| Location | |
|---|---|
  Sweet Vengeance Mine  Sweet Vengeance Mine | |
| Location | Browns Valley |
| State | California |
| Coordinates | 39°15′48″N121°25′8″W / 39.26333°N 121.41889°W Coordinates: 39°15′48″N121°25′8″W / 39.26333°N 121.41889°W |
The Sweet Vengeance Mine was a gold mine in Browns Valley, California, discovered by African American miners during the Gold Rush. The mine was later owned and operated by a French company, which used one of the first stamp mills in California there.
The discovery of gold in 1848 and California's declaration in 1849 that it intended to become a free state were catalysts for free Blacks to migrate to California in search of gold. [1]
After finding gold in Brown's Valley, six African American men organized the Sweet Vengeance mine company to work the claim. The partners included Gabriel Simms, Fritz James Vosburg, Abraham Freeman Holland, Edward Duplex, James Cousins, and M. McGowan. [2] Moses Rodgers, an African American engineer and metallurgist whose services were highly in demand, also became a partner in the Sweet Vengeance Mine. [3]
In 1919, historian Delilah L. Beasley wrote, “Judging from the title, it would seem to indicate that they were bent on proving to the world that colored men were capable of conducting successfully a mining business, even in the pioneer days in California.” [2]
Although there was an "atmosphere of equality" among miners, [1] in the competition for gold, there was also a tendency for White miners and claim jumpers to try to drive out non-Whites. [4] The Sweet Vengeance miners were subjected to repeated attempts to drive them away. [4] On one occasion, Vosburg was attacked by a gang of White claim jumpers, and stabbed their leader with a long knife. [4] [1] The Liberator newspaper reported that he had acted in self-defense. [1]
The partners owned and operated the mine profitably through 1854. [4] [1] According to the journal kept by Vosburg, Holland, and Simms, the Sweet Vengeance Mine was especially profitable between April and May 1852, when they noted that they had found "rich dirt". [4]
The men went on to use their profits from the mine to become entrepreneurs. [5] Gabriel Simms opened the Franklin Hotel on First Street in Marysville, Yuba County. [6] Edward Duplex went on to open a barbershop and later became the first African American mayor in California. [5]
The Sweet Vengeance Mine became known as a "big producer" in Browns Valley. [7] It was the site of one of the first stamp mills in California, installed by a French company. [7] The mine's previous owners were Spanish and had been milling using a primitive arrastra. [7] [8]
In 1935, Engineering and Mining Journal reported that Aladdin Gold Mining had started unwatering operations at the Sweet Vengeance Mine. [9]
The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. The sudden influx of gold into the money supply reinvigorated the American economy; the sudden population increase allowed California to go rapidly to statehood, in the Compromise of 1850. The Gold Rush had severe effects on Native Californians and accelerated the Native American population's decline from disease, starvation and the California genocide.
A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Chile, South Africa, the United States, and Canada while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.
Downieville is a census-designated place in and the county seat of Sierra County, California, United States. Downieville is on the North Fork of the Yuba River, at an elevation of 2,966 feet (904 m). The 2020 United States census reported Downieville's population was 290.
Hydraulic mining is a form of mining that uses high-pressure jets of water to dislodge rock material or move sediment. In the placer mining of gold or tin, the resulting water-sediment slurry is directed through sluice boxes to remove the gold. It is also used in mining kaolin and coal.
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The Yuba River is a tributary of the Feather River in the Sierra Nevada and eastern Sacramento Valley, in the U.S. state of California. The main stem of the river is about 40 miles (64 km) long, and its headwaters are split into three major forks. The Yuba River proper is formed at the North Yuba and Middle Yuba rivers' confluence, with the South Yuba joining a short distance downstream. Measured to the head of the North Yuba River, the Yuba River is just over 100 miles (160 km) long.
The Georgia Gold Rush was the second significant gold rush in the United States and the first in Georgia, and overshadowed the previous rush in North Carolina. It started in 1829 in present-day Lumpkin County near the county seat, Dahlonega, and soon spread through the North Georgia mountains, following the Georgia Gold Belt. By the early 1840s, gold became difficult to find. Many Georgia miners moved west when gold was found in the Sierra Nevada in 1848, starting the California Gold Rush. Since the 16th century, American Indians in Georgia told European explorers that the small amounts of gold which they possessed came from mountains of the interior. Some poorly documented accounts exist of Spanish or French mining gold in North Georgia between 1560 and 1690, but they are based on supposition and on rumors passed on by Indians. In summing up known sources, W.S. Yeates observed: "Many of these accounts and traditions seem to be quite plausible. Nevertheless, it is hardly probable that the Spaniards would have abandoned mines which were afterwards found to be quite profitable, as those in North Georgia."
Edmond Edward Wysinger (1816–1891) was an African American pioneer in California, arriving around October 1849 at the beginning of the California Gold Rush.
Delilah Leontium Beasley, was a historian and newspaper columnist for the Oakland Tribune in Oakland, California. Beasley was the first African-American woman to be published regularly in a major metropolitan newspaper. Beasley was also first to present written proof of the existence of California's black pioneers in her book Slavery in California (1918) and her classic, The Negro Trail-Blazers of California (1919). Her career in journalism spanned more than 50 years. She detailed the racial problems in California and the heroic achievements by Blacks to overcome them during the late 19th century and early 20th century.
Moses Logan Rodgers was an African American pioneer of California, arriving in 1849—the beginning of the California Gold Rush. California was annexed by the United States and was admitted to the Union as the thirty-first state on September 9, 1850.
Edward Parker Duplex was an American entrepreneur, politician, and civil rights activist in California. He was the first Black mayor in California, elected to office in Wheatland in 1888, and was a leader in the state's Colored Conventions movement. Born in Connecticut, he migrated to California during the Gold Rush, and was a partner in the Sweet Vengeance Mine. Duplex used his share of profits from the mine to start his own barbershop in Marysville, California, where he employed other Black barbers. He later moved to Wheatland, where his barbershop became one of the two longest running businesses in the town.
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Maybert was a mining town in Nevada County, California. It was located on the south side of the South Yuba River, about 6 miles east of the town of Washington, at an elevation of 3,245 ft (989 m). Fall Creek empties into the South Yuba slightly to the northwest of the town site.
Cherokee is a former gold mining community in Nevada County, California. As explained below, it has also been known as Patterson, Melrose and Tyler. It is located on the San Juan Ridge about 4 miles east of North San Juan. Its elevation is 2,516 ft (767 m) above sea level.
The Miners Foundry is located at 325 Spring Street, Nevada City, California, USA. Built in Nevada County in 1856, it is a California Historical Landmark as, in 1879, the foundry became the first manufacturing site of the Pelton wheel.
The North Star Mine and Powerhouse are located on Lafayette Hill a short distance south of Grass Valley in the U.S. state of California. It was the second largest producer of gold during California's Gold Rush. In 1898, the largest ever Pelton wheel for its time was built for the mine. The North Star Mine Company also owned locations on Weimar Hill, adjoining and south of the North Star Mine. It shut down during World War II after its consolidation with the Empire Mine.
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The case of Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company was a lawsuit brought to California courts in 1882 where a group of local farmers sued North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company over damages caused to farmland in the Central Valley. The farmers who brought the suit claimed that the company's hydraulic mining operations resulted in the disposal of excess sediment, debris, and chemicals in local rivers. Prosecutors argued that the debris raised river beds and restricted flow in the rivers leading to heavy man-made flooding. In the years prior, flooding of debris and chemicals had destroyed a large portion of the valley's agriculture.