California was a place of both hope and danger for enslaved African Americans. The state’s antislavery laws and plentiful business opportunities provided chances for a fresh start. These business opportunities, however, also attracted dishonest men looking to earn a quick buck. As we shall see, Alvin Coffey experienced both extremes during his three journeys across the California Trail.
On 22 January 1856, Bridget “Biddy” Mason and twelve members of her extended family left the Los Angeles courtroom of Judge Benjamin Hayes as free people. She had lived as an enslaved person in California, a supposedly “free” state, for nearly five years. Her story is testament to the many obstacles that Black Americans faced in securing basic civil rights—even in states that prohibited slavery.
On 14 April 1846, three-year-old Eliza Donner left Springfield, Illinois, and set out for California in a covered wagon with fifteen members of her extended family. The family name would soon go down in history for the tragedy that overtook them on the long trail to California.
Locations:California National Historic Trail, Oregon National Historic Trail, Santa Fe National Historic Trail
Born into world where her own father was her enslaver, Emily Fisher went on to manage a hotel at the confluence of the Santa Fe, Oregon, and California Trails and create a highly desired health product as a free woman.
Mary Ellen Pleasant was perhaps the most powerful Black woman in Gold Rush-era San Francisco. Accounts differ on where she was born and whether or not she was enslaved; however, by the 1820s she was in New England, working at a busy shop and likely helping fellow Black Americans to freedom along the Underground Railroad. She set sail for San Francisco in 1852, probably to escape reprisal for her abolitionist work. Her arrival coincided with the peak of gold fever in CA.
Like so many others, Mifflin Wistar Gibbs left the East for San Francisco in 1850, convinced that his own “judicious temperament” and “untiring energy” would lead to success in the “new” country. Yet although he may have been a “gold rusher,” Gibbs—a free Black man— had no interest in becoming a miner. Instead, Gibbs intended to become a merchant.
Locations:California National Historic Trail, Oregon National Historic Trail, Santa Fe National Historic Trail
Enslaved at birth, Hiram Young gained his independence and went on to be an incredibly successful wagon supplier for the Santa Fe, Oregon, and California Trails.
Bruff’s fondness for adventure arrived early in life. When news of gold in California spurred Bruff to action. He assembled an overland emigration party, the Washington City and California Mining Association. Problems within the company started before they crossed the Missouri River...
California entered the Union as a free state, but that did not mean that enslaved people were magically emancipated upon entering. Take, for example, the case of Archy Lee, who reached Sacramento in October 1857 with his enslaver, Charles Stovall. Despite California’s anti-slavery status, the eighteen-year-old Lee ended up in an all-out fight for his freedom.
Despite the intrigue surrounding his parentage, Thomas is also remembered for his mapmaking—which aided many emigrants on the treacherous journey to California. As an African American cartographer and guidebook author, his experiences offer a unique counterpoint to those of the many enslaved men, women, and children who crossed the Plains with their enslavers.
Part of a 2016–2018 collaborative project of the National Trails- National Park Service and the University of New Mexico’s Department of History, “Student Experience in National Trails Historic Research: Vignettes Project.” This project was formulated to provide trail partners and the general public with useful biographies of less-studied trail figures—particularly African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, women, and children.
The Emigrant's Guide to The Golden Land of California - 1850.
Learn about what oxen are, how they were traditionally trained to draw wagons, and how they are properly driven and cared for from.
Emigrant Names Search
Recently the Oregon-California Trails Association, a primary partner with the National Park Service long distance historic trails office, developed a website to provide researchers, interested family descendants, and other emigrant trail enthusiasts with a tool for searching pioneer emigrant names.
The website, called "Paper Trail," is a database with information from thousands of trail-related documents of the mid-19th century western migration. Whether people traveled west for gold, land, religious freedom or new opportunity, they wrote diaries, letters, articles and recollections about the journey. From over 3500 original documents, Paper Trail organizes information into an easy-to-search database, featuring names, dates, routes, travel parties, locations and interesting features. The information from each document is searchable by emigrant name or by author. The name search is free; further searches require a modest subscription payment.
The Oregon-California Trails Association, with support from the National Park Service, will continue to update the Paper Trail website as more historical documents are found.
Last updated: March 15, 2023
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Contact Info
Mailing Address:
National Trails Office Regions 6, 7, & 8
California National Historic Trail
1100 Old Santa Fe Trail
Santa Fe,
NM
87505
