Publisher Description
In this revelatory study, award-winning historian Leonard L. Richards outlines the links between the Gold Rush and the Civil War.
Richards explains how Southerners envisioned California as a new market for slaves in the gold fields, schemed to tie California to the South via railroad, and imagined splitting off the state’s southern half for a slave state. We see how the Gold Rush influenced other regional and national squabbles, and we meet renegade New York Democrat David Broderick, who became a force in San Francisco politics in 1849, and his archrival, William Gwin, a major Mississippi slaveholder. Richards recounts the political battles alongside the fiery California feuds, duels, and, perhaps, outright murders as the state came shockingly close to being divided in two.
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“More like 3.5 stars. Interesting connection between California statehood and the Civil War. The connection is certainly there but maybe was not as strong as the author suggests (equally likely that I just missed it!). Still, I liked it as a view of California history that is seldom explored.”
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Victor (4 out of 5 stars)
