Migration Toward Freedom ~ California Black Farmers

Migration Toward Freedom ~ California Black Farmers

Negro Hill Burial Ground Project ~ 150th Anniversary of Black Sacramento
by Michael Harris, California Director, Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association

The U.S. Department of Interior, Army Corps of Engineers, California Parks and Recreation Department, Sacramento County Historical Society, Folsom Historical Society and El Dorado County Historical Society are asked to provide primary source documentation to assist gathering the necessary government records to restore proper dignity and respect those early Black Pioneers who successfully migrated to the State of California.

Our 1950's U.S. Government approved and installed the official designation and today’s bureaucracy has not moved to remove the most offensive and degrading name of “NIGGER” from a U.S. government project.

Negro Hill was founded in early 1848 along the South Fork of the American River, east of Leidesdorff Ranch, and across Shaw Bridge by the town of Mormon Island.

California Black Farmers and Agriculturalists were a very successful during the decade (1845 - 1855) and subsequently suffered a similar fate as Black Farmers and Agriculturists across the United States of America. We are an ‘Endangered Species’ due to ongoing systemic institutional racism documented by the landmark Pigford vs. United States Department of Agriculture and current Congressional findings.

1830 – 1850, major eastern United States maritime ports prohibited ‘freeborn men’ of African ancestry from their most lucrative career during the Age of Sail. Negro Seamen Acts facilitated a mass migration of ‘expert’ Negro seamen and many found great success in Mexico, Caribbean, South America and the Pacific Rim. California was a favorite destination in the migration toward freedom.

Honorable William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. “African Founding Father of California” owned and operated from the Port of San Francisco and Leidesdorff Ranch a 35,000 acre successful Agriculture commodity export businesses in the 1848 Sacramento River Basin.

The Gold Rush and California statehood, in 1850, expedited an influx of industrious free men of Pan-African ancestry to California while a wave of enslaved Africans from throughout our Southern United States found an even greater difficult path toward freedom with thousands enslaved in California.

Negro Hills, CA is one of the extraordinary early Black agricultural communities and maintains a golden historical legacy of the free migration of American citizens of African ancestry.

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 even more Black pioneers yearning for a greater measure of freedom.

Early success was assured and obtained throughout Black Sacramento regional communities of Negro Village, Negro Bar, and Negro Hill. A strong case can be made that during (1845-1855) the Black population in the Sacramento River Basin obtained a measure of freedom that is unsurpassed today.

Charles Crocker, brother of Edwin Crocker and Dewitt Stanford, brother of Leland Stanford, joined the Negro Hill business community competing directly with the Negro established trade and commerce, this is a very strong indicator of the business opportunity that was established in these communities.

In 1853, Negro Hill population exceeded 1200 and could boast of a multiethnic community unmatched outside the Port of San Francisco. Mormon Island / Negro Hill was the hub of a regional community that included Salmon Falls, Massachusetts Flat, Chile Hill, and many mining camps along the American River.

In 1854, Rev. Newton Miller noted that in his racially mixed Methodist Church at Negro Hills, “Negroes constitute nearly all the church members and are a majority of the congregation.” Later in 1854, portions of the deeply religious community of Negro Hill had deteriorated into a Wild West saloon and place of ill repute.

The California State Legislature passed laws prohibiting Blacks from testifying in court, homesteading land, voting and public education. These environmental hazards helped to destroy the harmonious beginnings of Negro Hill, CA.

A small group of drunken, broke and destitute white citizens near Negro Hill began to terrorize the Negro business community. Theft, fights and lynching were effectively encouraged because of the legal prohibition of equal access to the law in early California State History.

In 1856, Mormon Island burned down and the many residents crossed Shaw Bridge and moved into the community of Negro Hill at the same time the California Colored Convention Movement began to address racial disenfranchisement, specific to ‘colored’ citizens in the State of California.

1857 U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Taney proclaimed in the Dred Scott decision, “Black folk have no rights that white folk are bound to respect.” This landmark decision of March 6, 1857 changed America forever.

150 years ago this singular U.S. Supreme Court case effectively destroyed the hopes and aspirations of many California Black Businesses and facilitated nearly 700 “prominent Black pioneers” to endure a major cavalcade, moving everything to British Columbia, Canada in the quest towards a greater measure of freedom.

Today, California State Historical Landmark No. 570 of Negro Hill is missing for nearly a decade. A small portion Negro Hills Cemetery was relocated during the 1954 construction of Folsom Dam to provide flood relief to the lower Sacramento River Basin; however, government officials sought fit to rename Negro Hill, “Nigger Hill” on 36 “unknown” grave markers reflective of the ongoing battle for basic Human Rights for people of African ancestry.

During the 150th Anniversary of Black Sacramento, leading Sacramento regional government officials, civic organizations, and student activists will be asked to join a petition drive and fundraising drive to restore proper dignity and respect to our early Black Pioneers.

The U.S. Congressional leaders, California Legislative leaders and California Governor Schwarzenegger will be asked to assist Regional political leaders: U.S. Congressman Doolittle, U.S. Congressmen Lungren and U.S. Congresswomen Matsui, State Senator Steinberg and State Senator Cox, Assembly member Niello and Assembly member Nakinishi to support official Federal and State government restoration of the proper signage, plaques and forever restore our proper authentic historical legacy to Black Pioneers in the Sacramento River Basin.