Juneteenth 2016 ~ Discovering the legacy of Negro Hills, CA

Roughly 4 miles upstream from Negro Bar, Sacramento County, the history of Negro Hills, in 1850's, part of Placer County is an excellent place to continue the story of people of African ancestry along the American River Basin.

In 1854, Newton Miller noted that in his racially mixed Methodist Church at Negro Hills, CA, Negroes constitute nearly all the church members and are a majority of the congregation.

Negro Hills was founded in early 1848 along the American River, east of Leidesdorff Ranch, about 4 miles from Negro Bar, CA.

1830 - 1850 Negro Seamen Acts were established at most major southern seaports in the United States. They prohibited free men of African ancestry from their lucrative career in the maritime industry. Many Negro seamen became farmers in 1840's Mexican Alta California, joining thousands of people of African ancestry here in California according to the 1790 Census.

The Gold Rush of 1848 and California U.S. statehood in 1850 expedited an influx of industrious free men of African ancestry to California, as well as those enslaved and "property" of US Citizens yearning for gold fever.

Negro Hills, CA is an extraordinary early Gold Rush community and maintains a golden historical legacy of an amazing free migration by people of African ancestry, an unspoken aspect of the Underground Railroad to Freedom.

In 1849, three enterprising men from the New England seaboard named Vosey, Long and French opened a store and boarding house called the Civil Usage House. Business was good. Gold Rush fever swept across the world, like wildfire and brought Irish, Spanish, Portuguese, Mormon, Chinese and Africans from all corners of the world to California, now under US Military Occupation.

Early success was assured in Negro Hills and brought global attention to the Northern Mining District, the El Dorado indeed...

Charles Crocker, brother of Edwin Crocker and Dewitt Stanford, brother of Leland Stanford, joined the Negro Hill business community competing directly with established Negro trade and commerce entities.

In 1854, Negro Hills population exceeded 1200 and could boast of a multiethnic community unmatched outside the Port of San Francisco.

Negro Hills was the hub of a regional community that included Salmon Falls, Massachusetts Flat, Chile Hill, Mormon Island and many mining camps along the North and South Fork of the American River. People of African ancestry were recorded throughout of these communities.

By 1855, portions of the deeply religious community of Negro Hills had deteroriated into a Wild West saloon and place of ill repute.

Contentious debates of the status of people of African ancestry is a salient part of the California Constitutional Convention and later the California State Legislature passed laws prohibiting people of African ancestry from testifying in court, homesteading land, voting and public education, these and other environmental hazards helped to destroy the harmonious beginnings of Negro Hills, CA.

A group of drunken, broke and destitute white citizens living near Negro Hills began to terrorize the Negro business community. Theft, fights and lynching were often encouraged because of the legal prohibition of equal access to the law in early California State History. People of African ancestry could not testify in court against a white man or women.

In 1855, the first California Colored Convention began to address the disenfranchisement brought about by our California State Legislature. Negro Hills early promise was effectively destroyed to the benefit of the Crocker, Stanford and other prominent families.

Today, California State Historical Landmark No. 570 of Negro Hill is missing.

A small portion Negro Hills Cemetery was relocated during the 1954 construction of Folsom Dam; however, our U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have shared the official record of why “Nigger Hill” was placed on 36 "unknown" grave markers representing the legacy of people of African ancestry in Gold Rush California.

Today, a fresh new perspective towards a more inclusive historical legacy that reconciles the pioneering spirit of all citizens of early Negro Bar, Negro Hills, Negro Bluff and a plethora of places people of African ancestry help contribute to early California History.