Women in the California gold rush

As travel arrangements improved and were made easier and more predictable, the number of women coming to California rapidly increased.

In Ireland, the Great Famine was a period of mass starvation, disease, and emigration between 1845 and 1852 that drove many desperate women to the United States and on to California.

Many single men started communicating with female acquaintances they knew and many proposals were accepted with this long-distance dating.

[3] As time went on, the ever-increasing immigration of more women and families started changing the composition of the female population and the entertainers soon became outnumbered.

Laundries, restaurants, lodging, mending, waiting tables, all paid good wages; some women made their fortunes as entrepreneurs.

The entertainers were joined by few other women (less than 3% of initial travelers) who came either overland via the California Trail or by sea with their husbands and families.

[6] To this should be added about 10000000 women older than 15 from San Francisco, Santa Clara, and Contra Costa counties whose censuses were lost and not included in the totals.

Equilibrium female-male number parity would take till the 1950 census with a total population of 10,586,000; 5,296,000 males compared to 5,291,000 females.

[10] From San Francisco by late 1849 paddle steamers were transporting the miners and others 125 miles (201 km) to Sacramento and the start of the California gold rush country.

In the early 1850s, women were so scarce that sex workers were not typically viewed by most as immoral, and many were in fact highly desired and their company actively sought.

Initially there were virtually no laws prohibiting or trying to regulate or control sex work, and a handful of madams became so prosperous and powerful they helped keep local police, doctors, theater managers, politicians and liquor salesmen in business.

Many French sex workers, for example, became very wealthy since they were actively sought at the saloons, gaming tables, dance halls, peep shows, etc.

Increasing populations of miners' and business men's wives and their families helped further stigmatize sex work when middle-class morality began to come to California in the late 1850s.

The choices with an unwanted pregnancy were back-room abortion or giving birth and raising an illegitimate child of often-uncertain parentage.

City Sanitation practices were expensive and not understood as clean water and sewage collection and treatment were just starting to develop.

To make more money, the women were often paid to "push" drinks on their customers and if successful they often ended up inebriated.

From 1848 to the late 1850s, sex workers experienced an unprecedented decline in power and a rapid fall from grace as more "respectable" women and their families came to California.

Some women, like Ah Toy and Belle Cora gained power and wealth in the early San Francisco Gold Rush days by becoming successful madams and operating brothels.

[19] Cora, a clergyman's daughter, operated a brothel in San Francisco that "offered the handsomest and most skillful girls, at the highest prices, of any bagnio in the city.

[24] Lotta Crabtree, the daughter of Gold Rush immigrants, began her career dancing for miners at the age of six.

Many men did not find their fortunes in the gold fields, and having a woman around to earn money with boarding, washing, cooking, sewing, etc.

[29] Entrepreneur Mary Ellen Pleasant, who called herself a "capitalist", used the vast wealth she accumulated to free slaves through the Underground Railroad.

[32] Some women wrote letters home, diaries, or newspaper articles describing their experiences during the Gold Rush, which were collected and published by later historians to offer insight into their journeys West and life at that time.

[38] Delegates advanced various arguments in favor of the provision, including that it reflected the existing law of California as well as that of other states.

The English-based common law under which many American jurisdictions operated then, women upon marriage had little or no property rights beyond provisions for one-third of the household goods and land in the event of death of the husband.

A delegate recently arrived from New York warned against granting women separate property rights, based on his experiences in France.

"[41] While interpretations of the constitutional provision varied, according to scholar Donna C. Schuele, "A consensus emerged whereby the constitutional guarantee of married women's property rights was viewed as a progressive enactment boldly distinguishing the Golden State from eastern jurisdictions struggling to emerge from the grips of antiquated notions of law and patriarchy.

[45] California also adopted community property laws when it became a state, giving each spouse a right to half of whatever was acquired during the marriage.

[49] After the gold rush, bounties were offered for "Indian hunters" who could prove they had killed a Native by bringing in a body part.

Stories of massacres, forced relocation, and kidnappings have been passed down through the generations, often by women, and are still remembered by California Native people today.