welcome to this online lesson on the
goldrush lawlessness and vigilantes our
aims are to know how settlers attempted
to keep law and order to explain how
circumstances of migrants caused
problems with law and order and to
evaluate the effectiveness of attempts
to control law and order I do now tasks
in this poster an advert is an
advertisement for a ship carrying gold
prospectus to California why might
people search if the gold cause law and
order problems take some time to give
that some thought and pause the video
now so what do we think well one of the
problems of gold prospectors is the fact
that they're finding gold
should you be one of the lucky few who
actually finds gold that makes you a
target for thieves if you're one of the
unlucky many who doesn't find gold
you're gonna have to support yourself in
some way not only that most of the gold
prospectors were men and they lived in
male-only communities this could lead to
drinking gambling violence and even
problems with prostitution as some women
traveled they're looking for some work
of their own well we're going to
consider some key terms in a moment and
I'll just warn you there are quite a few
this time because there are lots of
specialist terms that relate to the idea
of the Gold Rush and we're gonna have to
get through those before we could
proceed any further so today in cloaks
compendium of annoying old-fashioned
words you need to know is mass migration
when lots of people move where they live
mass settlement when lots of people come
to live in a particular area staking a
claim when saw makes a legal claim over
a piece of land often to dig for gold on
it Road agents gangs of robbers who
stole from travelers a US Marshal this
is like a police officer in charge of a
whole area he worked for the federal
government
this means that he works for a federal
government rather than the state
government because often they were used
in areas where there was no actual state
yet just a territory sheriff an elected
law official for an area in charge of
making arrests and taking people to jail
Posse a group of people called by a
marshal or sheriff to help track down a
criminal vigilantes people who punish
lawbreakers themselves rather than wait
for the proper authorities and lynching
the execution of someone usually by
hanging but without using the official
authorities for example having a proper
trial ok quite a few key terms to get
through then but please record them and
their meanings and which key terms might
be related for example how am i lynching
and vigilantes be related take some time
to give that some thought and pause the
video while you complete the tasks pause
now all right what do we come up with
them well let's do some links mass
migration actually leads to mass
settlement and this often in in in turn
leads to staking of a claim however when
a road agent finds someone and and takes
all their gold or takes other things off
them the person will probably then make
a complaint to either the US Marshal or
a sheriff who will then raise a posse to
go and track them down however if there
is no US Marshal or a sheriff in the
area they're likely to resort to
vigilante justice instead and they often
the result of that was a lynching so
there's lots of links to be had here and
they do all intertwine quite nicely but
let's find out a little bit more about
the origins of the gold rush this is the
gold rush of 18-49 why I put that symbol
up there well the San Francisco American
football team is called the San
Francisco 49ers and that's named after
the gold rush generation San Francisco
is a settlement first started to grow in
an appreciable way as a result of the
gold rush of 18-49
so in 1846 the population of the West
Coast state of California which by the
way is pretty massive was 8,000 people
that's only a little bit bigger than a
small market town in England today by
1850 it had grown to a hundred and
twenty thousand but that's still pretty
sparse then by 1855 it was three hundred
thousand again this would have left
entire areas with absolutely nobody in
it but it did mean that certain areas of
California were now becoming very
heavily populated and they were doing so
at a very fast rate so why it was all
about the discovery of gold
that's right prospectives were going
there to pan for gold mined for gold and
just fine gold any way they could
so in 18-49 gold was discovered in
California strictly speaking it was
actually found at 1848
but it took about a year for that news
to get back and for people to start
making their way out there people from
the east desperate to get rich quick
began flooding into California and this
became known as the gold rush your task
said firstly how much did California's
population increased by describe why the
population of California increased so
quickly then look back at your key words
why is the gold rush an example of mass
migration and then as an extension what
potential problems might this have
caused pause the video now while you
complete those tasks okay well let's do
the maths here so if California's
population was 8,000 and then by 1850
four years later it had increased
120,000 how might you work that out
well the way I do it is I'd take 8,000
off of 120,000 and what would that leave
you a hundred and twelve thousand so
there's been an increase of one hundred
and twelve thousand between 1846 and
1850 but then if we look there's been a
further increase of 180,000 between 1850
and 1855 so in total what has been the
increase 392,000 that's a heck of a
growth in population so why did this
population grow so quickly well really
this was all about people seeking a
get-rich-quick scheme they were hoping
to find some of that gold for themselves
and then be able to make their fortune
but is this an example of mass migration
well yes it absolutely is although
California was still going to be very
sparsely populated in some areas other
areas would become incredibly crowded
very quickly especially those areas
where there was likely to be found gold
and so this is mass migration because is
this is a mass event of people moving to
live in a certain area at a certain time
rather than a gradual growth so what
potential problems might this have
caused well there's a couple things here
firstly the rapid growth of of migration
in this area meant that law enforcement
agencies simply couldn't keep up
California was not a state either so it
was only a territory therefore it only
had the very basic coverage of law
enforcement and not only that despite
the fact that you had a real crowding in
certain areas California was still
incredibly sparsely populated
which means that each of those official
law enforcement agencies would have an
incredibly large geographical area to
try and control and so for that reason
the gold prospectors tried to come up
with a collet code of conduct of their
own it sometimes worked it often didn't
so we're going to consider the life of
the gold prospector now what would be
helpful is if you make a table like the
one on the screen with lifestyle and
rights on one side and problems on the
other I just put this at the bottom of
the screen so I can put the information
on the on the screen for you to see more
easily however you should give yourself
plenty of space to write several bullet
points under each one now if you have a
copy of the picture you can stick that
in the middle and then place the
headings either side if not just make
the table then add the examples below
under the correct heading and there's an
extension given there were so many
serious problems explain why so many
people still became prospectors
here are the problems prospectus
followed a California law about staking
a claim so that everyone had a fair
share of land to find golden claim
jumpers stole claims from other miners
if it looked promising salting a claim
on the other hand was where gold flakes
would be sprinkled onto otherwise
worthless land which of them would be
sold to an experienced prospectors who
thought they were on to a good thing
Road agents robbed miners are their gold
even when they did find it prostitutes
and gambling were common in
male-dominated mining camps drunken
drunken fights could have rut between
men fighting over the few women in town
and over the few decent prospects for
gold to prospectors were usually armed
with guns to protect themselves that was
a bit of a recipe for trouble
prospectors came from all over the
country and indeed over all over the
world cultural and racial differences
were common for example there was quite
a lot of Chinese immigration to the west
coast of America if you think about the
geography of this is sort of makes sense
if they cross the Pacific Ocean that's
the first part of America that they had
find however there was a lot of racism
between European ancestry settle to
settlers and those from from China
racial and cultural differences between
prospectors could result therefore in
fights so go through those different
problems and list them under lifestyle
rights and problems pause the video
while you complete that task
okay let's see what things you've come
up with respect this follow the
California law about staking a claim is
part of their lifestyle and rights claim
jumpers though is a problem salting a
claim is also a problem Road agents
robbing people that's another problem
prostitutes in gambling well much as
they were problems they were also part
of the lifestyle of the gold
perspectives but drunken fights erupting
is definitely a problem respect is being
armed with guns to protect themselves as
part is part of their lifestyle and
perspectives coming from all of the over
the world is also part of their
lifestyle but the racial and cultural
difference is causing problems well that
is very much on the problems side of
things alright so now we've got a
summary of the lifestyle of the gold
prospectors and the problems that they
encountered regularly so let's consider
what was done about this keeping law and
order federal power votes versus local
people so the very federal government
based on the East Coast only had a very
limited grasp over the the law and order
of places like California during the
gold rush so your tasks then I've
included two links one has got some
details about the life of the gold
perspectives and why they moved west and
another has some more generalized
details about the way that law and order
was done in territories some of this
specifically linked to the gold miners
but actually all of the information is
useful what you'll need to make notes of
on is official authorities these are
federal attempts to keep law and order
we're talking the likes of sheriff's and
US Marshals here in particular and then
the use of vigilante justice what was
this how was it that local people were
trying to keep law and order and why
were they turning to vigilantes rather
than the official authorities then once
you've got a sufficient research and
you've done enough reading you can
answer the following question which was
more effective in keeping law and order
in the gold rush and the mining
communities was it the federal
authorities or is it local people
whatever your answer use point example
explain to explain your answer with
examples and then finally as a challenge
balance your answer
explain how the other side also kept law
and order but we're not as effective as
your choice this is a skill known as
evaluation pause the video now
you can move on when you're ready okay
given the parts two and three were very
much based upon your opinion so I'm not
gonna give any feedback on those just
for now but hopefully we've recognized
some of the problems that the official
authorities had sheriff's were often
corrupt for one thing and they relied on
people voting the Minister as elected
law officials in order to take on their
role not only that the US Marshals who
might be less open to corruption often
had to cover incredibly vast distances
so crimes were slow to be reported slow
to be investigated and even slower for
anything to be done about it
and by that point usually it was all too
late here's a final extension then
explain how far you agree with this
system that this system of the law and
order supports this rather mythical idea
of the Wild West give that some thought
note down a few answers for it and then
we can move on so pause the video now
and press play when you want you're
ready to move on to the next task okay
let's move on I'm not going to
demonstrate to you the sort of flow
chart which shows how things can go
wrong in these settlements first of all
there's the issue of mass migration and
this is the gold rush itself what that
leads to is the following the mass
migration of the gold rush contributed
to new crimes like claim-jumping social
unrest as most Prospectus failed and
unemployment it also contributed to more
crimes theft assault murder and a
disorderly lifestyle including mostly
male proper communities alcohol and
prostitution and also there was a
problem of a new ethnic mix and the
racism that Chinese migrants faced this
was made worse though by the slow
response by the US government
poor funding of law and order by the
government the geography of the area
where huge areas for for law officers
had to be covered and corruption and
bribing of some law officers making them
completely ineffective this was also
made worse by the racist attitudes held
by the the people who live there and
racist attitudes that were led to racist
laws and law enforcement so the Chinese
really did a Lata have a tough time
and as a result this resulted in
community laws and law enforcement by
vigilance committees as people felt let
down by the official processes now what
would be a good idea here would be to
create your own version of a diagram
which you can then use because you're
going to be writing a narrative account
based upon this information so first of
all make your own version of this
diagram now so pause the video all right
let's see how you might plan out one of
these answers I'm going to do one
example for you so let's bear in mind
the question first of all right and
narrative account analyzing how the mass
migration the goldrush led to the use of
vigilantes ate marks now one thing I
should point out here is it is unlikely
that if the question would be phrased
exactly like this in the exam they're
more likely to give you a general theme
but with quite a narrow date range so
yeah I could have put it on here between
18-49 and 1855 or something like that
but I didn't think that was really
helpful for this particular task now I
make no apology for doing lots of
narrative account questions in these
videos these are the ones that
consistently my students have struggled
most with and the only reason for it is
probably because there's been a lack of
practice and a lot of very simple
misunderstandings with it
these are easy marks if you know how to
get them for them or for your knowledge
for them or for your explanation but you
must follow a few simple rules in order
to get the marks so to help you out with
it I'm going to give you some stimulus
material same as they were doing the
exam you may use the following
claim-jumping corruption but you must
also use information of your own
remember that you may use those examples
and it makes sense too because they will
be relevant but you will not have to you
can still get full marks just on your
own knowledge so let's consider how you
can get a oh one and a oh two marks like
this I've included the lower marks as
well so you can have a look at that but
I'm going to concentrate on level three
six to eight marks you will need a clear
narrative with events in a clear clock
chronological order so if you have the
effects after the causes in your answer
that simply won't work so keep them in
chronological order the links between
events will need to be fully explained
and analyzed that is also a o2
also the outcome of events explained and
backed up that's also a IOT and it
usually means that there's a brief
conclusion at the end of the answer but
most of all you would need accurate and
relevant knowledge used throughout and
this should show good understanding and
you cannot get level 3 without including
information of your own so you'll be
stuck down towards five marks if all you
do is explain really well claim-jumping
and corruption so bearing that in mind
let's have a look at how you might
construct your answer using the diagram
that you created earlier so here's our
continuum again mass migration of the
low goldrush contributed to new crimes
like claim-jumping which was made worse
by geography because of the huge areas
for law officers to travel resulting in
community laws and law enforcement by
vigilance committees you could almost
create your own version of this just by
drawing a pencil line between different
areas of your diagram you're very nearly
constructing a sentence by doing that
but here's how it might look in an exam
style full example paragraph the mass
migration of the gold rush of 18-49
contributed to the occurrence of new
crimes in California such as plane
jumping we're after a legal claim to
prospect a minute and in an area had
been made another perspective moved in
to find gold this would often lead to
further disorder this was made worse by
the geography of California what what
fuelly US Marshals and Sheriff's they
were often heard about crimes too late
to act on them because of the distances
that needed to be covered to report
crimes and respond to them this resulted
in local people taking the law into
their own hands by setting up vigilance
committees which could more quickly
respond to crimes even if their
judgments were not backed by the US
government so you can see what I've done
here is I've taken the basic thread of
the diagram at the top and I've fleshed
it out with proper full sentences and
more of my own knowledge if you can
create a couple of paragraphs like this
and a substantiating conclusion that
should be enough to secure you the full
eight marks so if you want to study this
example in a litte bit more detail you
can pause the video here or you can
continue playing and we'll have a go at
creating our answer let's have a go at
the answer then remember I've included
the grade descriptors are
on the board as well and remember the
stimulus material for an eight-mile
cancer you should be spending anywhere
between about twelve and fifteen minutes
on this unless you're entitled to extra
time in the exam but only you will know
that so don't spend too long on it and
you may begin your answer now so pause
the video and press play when your
answer is complete good luck
all right well we'll have a look at a
full example answer now and I will have
color-coded it so you can see the
different stages of my answer here's our
first paragraph this is one we looked at
earlier so I won't read it to you again
but what you'll notice is I've picked
out one thing which basically represents
the point that I'm making the green bit
which is my demonstrative example the
blue which is more of my further
explanation and more own knowledge and
then the purple bit which is my real
link back to the analysis of the answer
notice - I've picked out some of my
linking sentences or linking phrases
rather in bold and in capitals obviously
that's not the correct way to write it
but it just helps pick it out so here
you can see what I've done let's look at
the second paragraph though which you've
not yet seen also the mass migration of
the goldrush contributed to more crimes
particularly theft assault and murder
this was made worse by corruption of law
and some law officials these officials
would take bribes from the rich by and
intimidating people associated with the
gold rush and therefore people
complaining of having suffered from the
effects of crime would get no help this
resulted in vigilante justice where
people couldn't trust federal law
officials to provide them with justice
they were more like likely to take the
law into their own hands by lynching
accused criminals for example now my
conclusion overall mass migration
resulted in an increase in vigilante
justice because the lifestyle of many
people in the gold rush led to a huge
increase in crime but California was too
large sparsely populated and remote for
federal law enforcement to work as it
had in other areas because there was a
lack of federal justice people relied on
vigilante justice instead okay so
compare that answer to the one that
you've just produced and estimate
yourself a grade if you want to check
the great boundaries again you can just
go and scan the video back if
you seconds to have a look at the
marking scheme once you're happy that
you've improved your answer and you've
given it a mark you can consider this
lesson over so thanks for watching I
hope that's been helpful and if it has
please like the video and subscribe to
the channel I'll speak to you again soon
until then good luck and I hope you find
some gold bye