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This study examines the economic and social climate in Salem, Massachusetts and in Sacramento, California during the early years of the California Gold Rush (1848-1851).  Gold was found during a time of economic turbulence in nineteenth-century America.  Despite the great wealth that fell into the hands of those who panned for gold in 1848, economic turmoil spread in Sacramento from 1848-1851 and resulted in riots over land rights.  As the first generation of Salemites who were not regional leaders in economics, many traveled to California to seek their fortune.  The type of economic risk they faced there, however, was very different from the opportunities previous Salem entrepreneurs encountered when they took to the sea.

From its settlement in 1629, Salem was a prosperous harbor, and by the early nineteenth century, it was one of the wealthiest cities in the United States.  Then, political events including President Jefferson’s 1807 trade embargo and the War of 1812 decimated trade.  Worse still, trade patterns and trade technology began to change.  Merchants relied on fast clipper ships, which were too large to navigate into Salem’s plentiful, but shallow, wharves.  For the first time, Salem fell behind the success and growth of other regional cities.  By 1849, manufacturing cities like Lowell or Salem’s neighbor, Lynn, had greatly increased their population and wealth, while Salem, for the first time, lost its position as one of the economic leaders in the region.

At the time that news of the Gold Rush hit the East Coast, an economic depression affected Salem and other harbor communities.  Past generations them had been great entrepreneurs who traded cod on the Atlantic coast, or who sailed westward from Salem around the Cape of Good Hope to China and the East Indies.  The advent of the Gold Rush must have seemed like a sign to men of this particular generation that their moment, too, had come.  Like those before them, they planned to “make their pile” and return home.  This intention was not unusual during the California Gold Rush; the large number of intentionally transient settlers impacted the economic and social character of California as it entered into the territory of the United States.  An important result was the Sacramento Land Riots of 1851.

The Gold Rush in 1849 represented a singular opportunity for those wanted to pan for gold, those who wanted to trade goods, and those who wanted to invest in land.  Rampant, transitory speculation, however, did not merely impact those who participated; they had lasting consequences for the culture and society of California.

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