New discoveries prompt re-examination of slavery in Gold Rush California
Adam Willis was brought to California as a slave in 1846, gained his freedom nine years later, then searched the country using newspaper ads to find his family and build a home for them in Solano County.
The recent discovery of Willis' 152-year-old manumission record in the Solano County Archive has, along with other records from that era, stimulated a new examination of California's past that's been left out of the Gold Rush history books.
The existence of slavery in early California and the debate over whether it would enter the union as a free or slave state had momentous import. That past is featured in...[a new exhibit] at San Francisco's Museum of the African Diaspora, known as MoAD.
"As you know, slavery just tore apart so many families," said Vallejo resident Sharon McGriff-Payne, who found Willis' document in August while doing research for a book about the history of African Americans in Solano County.
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The recent discovery of Willis' 152-year-old manumission record in the Solano County Archive has, along with other records from that era, stimulated a new examination of California's past that's been left out of the Gold Rush history books.
The existence of slavery in early California and the debate over whether it would enter the union as a free or slave state had momentous import. That past is featured in...[a new exhibit] at San Francisco's Museum of the African Diaspora, known as MoAD.
"As you know, slavery just tore apart so many families," said Vallejo resident Sharon McGriff-Payne, who found Willis' document in August while doing research for a book about the history of African Americans in Solano County.