From the east coast of the US the journey to the Californian gold fields was long and arduous whether undertaken by land or a combination of land and sea. ‘The Challenge’, the largest merchant ship at the time, was built in 1851. It was a clipper…
This is a newspaper advertisement for the auction of a 'Negro' slave for $300 by his master B.G. Lathrop. The significance of the source lies in the fact that it is the first sale of a slave in California despite its declaration as a free state in…