2.2.2: The Impact of the Constitution of 1849 on African Americans

Racism in post-1849 California

How were African Americans treated during this time? One might think that California would not have the racism of other states. After all, the first Spaniards to settle in Los Angeles in 1769 had mixed Native American and Spanish heritage (Moss 222). The 1849 Convention banned slavery (Grodin et al. 12). Moreover, as part of the Compromise of 1850, California entered the Union as a free state. It might follow that African Americans would enjoy economic opportunities and liberties promised “to all men” by the Declaration of Rights in the 1849 California Constitution. Sadly, this was not the case.

First, the Convention of 1849 is better characterized as anti-slavery and anti-African American. Miners were worried that African Americans brought here by their owners either as enslaved people or as contract labor would be used to work gold claims and thereby push out white miners. Thus, the Convention debated a motion to ban all African American immigration but thought better of it because this might impede joining the Union (Grodin et al.12).

Second, part of the Compromise of 1850 that brought California into the Union included the Fugitive Slave Act. States were obligated to find and enslave African Americans who escaped from southern states. The California government even passed its own Fugitive Slave Act in 1852. The first governor, Peter Burnett, preferred that all Black people be removed from California (Wee). Nevertheless, enslaved people sued for their freedom in California courts. One of the most famous cases was that of Biddy Mason, brought to California by Mormon settlers. When they wanted to return to Texas, Mason fled and then persuaded a state court to free her in 1856. She went on to work as a midwife in Los Angeles, and as she invested in real estate, she became quite wealthy. Mason helped establish the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles in 1872 (“Bridget ‘Biddy’ Mason”).

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Portrait of Biddy Mason (CC BY-SA 4.0; Levy Clancy via Wikimedia)

Third, African Americans did not have the same rights as whites. Suffrage was reserved for white men. Like Native Americans and Chinese Americans, they could not testify in court if the case involved white defendants or plaintiffs. Four “Conventions of Colored Citizens” (1855, 1856, 1857, and 1865) met to consider African American rights and petitioned the state government to overturn discriminatory laws. In 1863, with Republicans controlling the state government, African Americans won the right to testify.

However, when Democrats were in control of the statehouse and the Courts, African American rights languished. The Sacramento legislature rejected the Fourteenth Amendment (ratified in 1868 nationally) and the Fifteenth Amendment (1870). State courts ruled that school segregation was constitutional (Ward v. Flood, 1874), as well as segregated public accommodations such as streetcars. No laws protected African Americans from employment and housing discrimination. In short, for the relatively small population of African Americans in California (4,000 in 1860), the Constitution of 1849 was a set of rights for white men, with only some piecemeal civil rights improvements during this period.