Title:

Samuel P. Pearson correspondence

Creator/Contributor:

Pearson, Samuel P., creator, correspondent.

Creator/Contributor:

Pearson, Ezra, correspondent.

Nine handwritten letters of a gold miner from Mercer, Pennsylvania, working the gold areas in Amador County, California, to family members. A self-described "Copperhead" concerning the Civil War, Pearson paints a vivid picture of a miner's experience seeking his fortune in the gold fields. Details include financial struggles, staking and working claims, operating active mines, being cheated, murder and vigilante justice, and contact with Indians who he describes thusly, "I was last evening at an Indian Fandango. You have perhaps read of the Indians dancing and singing. There were songs. It was truly one of the grandest sights you or I have ever witnessed." In a postscript, Pearson asks his sister to "Please burn this and let no one know it out of the family." Also includes two letter from Ezra Pearson to his sister. One is addressed from Shreveport, Louisiana after the Civil War and a pre-Civil War letter addressed from "Brunswick."

Date:

1853 (issued)

Subject:

n-us-ca

Pearson, Samuel P -- Correspondence

Pearson, Ezra -- Correspondence

Gold miners -- California -- Correspondence

Gold mines and mining -- California -- Fiddletown

Gold mines and mining -- California -- Indian Diggings

Gold mines and mining -- California -- Amador County

Indians of North America -- California -- Social life and customs

California -- Gold discoveries

Indian Diggings (Calif.) -- Description and travel

Fiddletown (Calif.) -- Description and travel

Shreveport (La.) -- Description and travel

United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865

Samuel P. Pearson correspondence, BANC MSS 2017/252, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Purchase from Michael D. Heaston Rare Books ; 2017.

In English.

print

0.2 (1

English

BANC MSS 2017/252 box 1

Origin:

California