the daily lives of Sutter’s workers change after they learned abut the gold?
They stopped working and spent all their time looking for gold. They caught “gold fever.”
How did the discovery of gold change California?
The population exploded exponentially, with immigrants from the US and all over the world. Miners took over land that had belonged to others, like Vallejo and Sutter.
How did the gold rush affect the economy of California?
Many merchants, or businesses, started to provide goods and services to the miners.
How was San Francisco different after the gold rush?
Population grew from 800 to 35,000 in a few years. Growth of businesses, housing, and need for govt law enforcement
How was the land and the natural environment affected by the California Gold Rush?
Lots of damage from digging and making dams, killing fish, affecting the flow of rivers, and the most harmful, hydraulic mining
How were Indians affected by the gold rush?
They were often forced off their land by miners, and miners also damaged the forests and rivers that they needed for their food supply. So there were often violent conflicts.
President ___ announced the discovery of gold.
James K. Polk
Shortages of goods and labor cause what condition?
inflation - rise in prices
Sharp rise in prices is ___
inflation
The ____ was the first African-American newspaper
Mirror of the Times
Vigilante:
a person who takes the law into their own hands
What business was set up by Levi Strauss?
made jeans for the miners
What damage was caused by hydraulic mining?
/ Large amounts of water sent tons of mud into the rivers that fed into San Francisco Bay. The mud stopped ships, caused waterways to flood, damaging nearby farmlands.
What shortages existed in the economy of California during the Gold Rush?
They were shortages of labor and basic goods
What was the fastest route to California?
Across the isthmus of Panama
What was the longest route to California, and how long did it take?
/ Around Cape Horn of South America, 3-8 months
What were the disadvantages of traveling across the isthmus of Panama?
/ catching diseases in the hot climate
What were the three routes to California?
/ 1) Through the isthmus of Panama 2) Around tip of South America, Cape Horn 3) Overland
Who was an African American entrepreneur during the California Gold Rush?
Mifflin Gibbs made money from a shoe store and then a newspaper, and used some of it to buy freedom of some slaves.
Whose letters told the truth about miners in California, whether they were getting rich?
Louise Clappe
Why could women do well in the California gold rush economy?
There was a shortage of labor, because so many men just wanted to dig for gold, so the women who were willing to do work could earn a lot of money because there were few of them. And, in California, women were allowed to own property so they could make money with businesses like hotels and restaurants.
____ was a carpenter hired by John Sutter to build a sawmill in Coloma, where he claimed that he found the first gold nugget.
James Marshall
____ traveled to California from {{c2::China}} because {{c3::crops were ruined by floods.}}
Lu Ng
____ traveled from {{c2::San Francisco}} to see if the stories of gold were true, and returned with a {{c3::bottle of gold dust}}.
Sam Brannan
What was staking a claim, and how was it done?
marking land for gold mining as belonging to oneself. Posts in 4 corners?
What was Bennett Riley known for?
military governor in 1847, who called the Monterey Convention
Who was Peter Burnett?
First governor of the state of California
What was Biddy Mason known for?
African-American entrepreneur, first Black church, used money to free slaves
In what year did CA become a state?
1850
What number state is CA in the union?
31st
Why did miners not pay taxes?
They didn’t own the land
How did miners not paying taxes affect CA?
Didn’t have money for bills, didn’t get $ from other states
How did the Land Act of 1851 affect rancho owners?
They had to prove they owned the land, which most couldn’t do, sometimes because they didn’t speak English. Had to sell land to pay lawyers, but often lost their land.
The United States took control of CA in ____ and at first governed through _____ ___.
1847; military rule
The US military governor of CA was ___ ___.
Bennett Riley
Bennett Riley decided to call a ____.
convention - a meeting
Bennett Riley called a convention to be held in ____.
Monterey
The convention was attended by ____, persons chosen or elected to speak and act for those who elected them.
delegates
What was a major issue under US military rule in CA after the Gold Rush?
many people who had come to CA wanted the same rights that they had had as US citizens
How many delegates were elected to the convention in Monterey?
48
What decisions did the Monterey convention settle?
1) CA should become a state in the US
2) where the eastern border would be
3) whether to be a free or slave state
4) a public school system for education
Where did the Monterey convention set the eastern border of CA?
not the whole territory from Mexico, but at the Sierra Nevada and Colorado River
What is a constitution?
a plan of government
What is a legislature?
group of officials (representatives) elected to make laws
The people of CA voted to approve, or ____, the new constitution.
ratify
How were the rights of women in the new state of CA different from other US states at the time?
women in CA had the right to own property (which they had had since Mexican rule), which was not true in other US states
California elected two ____ to the US Congress
senators
The senators from CA asked Congress to make the US a state, but why was this controversial in the US?
because there were exactly the same number of free and slave states, and CA would tip the power to the free states
What is a compromise?
an agreement in which both sides give up something they wanted, but come to an agreement
What was the Compromise of 1850?
CA joined the US as a free state, but under the Fugitive Slave Act, anyone helping a slave escape would be punished
The capital of CA was moved from Monterey to __
San Jose (and then Vallejo, Benicia, and FINALLY Sacramento)
Why did CA have trouble having enough money to pay bills?
1) most of the population were miners who did not own land, therefore did not pay property taxes
2) without predictable income from property taxes, banks did not want to lend to CA
What was a huge problem regarding land after CA joined the US?
disputes over who owned the land
How were disputes over who owned land handled in the Land Act of 1851?
rancheros had to prove they owned land
Why was it hard for rancheros to prove they owned the land?
1) most did not speak English, while the US govt officials did not speak Spanish
2) most did not have proof of ownership, because the transfer had happened under Mexican rule, and hand-drawn disenos were incorrect
What was the result of the Land Act of 1851 to the rancheros?
they had to sell land to get money to hire lawyers, but ended up losing a lot of their land
Where was the Monterey convention held?
Colton Hall
