Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

by Bruce Baker

Whether we’re discussing Gold Rushes of Georgia, California, or Alaska, the reality is that for every person who struck it rich there are a hundred or more who didn’t. Mark Twain was one such person. He traveled west to California, but the only real wealth he brought back several years later were the rich memories of his many adventures, some of which found their way into his stories such as “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” among others. He encapsulated his experience with gold mining in his famous quote: “When everybody is digging for gold, it’s good to be in the picks and shovels business.”

I’d like to tell you the story of an enslaved couple named Dan and Lucinda Riley; theirs is a story much like Twain’s in that the wealth they eventually obtained wasn’t exactly what they were seeking. Valdosta State History Professor David Williams chronicled their lives in a 1991 article in the Georgia Historical Quarterly, as well as in his 1993 book entitled The Georgia Gold Rush: Twenty-niners, Cherokees, and Gold Fever. As I mentioned in last month’s article, Gold Fever was a significant factor in the displacement of the Cherokee people in the late 1830s. When these confiscated lands were sold via lottery, a fair number of people were buying parcels in hopes of finding gold. None of these people were African Americans, however, as 99% of Black people in Georgia were enslaved, and even for the 1% known as “Free People of Color,” they were likewise ineligible to even enter the lottery.

There are, however, exceptions to every rule, and the Rileys would prove to be one of them. Enslaved under a man named Scudder, Dan and Lucinda Riley worked the fields during the growing season but would pan for gold in the creeks on the property during the winter months. Scudder knew there was gold on his property, and in his eagerness to collect it, he was one of a handful of owners that allowed his slaves to keep a small portion of the gold they found. Scudder said everything found during the day belonged to him outright, but if a slave chose to work through the night, whatever they found was theirs to keep, with the caveat that they were required to sell it back to him. Panning for gold via torchlight was challenging to say the least, but if you could manage it, then it was possible to find enough gold to purchase your freedom, and Dan and Lucinda Riley did exactly that.

After becoming free, the Riley’s chose to stay and work as sharecroppers near where the Franklin Mine was located, and continuing to supplement their income by panning for gold. In 1849, tales emerged of a gold rush across the country in California that would dwarf the one that had been ongoing in Georgia for the last twenty years, and the Rileys were intrigued. At around the same time, one day Dan Riley found what he termed “coarse, ragged” gold in a stream. It hadn’t been smoothed and polished by the action of water, which Dan knew meant that the vein itself had to be very nearby upstream. It wasn’t long before he located the vein on a hillside overlooking the stream; he dug down a little and found the telltale quartz veins where Georgia gold typically resides. He took a panful of the dirt down to the creek, and as they saying goes, “his pan had color.”

In fact, his pan had a whole lot of color. He would sell it the next day for $70. He noticed then that some of Scudder’s slaves were working on the other side of the stream, and fearing they’d find it too, he carefully covered it back up and removed any trace of his work. The Riley’s then made the decision to take the money and head out West to California.