Mormons, Gold Rush, Diverse Population

 Mormons – religious group that settled in the Mexican Cession  Trouble with Neighbors  Founded by Joseph Smith  Their beliefs angered many non-Mormons and they were forced out of New York into Illinois  In Illinois, Smith was killed by a mob and Brigham Young took over

 Difficult Journey  For their safety, the Mormons decided to move to Utah  In 1847, they settled by the Great Salt Lake  Life in the Desert  Young thought Utah was the promised land for Mormons  They used irrigation systems to survive  Mormons took the Native American land without paying for it  In 1850, Brigham Young became governor of Utah

 Sutter’s Mill  John Sutter owned a saw mill in California  While his crew was digging, they discovered gold  News spread and thousands of Americans caught “gold fever”  Forty-niners – more than 80,000 people made the journey to California in 1849.

 Working in the Gold Fields  Easy to find gold near the surface at first  Later on, miners went “panning for gold” ▪ Loading sand and gravel from the river in a washing pan and gently swirling it  Few miners actually struck it rich  Women also came out to California to mine and run boardinghouses

 A New State  San Francisco grew into a large city  Some of the men turned to crime when they couldn’t find gold  Vigilantes – self-appointed law enforcers ▪ Sometimes, people accused of crimes were lynched – hanged without a trial  Because of the lawlessness, California applied to become a state in 1849 which caused issues in the Senate over slavery

 Mexican Americans and Indians  Many Mexican Americans lost lands their families had owned for generations  Many Native Americans lost land or died of starvation, disease, and murder  Chinese Americans  Faced prejudice  Many worked on the transcontinental railroad  African Americans  Had the richest African American population  But many still faced discrimination