willing to go to you , I should not force him …” Expressing that his slave , John , who had been leased to a North Carolina turpentine mine operation , returned home in an “ exhausted condition ,” the owner in his correspondence to the bailee stipulated , “ that those who hire them will see that they are taken proper care of in every respect .” Once more , altruistic concerns about slave welfare might have been subordinated by the owners ’ combined fear of property and revenue loss if their slaves ran away from particularly cruel masters .
The Asiatic cholera epidemics , which exposed their victims to spasmodic vomiting and diarrhea , sometimes resulted in slave deaths for those employed in the salt industry . John Cabell , a salt manufacturer , notifying his son-in-law about the potential impact on their business , stated in December of 1832 , “ A great many of the Negroes have been taken away by their owners on account of the cholera being here last fall , thinking it may come again later next year . I have not hired half as many as I want .” In 1833 and 1834 , the epidemics continued impacting salt miners along the Ohio River who witnessed desertions by much of their labor force ; Cabell described in a letter to his wife in Lynchburg , VA , the halt in production and how “ five or six of their slaves , including his carriage driver , had the disease .”
During the cholera outbreak of 1849 , Jack , a slave hired to salt miner Crockett Ingles , succumbed to the disease . The contract stipulated that Ingles agree to return Jack in case the latter took sick ; Jack later became ill and died . His owner sued Ingles for non-compliance to the agreement . Due to these circumstances , owners decided to include loss provisions to their hiring contracts . When Martha Stone hired two of her bondspersons for $ 325 per year in 1850 , her lawyer stipulated “… that if the cholera should reappear in the salt works during the present year that Mrs . Stone or her agent has permission to withdraw the said Negroes , deducting for the time so lost at the rate of $ 325 a year .”
The California gold mines could provide a refuge from the ravages of cholera for those slaves either laboring on behalf of their masters , or looking to purchase their freedom . California ’ s constitution prohibited slavery ; therefore , firms or private individuals could not hire slave laborers . However , no provision existed preventing southerners from bringing their slaves to the mines . As a result , slaves often worked alongside their masters — and northern whites and free Blacks — in the mines and river valleys digging and panning for gold .
One historian noted that whites considered Blacks ( slave and free ) “ proverbially lucky ” in discovering gold , persuading several New York merchants on at least one occasion to pay for the traveling expenses of Black miners in return for their labor services . In places such as “ Negro Flats ,” “ Negro Bar ” and “ Negro Hill ”— areas where Blacks congregated and either panned or mined for gold — Black miners indeed had lucky strikes . In 1850 , the Daily Alta reported how on the American River , “ There have been new diggings discovered which prove to yield exceedingly well ,” noting that “ some colored gentlemen first discovered them .”
Slaves often brought substantial gains to their masters : one slave ’ s persistence in believing a strike would occur in a given area yielded him and his master $ 20,000 in a relatively short period ; within one week , William Manney ’ s four slaves panned $ 4,000 in gold . William Marmaduke informed his wife in a letter written in March 1850 that if he continued accumulating wealth with the help of his two slaves , he would return home within five months quite a rich man . Southerners would sometimes allow their slaves to labor alone in California , agreeing that they could pay for their freedom in gold . As mentioned earlier , after having accrued the proceeds from the labors of their slaves , sometimes owners reneged on these pledges and denied liberty .
Slaves laboring in the goldfields of California , similar to those hired out to transportation carriers in the South and Midwest , could utilize the combined attributes of geographic isolation and distance from their masters as possible avenues toward freedom . These opportunities were at times foreign to plantation slaves , either due to strict regulation governing their autonomy , or perhaps because of limited skill sets rendering them ill-prepared for off-site duties .
Ramon Vasconcellos is a history professor and lecturer in Accounting and Economics at Barstow Community College in Barstow , CA . He has published numerous biographical and topical articles on the history of the West , particularly related to finance . Ramon has also taught Economics and History at the University of London .
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