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The Importance Of Family Life In The Late 1840's

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Supporting a family is something that is very important, and hard to come by. The road to success is something that does not come easy in life. Many try and succeed and others have great success without much effort. In the late 1840’s, many families made just enough money to get by, it was never enough. Every week families would scrape up what little they had to spend or trade and head into town, in hopes to find some food to bring home. Every week became harder and harder, as market values were increasing.c In the winter months of 1849, news spread across America, and the world, that would forever change our Nation. There had been pure virgin gold found in the American river, near sacramento California. Many families would soon make a decision …show more content…

Cargo ships were turned into charters in order to accommodate for all of the passengers. Items on board a ship may have been: Salt pork, ham, Salt beef, hard bread, butter and cheese, salt, tea, sugar and spice. Problems with taking these supplies along on a long voyage was that meat went bad, Rates ate the cheese, Butter and lard went rancid, Candles melted near the equiater and wine turned into vinegar. There were two routes, the Panama route and the cape horn route. The panama could often be faster, but much more dangerous, as for Panama had many diseases that were widespread and easy to catch. The cape horn journey was longer and more dangerous, with high winds. Ships were often pulled south off of their course. After getting near North America again, many ships would have to go as far out as Hawaii to find winds strong enough to push them into …show more content…

The impact of gold, struck much deeper than the Sierra Mountains, said (impact of gold rush). Many 49ers did not make it off of gold mining. Many became that through other ways than mining. During the Gold Rush, it created a major Labor shortage. That created many opportunities for migrants that needed work. Most people that move to california found that gold was very hard to find. So they got jobs in cities that were rapidly growing. This need for labor exploited the Native Americans, becoming slavery without the title. This rapid growth created a great economic growth. Manufacturing, trade, merchant businesses, agriculture, and banks began to become flourishing. The Californian economy boomed. Many companies across the country invested in the gold rush in some way. “We reached San Francisco on the 20th, and found out that all, or nearly all, its male inhabitants had gone to the mines. The town, which a few months before was so busy and thriving, was then almost deserted. On the evening of the 24th, the horses of the escort were crossed to Sausalito in a launch, and on the following day we resumed the journey, by way of Bodega and sonoma, to Sutter's Fort, where we arrived on the morning of July 2. Along the whole route mills were lying to idle, fields of wheat were open to cattle and horses, houses vacant, and farms going to waste.”-Col Richard Barnes

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