Author's note: Many of the links to online sources cited in the bibliography and endnotes have very long URLs; to assist the reader and researchers, I've provided some of them below.

[6] Portions of the Coroner’s Inquest were published in Palmer, Barbara. 2001, "None Darker Than Me: Racial obsession in 19th-century San Diego;" San Diego Weekly Reader (accessed 3/21/2023).

[15] “List of Letters Remaining in the Post Office in Waynesborough,” The Georgia Constitutionalist, July 11, 1834 (Augusta, Ga.), listing “Polly Millen,” currently available courtesy Digital Library of Georgia, Georgia Historic Newspapers (accessed 3/21/2023).

[16] A discussion of French families in Georgia currently available courtesy the New Georgia Encyclopedia (accessed 3/21/2023).

[20] Claim of John Rousby Plater, St. Mary’s County, Case #310, Case Files Ca. 1814-28, 3.5 ft. entry 190, Record Group 76, National Archives, College Park. Transcription (accessed 3/21/2023).

[21] (Census of refugee households settled at the North West Arm of Halifax harbor November 2, 1815) . The first record shows Lewis Munroe accompanied by one woman and five children. A second record from 1816 shows the Munroe family still there, but with two women and five children (accessed 3/21/2023).

Information with details about the two other formerly enslaved workers taken from Plater, including further information about their trip to Nova Scotia:

“War of 1812 Refugee, St. Mary's County, Maryland, 1814. Biography: Benjamin Seale.” (accessed 3/21/2023).

“War of 1812 Refugee, St. Mary's County, Maryland, 1814. Biography: Stephen Coursey.” (accessed 3/21/2023).

[33] “Slaveholding in Antebellum Augusta and Richmond County, Georgia” (accessed 3/21/2023).

[37] General census statistics and the estimate of 4,000 African Americans joining the Gold Rush (accessed July 26, 2020).

[38] At times, postal carriers stopped at Charleston and Savannah on the way to Panama. (accessed 3/21/2023).

Mileage and average travel-time from New York to San Francisco via Nicaragua was reported in Journal of the Society of Arts, and of the Institutions in Union, Volume 5, January 23, 1857 (London: George Bell 1857), pg. 143 (accessed 3/21/2023).

Rate for a Butterfield stagecoach trip as $200 (accessed 3/21/2023).

There are plenty of accounts to be found about Gold Rush travel routes; here’s one currently online (accessed 3/21/2023).

[39] Also incidentally, the steamer for which the ticket was issued—the SS America—is the ship that writer Mark Twain took from San Francisco on his way to New York, just prior to publishing his “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” see currently http://maritimeheritage.org/vips/marktwain.html (accessed 3/21/2023).

SS America information currently online (accessed 3/21/2023).

[41] For a bit of history of the Panama Railroad currently online (accessed 3/21/2023).

[46] Horse-breaking versus training (accessed 3/21/2023).

[47] Stereo photograph No. 1159 by Carleton Watkins (accessed 3/15/2023).

[48] A well-sourced history of the name-origin of Yosemite (Daniel E. Anderson, Origin of the Word Yosemite) (accessed 3/21/2023).

[52] Lemuel Albert Holmes born Dec. 29, 1824 in Pomfret, Connecticut, died Sep. 8, 1862 in Stockton, California. See The Descendants of George Holmes of Roxbury: 1594-1908 by George Arthur Gray (Press of D. Clapp & son, 1908) p.182 (accessed 3/21/2023).

[58] Quartz Gulch was by Mariposa Creek, just south of Mariposa, and featured the first steam-powered quartz-mill brought in by James Duff in 1849 (Mariposa Gazette, January 17, 1873, pg. 2, col. 2). The ruins of the mill were mentioned in connection with the place-name “Quartz Gulch” (Chamberlain 1936) , introduction, pg. x. The location is shown as “Fremont’s first Mill” in “Quartz Mill Gulch” on the southern perimeter of Mariposa, in an 1861 map: “Las Mariposas Estate Mariposas County California” (1861, Pub. New York, Sarony, Major & Knapp); David Rumsey Historical Map Collection (accessed 3/21/2023).

[63] Moses Rodgers was a successful mining engineer in Gold Rush California. He built a home for his family in 1890 in Stockton, California, which is now on the National Register of Historic Places. Information (accessed 3/21/2023).

[64] Two current online resources for California’s secession movement: http://parks.ca.gov/?page_id=26775; https://militarymuseum.org/HistoryCW.html (accessed 3/21/2023).

[66] The Keechi Creek demographic data come from “A History of Leon County” Published by the Leon County News, May 28 1936, contributed to Genealogy Trails by Friends For Free Genealogy. (accessed 3/21/2023).

[69] “Old Records Show Slavery in State,” Madera Tribune, Volume XXV, Number 108, September 4, 1916 (accessed 3/21/2023).

[74] Information on the Washington Mine is from: “California Journal of Mines and Geology,” Vol 53, Nos. 1 & 2 (State of California Department of Natural Resources, Division of Mines, Ferry Building, San Francisco, July 25, 1957), p. 178 (accessed July 26, 2020).


[75] A brief discussion on Reconstruction with historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr. can currently be found here (Courtesy National Public Radio, Fresh Air, interview with Terry Gross, April 3, 2019, 2:19 PM ET,) (accessed 3/21/2023).

[77] Black homesteaders (Washington Post July 5, 2018) (accessed 3/21/2023).

[103] Mariposa Mail, July 3, 1868, pg. 2, col. 4. Regarding the Mariposa Mail, according to a transcribed obituary from the Mariposa Gazette, Nov. 24, 1888: “[Angevine Reynolds was] elected County Clerk … While still in the Clerk’s office he established the Mariposa Mail in 1868 and continued to publish it till 1871. In 1874, he bought the Mariposa Gazette, which he has owned and, either separately or in partnership, published ever since.” (accessed 11/7/23).

[114] Photographic evidence shows the presence of a wheeled vehicle in Yosemite Valley as early as 1867 (see Carleton Watkins, The Sentinel, 3270 Feet. Hutching's Hotel, Yosemite Valley, Mariposa Co., 1867, mammoth-plate albumen print, 20 1/2 by 15 3/4 in.). Currently online at: http://carletonwatkins.org/Gallery/igallery_pages.php?page_id=11&m=d and http://sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2007/photographs-n08349/lot.116.html (accessed 3/21/2023).

[116] Merced County Sun, June 10, 1871 (accessed 7/18/2022)

[142] “History of the family of Joseph John and Carolina Shelly 1834-1915” (written by an unnamed child of Joseph Shelly’s son, William). Posted 26 Mar 2019 by Shelly family of Inyo County, California at (copy in author’s files) (accessed July 29, 2020). Joseph Shelly died Dec. 15, 1915, in Bishop, California.

[149] Garfield’s visit (when he was still a member of Congress) is documented in his own diary entries for May 12 – 21, 1875 (accessed 3/21/2023).

[178] Grant’s reported reference to “Tuolumne” may provide evidence to support the story that Grant had spent time in the vicinity of the Tuolumne and Stanislaus rivers at Knight’s Ferry, where in 1852 and 1854 he is said to have visited his wife’s brothers (the Dent family). See (Brotherton 1982) p.91; see also “Knight’s Ferry Bridge” (HAER CA-314): (p. 6, footnote 16) accessed 3/19/2022.

[207] For more on the Kimball company (accessed 3/21/2023).

[210] Records of Monroe family land acquisitions:

http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/mariposa/land/mariposa.txt Date 1880/09/01; Name Lewis A. Monroe. http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/mariposa/land/mariposa.txt Date 1884/05/15; Name Lewis A. Monroe. http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/mariposa/land/mariposa.txt Date 1886/01/09 Name George F. Monroe.

[214] Report of the Director of the Mint Upon the Production of the Precious Metals in the United States (United States. Bureau of the Mint, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1883 (accessed 3/21/2023).

[219] The Homestead Act (1862) (accessed 3/21/2023).

[229] “Freedom’s Fortress” accessed January 2, 2022.

[236] Biographical information about Grove can be found in: Civil War veterans buried in George C. Yount Pioneer Cemetery in Yountville (accessed 3/21/2023).

[249] Data on the Helping Hand Home and Mission (accessed 3/21/2023).

[252-253] Mount Hope Cemetery Burial Registry

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