All Roads Lead to San Francisco: Black Californian Networks of Community and the Struggle for Equality, 1849-1877 By Eunsun Celeste Han B. A., Seoul National University, 2009 M. A., Brown University, 2010 Dissertation Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History at Brown University PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND MAY 2015 © Copyright 2015 by Eunsun Celeste Han This dissertation by Eunsun Celeste Han is accepted in its present form by the Department of History as satisfying the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date Michael Vorenberg, Advisor Recommended to the Graduate Council Date Françoise Hamlin, Reader Date Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Reader Approved by the Graduate Council Date Peter M. Weber, Dean of the Graduate School iii CURRICULUM VITAE Date of Birth: April 11, 1986, Junjoo, Jeollabuk-do, South Korea EDUCATION Ph.D., History, May, 2015 Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island M.A., History, May, 2010 Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island B.A., Western History, Feb., 2009 summa cum laude, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea QUALIFYING FIELDS Nineteenth-Century U. S. History African American History Colonial Latin American History PUBLICATIONS Eunsun Celeste Han, “Making a Black Pacific: Black Californians and Transpacific Community Networks in the Mid-Nineteenth Century,” under review at The Journal of African American History (2015). HONORS AND FELLOWSHIPS W. M. Keck Foundation Fellow at the Huntington, July-August, 2013 The Huntington Library, San Marino, California William G. McLoughlin Travel Fund, October, 2012 Brown University Department of History fund for research and conference travels William G. McLoughlin Travel Fund, November, 2011 Brown University Department of History fund for research and conference travels Brown University Teaching Fellowship, September, 2010 to May, 2012; September, 2014 to present. Brown University Graduate School Brown University Graduate Fellowship, September, 2009 to May, 2010; September, 2012 to iv May, 2014, Brown University Graduate School 2009 Fulbright Graduate Study Award, September 23, 2008 Korean-American Educational Commission (Fulbright Commission) - Declined Seoul National University Certificate of Scholarship Award, academic year of 2008 Awarded to top one person in the department for academic excellence Seoul National University Scholarships for Academic Excellence, 2005-2007 CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS The Black Pacific Rim: Black Californian Laborers, Merchants, and Ship Workers, and the Rise of Pacific Commerce. (October 18, 2014) The New England Historical Association 2014 Fall Conference. Franklin Pierce University, Rindge, New Hampshire. What the Civil War Stands For: The Diverging Ideologies of William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips, 1860-1865. (November 11, 2011) 2011 Legacy Series Conference: The Legacy of the Civil War: An Interdisciplinary Conference. Chestnut Hill College, History and Political Science Department. "After Five Years": The Political Identity of Ex-Slaves and Their Political Dream, 1860- 1865. (February 19, 2011) Fifth Annual New Perspectives on African American History and Culture Conference. University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, Triangle African American History Colloquium (TAAHC). Frederick Douglass and the Founding Fathers. (June, 2009) 2008 Western History Department B.A. Thesis Presentation, Seoul National University. TEACHING EXPERIENCE and PEDAGOGICAL TRAINING Teaching Assistant HIST1965, Social Change in the 1960s, Spring 2015 HIST1740, Civil War and Reconstruction, Fall 2014 HIST1740, Civil War and Reconstruction, Spring 2012 HIST1640, Clash of Empires in Latin America, Fall 2011 HIST1740, Civil War and Reconstruction, Spring 2011 HIST0510, American History to 1877, Fall 2010 Sheridan Teaching Seminar Certificate I, September, 2009 ~ May, 2011 The Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, Brown University. v PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The journey to finding the details of the lives, activities, and thoughts of nineteenth-century African American women and men in the San Francisco Bay Area has been a richly rewarding experience. I was amazed by the resilience, the creativity, and the fervor of black Californians as they agitated for equal rights in the face of pertinacious oppression. I was excited to discover their activities in the transpacific commerce, and was repeatedly impressed by their efforts to create a greater community consciousness by connecting distant communities to the black community in San Francisco. This same journey has also been a time during which I looked into myself, found meaning in the work that I did, and discovered the people and the values that were truly dear to me. This dissertation would not have been possible if it were not for the wonderful support of my advisor and committee chair, Michael Vorenberg. His thoughtful advice and attentive feedback have been invaluable in both formulating the key arguments and refining the details of this work. My sincere gratitude also goes to Françoise Hamlin and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, who as readers on my committee offered valuable comments and suggestions for further development of the manuscript. I am indebted to the wonderful archival staff at the North Baker Research Library of the California Historical Society, where I spent months calling up every collection that I thought might be remotely connected to my work. I thank them for the patience and the vi cheerfulness with which they helped me during my stay in San Francisco. I am also grateful for the assistance I received at the Center for Sacramento History, California State Archives, California State Library, San Francisco Public Library, the Bancroft Library at University of California at Berkeley, African American Museum and Library at Oakland, San Francisco African American Historical and Cultural Society, and the Huntington Library at San Marino. Brown University graduate scholarship and the fellowship from the Huntington Library have greatly aided in conducting research for this dissertation, for which I am truly thankful. Finally, to my Mom and Dad who have shown me amazingly steadfast and loving support through the most difficult times, words will not express the full depth of my heartfelt gratitude. And through it all, Papa God held me all the way. vii CONTENTS Introduction . 1 Chapter 1. Arriving . 24 Chapter 2. Networking the Pacific Coast . 80 Chapter 3. From the Pacific to the Atlantic . 142 Chapter 4. The Black Pacific . 186 Chapter 5. An Exclusive Community . 227 Bibliography . 273 viii INTRODUCTION Wherever there is a Colored man, there we claim to have a brother. 5 April 1862, The Pacific Appeal It was the opening declaration of the Pacific Appeal, the first grand-scale black Californian newspaper. The ambitious claim to global black Pacific representation was not a mere hyperbole. Coming from editor Philip A. Bell, who had worked on the board of editors for the Colored American of New York City from 1837 to 1842 alongside Reverend Samuel E. Cornish, the statement aligned the new Californian paper with nationally circulating black newspapers of the Atlantic coast dating from the Freedom's Journal. His experience with the Colored American had taught Bell the great potential a black newspaper could have in fostering interregional communication, engaging in discourses in national public spheres, and creating a black community consciousness that transcended geographic boundaries.1 Together with Peter Anderson, the proprietor of the 1 For a history of the Colored American of New York City, see Armistead S. Pride and Clint C. Wilson, II, A History of the Black Press (Washington, D. C.: Howard University Press, 1997), 29-31; Benjamin Fagan, "'Americans as They Really Are': The 'Colored American' and the Illustration of National Identity," American Periodicals, vol. 21, no. 2 (2011), 97-100; Frankie Hutton, The Early Black Press in America, 1827-1860 (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1993). For a discussion of Jürgen Habermas's concept of the public sphere and public culture in relation to circulated print, and the role of black newspapers in contributing and interacting discursively as members of that sphere, see Robert S. Levine, "Circulating the Nation: David Walker, the Missouri Compromise and the Rise of the Black Press," in Todd Vogel ed., The 1 Pacific Appeal, Bell made it clear that the Appeal aimed to be for African Americans of the Pacific coast what black papers such as the Freedom's Journal, the Colored American, and the North Star had been for the Atlantic. "A Weekly Paper is needed in California as much as in the Atlantic States," Bell and Anderson announced. And the Pacific Appeal will be precisely the "one which will be the exponent of our views and principles, our defense against calumny and oppression, and our representative among one of the recognized institutions of Civilization."2 The circulation and dissemination of black Californian newspapers played a crucial role in defining and fostering a black community that was not limited to geographical boundaries. Leaders of the black community in San Francisco actively sought to harness the power of newspaper circulation to create extended networks of communication connecting the black settlers up and down the Pacific coast, uniting the resources of multiple communities in the battle for racial equality. "Our object is to form a bond of unity among the Colored community of this country,