California Gold Rush Negative Effects

Lasting Negative Effects of the Gold Rush The California Gold Rush of the 1850’s brought long lasting negative effects. Many think or have learned more about only the benefits of the Gold Rush. Those who have, fail to realize the many negative effects it brought. Communities were ruptured, cultures were abused, and our environment was sacrificed. The Gold Rush impacted the California community, Native Americans, and the environment. California’s Gold Rush began in 1848. James W. Marshall, an American carpenter, was credited as the first one to discover gold in Coloma, California. Soon after the first findings, the boom began. James Miller, the author of The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream
The killing was in response to the murder of Colonel John Anderson. “When daylight broke they attacked the Wintu, who were just beginning to awaken. More than 150 Wintu people were killed, with only about five scattered children surviving the attack” (“Bridge Gulch massacre”). It was later on found that the slaughtered camp didn’t contain the murderer. Killings like these were often all over
They were often deceived and captured. “Near Sacramento, California land baron John Sutter built, "a private empire on 50,000 acres of Indian land near Sacramento, kidnapped Natives and forced them to work for him in conditions that were akin to slavery” (“California Gold Rush”). California almost influenced this slavery. The state passed an act, Act for the Government and Protection of Indians, which allowed the capture and use of Natives. “Native American villages were regularly raided to supply the demand, and young women and children were carried off to be sold…” (“California Gold Rush”) while the men and remaining were killed off. The California Gold Rush brought displeasure to our environment. Millions of years of beautiful Californian land has been destroyed in the aftermath in the search for precious gold. The greed got the best of many which left grief for Mother Nature. The astonishing forests was inferred as the first to go. A Golden State: “The Gold Rush brought its influx of people and a demand for housing. Redwood forests were cut down in the hills surrounding the San Francisco Bay and southward in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Around the gold camps and the new towns, forests soon disappeared” (“A Golden State”