African Americans Before the Gold Rush
In the early days of California, there were very few African Americans in the state. In fact, there were 962 Africans Americans at this time. The majority of them were slaves, yet some had come seeking fortunes. Others had come on exploration trips. Because of this small population, both free and enslaved African Americans were viewed as fairly insignificant, and had very few rights.
When California was first aquired from Mexico into the United States, the question arose whether it should be a free state or a slave state. There had previously been 15 slave states and 15 free states in the United States, so California would give either side an advantage. The debate was to be a long and heavy one, and made life challenging for African Americans.