Visual Telling
Historical Narrative
The famous Gold Rush in California actually begins with a single event. Before the Gold Rush, America has just acquired California between the war with Mexico, and California hadn’t been an official territory or state. It seems that Americans got an extra bonus on this victory. The total amount of gold extracted is over 750,000 pounds, which worths 2 billion dollars.
Behind the illusion of prosperity is the primitive living condition and chaos. Gold miners first used panning to discover gold. The motion of water helps materials to enter the pan, and miners moved the pan in circular motion to allow the gold precipitate at the very bottom of the pan because it is heavier than most of the materials. At last, miners looked for gold in the gravels. That was all they do in the first few weeks everyday for 10–12 hours, no matter day or night. Although mechanization was built later, people still weren’t close to fortune because of the fierce competition. Soon the gold that can be found at the surface has been all excavated out, and large companies built up equipment replacing the manual labor. Crimes happened everyday. People were all armed. Robbery of others’ property and shooting someone in the middle of the quarrel was very common. There were also street fights on the main street because after working all day and ingested in liquor, the miners are very agitated, releasing their frustration and tremens on other people.
The Gold Rush helped to accelerate the development of finance and banking. Some people seek the chance of providing miners financial services. After discovering gold, miners would go to exchange shops for cash in order to pay for their living expenses or send the cash home to his family. Local merchants provided services like storage of gold and cash and make loans, and they earned profit by charging them interests and deposit money. When their business exceeds the previous mercantile activities that they have been providing services for, they would form a formal financial company or a bank.
After America’s war with Mexico, California joins America as a free state, which means slaves were banned in this state except for the people who are punished by crimes. However, the truth was that slaves still don’t have freedom nor right in this place. Salves are brought from other states to California during the Gold Rush in California to perform a wide range of labors. They were porters, cookers, servants, and miners. Wealth and success were accumulated by the free labor of slaves.
The increase population fastened the pace of development of boomtowns, which are the embryonic form of early cities, and also led to rapid economic growth. Infrastructure was constructed at the service of the new population. Railways were built, breaking the geographical isolation of California. Transportation increase the speed of flow of both people and products. Miners generate consumptions, which provides opportunities for manufacturing and service section to grow. There are shops built along main road of towns, such as saloons, grocery shops, gambling houses, and hotels. Gold miners spend what they earned during the day in those places. Only a small proportion of the gold miners get rich, and ironically most businessmen who open shops or selling products that meets miners’ needs are richer than them.
Visual Rhetoric
The daguerreotype photo technique was invented in the 1830s. When a copper plate coated with silver exposed to the camera light and use mercury vapor and salt to fix it, the photo can be permanent. The image of the daguerreotype is sharp, so great detail can be observed even though it was shot a long time ago.
The photo portrays early afternoon or late morning because the shadow of people on the ground is short. There are not many people are on the street because the miners are probably still working. Midnight is usually the most bustling hour. People on the street might be businessmen or craftsmen because the men standing are wearing shirts and pants that tie the shirts, which look more leisurely formal. Two people sitting on the ground working are the laborers hired by the businessmen. A bakery shop, a hotel, a general shop, a saloon, and a “Legal Coin Exchange for Dust” shop are in the photo.
The photographer standing on one side of the main road took a picture of the street scene. He wants to show the leisure moment of the boomtown, so people and shops on the road are the main objects, placing them in the middle of the photo. The photo can be divided into half in two ways. First is the ground because it takes up more than 1/3 of the width. The second is in right and left because a billboard and a man are on the same line in the middle of the photo. The focus is on the right side of the photo because it is where people are mostly gathered there and shops can be seen clearly. The photo catches people’s eye in the middle of the photo and then the focus shifts to right. The road extends from right to left, shops become smaller, and there is a national flag at the end of the road, showing the extension of the prosperity of the street.
The photo expresses a sense of loneliness, and the untruthfulness and the town can be easily faded. Because the composition of businesses and nature only do not match. There is only one line of shops in the photo and no other buildings are around it. What else in the photo is just desolate nature. The towns were quickly set up in a short time because of the sudden influx of miners. However, when there are no miners, the shops have no visitors and the town would be empty.
This is also a daguerreotype photo. It is a boy with his gold mining toys. A high-foot table in the middle stands in the middle of the photo. The boy leans on it and his toys are placed in the lower right corner. The toys are not normal toys like toy cars that a boy would play normally. It is a shovel and a hoe. The exquisite carpet with pattern shows that the boy comes from a rich family. He is wearing a hat, a shirt, a belt, and boots. His style mimics the outfit of gold miners. His clothes are very clean and new, so he is not child labor.
He doesn’t seem very happy because he leans on the table with his head on his arm. His hands are all made into fists. His facial expression shows that he might be annoyed by this photo or unhappy at this time. He has a frown and pouts. Maybe because no one accompanies him. He is left home with his toys and his parent are busy with their businesses. Another possibility is that his parents bought him the toy, but he didn’t really like it. The second possibility is very plausible because the toys are placed randomly in two directions. If he likes these toys, they should be put more neatly.
The lighting is not very light. The photo is shot in the room, so it depends on artificial lighting. The light comes from the camera and is in front of the boy. The boy’s face catches the audience’s intention the most because it is the lightest part of the photo. The audience sees his head in the first eye even though he is not in the middle of the photo. The photo emphasized the influence of the Gold Rush in California on children. Adults put all their focus on the business but have no time to care for their children. They are also forcing their child to take the gold mining industries as a priority.
Bibliography
History.com Editors, “California Gold Rush,” History.com (A&E Television Networks, April 6, 2010), https://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/gold-rush-of-1849.
Susan Anderson, “California, a ‘Free State’ Sanctioned Slavery,” California Historical Society, April 3, 2020, https://californiahistoricalsociety.org/blog/california-a-free-state-sanctioned-slavery/.
“From Hard Money to Branch Banking: California Banking in the Gold-Rush Economy.” A Golden State. Accessed June 12, 2021. https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft758007r3&chunk.id=d0e9385&toc.id=&brand=ucpress.