Week 6: The Trail & The Rush

Choose 1 topic: 


 

• What was the Trail of Tears? How do you believe America could make up for this atrocity?
  
• Who rushed for California gold? What was the Oregon Trail?
  

Rules:

1. Please answer the discussion questions in your own words.
   
2. You may use quotations if you like, but you must cite your sources.
   
3. Responses to the main topic should be 100 words or more.
   
4. Responses to other students should be 50 words or more.
   
5. Be polite!
   

California Gold Rush was started by James Marshall, who found the first gold in California. After people heard about Marshall discovering gold in the river, people from everywhere came to California for gold and to become rich. During this time period, California was not a state so there were no rules or police to catch crimes. Because of that, many crimes occurred like robbery and murder to take gold from each other. However, most of the people who came for gold did not earn any extra money or they lost more money coming to California. So they ended up staying in California and they had enough people to establish California as a state.

California gold rush began after James W Marshal found gold at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California on January 24, 1848. There were lots of first frontier in 1849, we call them ‘forty-niners’. Approximately 300,000 people came to California during Gold Rush. Beginning of the Gold Rush, California was a chow. When gold was first found, California was part of Mexico, but Americans army was taking control of the land after Mexico-American war. It became an American territory after Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. At that time, California was like a lawless land, so many crimes occurred. And only few of them found what they were looking for. Most of them ended up spend more money coming to California than the gold they found in there. So they decided to settle down.

Tears of Trail was the tragic event for Native Americans during the Andrew Jackson's presidency. He forced them to move all the way to west side of Mississippi river, which is now state of Oklahoma. During their trail, quarter if Native American population died because of disease, exhaust, food shortage, etc. Maybe America could have give them a compensation or making a pledge of not interfering them anymore.

JaehoHwang wrote:California gold rush began after  James W Marshal found gold at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California on January 24, 1848. There were lots of first frontier in 1849, we call them ‘forty-niners’. Approximately 300,000 people came to California during Gold Rush. Beginning of the Gold Rush, California was a chow. When gold was first found, California was part of Mexico, but Americans army was taking control of the land after Mexico-American war. It became an American territory after Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. At that time, California was like a lawless land, so many crimes occurred. And only few of them found what they were looking for. Most of them ended up spend more money coming to California than the gold they found in there. So they decided to settle down.

He gave a good explanation of terminology, like the meaning of "Forty-niners" and specific statistics. I could imagine how massive the population of California was, comparing to other states at that time period. He also gave a related event and circumstances around Gold Rush.

The California Gold Rush is a time when a lot of people gathered in the area where gold mines were found in the 19th century America. It is the beginning that people gathered to collect the gold discovered in California from 1848 to 1849. The old people lived only in the east, yet the west had not been developed at all. Suddenly, a gold mine was found at the western end (now California) and many people went there. At the time, there was no means of transportation and I turned to Brazil. When gold was found in the riverbed, and a lot of gold came out around it, this rumor spread even more. In 1849, some 100,000 people moved to California as well as the United States. But at that time, California was a lot of crime and more to spend than to make money. In fact, people who earned money were a minority. So they stayed there and settled.

Reply suhan
I did not think that the crime rate was high because California was not the state at that time. This is a well-grounded opinion. I had thought that this was just a crime rate for each other's gold. So California became a state, and there could be order and rules.

I like how he gave reasons for why there was so many crimes in California at that time. Because I thought there was lots of crime because everyone was carrying gold with them. Now I know that it was not a state and there wasn’t laws to prevent crime.