by traveling the Straits of Magellan, a sea passage around the tip of South America, but this too was considered a dangerous trip, because the narrowness of the passage at certain points made it difficult to navigate. The trip could take up to eight months and onboard conditions were horrid. Food spoiled quickly with the heat of the equator, and worms and rodents got into whatever supplies they had.
A shorter trip took passengers to Panama where they embarked on canoes to navigate the Chagres River. From there things were more difficult as the remainder of the passage to the Pacific meant a fifty-mile hike through the Panamanian jungle where some fell prey to cholera, malaria, and yellow fever. Those who survived this leg of the journey often arrived in Panama City to find a shortage of ships, which meant that they would have to wait for sometimes weeks to obtain passage on a northbound ship to California.
There was also an influx of immigrants into California from China at this time. The Chinese population of California was three (two men and a woman), but by 1852 an article in the Daily Alta California estimated the Chinese population to be at around 12,000. The Chinese weren’t welcomed in a land where the gold fields weren’t producing the riches expected and where the industrious Chinese were seen as a threat.
For more on the journey westward, there are many great websites, some with narratives by those who made the trek. Here are a few I found:
- Oregon Trail Diaries
- 1852 Oregon Trail Emigrants
- Gold Rush Chronology 1852-54
- Gold Rush Links
- Chinese in California
- California Gold Rush (Sacramento Bee website)
1852 also marked the publication of Harriet Beecher Stoweâ€™s famous book, Uncle Tomâ€™s Cabin. The book was an anti-slavery statement which she later revealed was largely based on the memoirs of Rev. Josiah Henson.Â Originally produced in serial format, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a sensation and by 1857 had sold half a million copies in the United States–breaking book sales records for that time and stirring anti-slavery sentiment.
Image: The Oregon Trail in South Pass, 1852. From the Library of Congress Photo Collection at Ancestry. Click on the image to enlarge it.