California’s African American Pioneers
Developed and Submitted by Guy Washington
National Park Service
1111 Jackson Street, Suite 700
Oakland, CA 94607
510-817-1390
January 3, 2005

Bibliography of Source Material on African Americans in California

#1 Merikaato, Kaarina. Unpublished Notes.

#2 Daniels, Douglas H. Afro-Americans, the San Francisco Bay Area and the Golden Gate National

Recreation Area. San Francisco: The National Park Service, 1980.

# 3 Lapp, Rudolph M. Blacks in Gold Rush California. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University

Press, 1977.

# 4 Katz, William Loren. The Black West: A Documentary and Pictorial History. Garden City, New

York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1971.

# 5 Douglass, Frederick. My Bondage and My Freedom. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1969.

# 6 Blockson, Charles L. The Underground Railroad. New York: Berkeley Books, 1987.

# 7 Conrich, J. Lloyd. The Mammy Pleasant legend. Unpublished manuscript held at the California

Historical Society.
.
# 8 Davis, Sam. “Mammy Pleasant Memoirs and Autobiography,” The Pandex of the Press. Vol.I,

January, 1902.

* 9 Fraser, Isabel. “Mammy Pleasant, the Woman.” The San Francisco Call, December 29, 1901.

#10 Bennett, Lerone Jr. “The Mystery of Mary Ellen Pleasant, Parts 1 and 2”. Ebony, April, May, 1979.

#11 Thurman, Sue Bailey. Pioneers of Negro Origin in California. San Francisco: Acme Publishing

Company, 1949, reprinted 1971.

#12 Cantor, George. Historic Black Landmarks: A Traveler’s Guide. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1991.

#13 Quarles, Benjamin. Black Abolitionists. New York: Oxford University Press, 1969.

#14 Goode, Kenneth G. California’s Black Pioneers: A Brief Historical Survey. Santa Barbara:

McNally and Loften, 1973.

#15 Beasley, Delilah L. The Negro Trail Blazers of California. Los Angeles: Times Mirror Publishing

and Binding House, 1919.

#16 Putney, Martha S. Black Sailors: Afro-American Merchant Seamen and Whalemen Prior to the

Civil War. New York: Greenwood Press, 1987.

#17 Williams, James. Life and Adventures of James Williams, a fugitive slave, with a full description

of the Underground Railroad, 4th edition. San Francisco: Women’s Union Book and Job Printing

Office, 1874.

#18 The Pacific Appeal, Vol. 1, 1862. San Francisco: R and E Research Associates, 1968.

#19 Lapp, Rudolph M. Afro-Americans in California. San Francisco: Boyd and Fraser Publishing

Company, 1987.

#20 Sherman, William Tecumseh. Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman. New York: Penguin Books,

2000.

#21 Craft, William. Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom: The Escape of William and Ellen Craft

from Slavery. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Press, 1999.

#22 Berwanger, Leugene H. The Frontier Against Slavery: Western Anti-Negro Prejudice and the

Slavery Extension Controversy. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1967.

#23 Cosad, David. Journal of a Trip to California by the Overland Route and Life in the Gold

Diggings During 1849-1850. Unpublished journal held at the California Historical Society.

#24 Blockson, Charles L. The Liberty Bell: The African American Story. Harrisburg, PA: RB Books,

2003.

#25 Bolster, W. Jeffrey. Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail. Cambridge,

Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1997.

#26 Crouchett, Lorraine J. Delilah Leontium Beasley: Oakland’s Crusading Journalist. El Cerrito,

California: Downey Place Publishing House, Inc., 1990.

#27 Parker, Elizabeth L. and James Abijian. A Walking Tour of the Black Presence in San Francisco

During the Nineteenth Century. San Francisco: San Francisco African American Historical and

Cultural Society, 1974.

#28 Holdredge, Helen. Mammy Pleasant’s Partner. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1954.

#29 Ravage, John W. Black Pioneers: Images of the Black Experience on the North American

Frontier. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 1997.

#30 Rather, Lois. Jessie Fremont At Black Point. Oakland, California: The Rather Press, 1974.

#31 Collison, Gary. Shadrach Minkins: From Fugitive Slave to Citizen. Cambridge, Massachusetts:

Harvard University Press, 1997.

#32 Gara, Larry. The Liberty Line: The Legend of the Underground Railroad. University of Kentucky

Press, 1961.

#33 Pettit, Elber M. Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad. Westfield, New York:

Chautauqua Region Press, reprinted 1999.

#34 Pogue, L.C. The African American Heritage of Yuba County 1849-1870. Marysville, California:

Computer Assist Publications, 1995.

#35 Demas, Marilyn K. Ungraded School No. 2-Colored. The African American Struggle for

Education in Victorian Sacramento. Sacramento: Sacramento Historical Society, 1999.

#36 Clappe, Louise Amelia Knapp Smith. The Shirley Letters From the California Mines 1851-1852.

Edited by Marlene Smith-Baranzini. Berkeley, California: Heyday Books, 1998.

#37 Gibbs, Mifflin W. Shadow and Light: An Autobiography. New York: Arno Press, Inc., reprinted

1968.
#38 Caesar, Clarence. “Key Points Regarding the History of Slavery in California.” Unpublished article.

#39 Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl/ Written by Herself with A True Tale of

Slavery by John S. Jacobs: edited with an introduction and notes by Nell Irvin Painter. New York:

Penguin Putnam Inc., 2000.

#40 Katz, William Loren. Breaking the Chains: African-American Slave Resistance. New York:

Atheneum Macmillan Publishing Company, 1990.

#41 Jacobs, Harriet A. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Writen by Herself, edited by L. Maria

Child. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1987.

#42 Luck, Wilbert H. Journey to Honey Hill. The 55th Massachusetts Regiment’s (Colored) Journey

South to fight in the Civil War that toppled the institution of slavery, 2nd edition. Washington,

D.C.: Wiluk Press, 1985.

#43 McBroome, Delores Nason. Parallel Communities: African Americans in California’s East Bay
1850-1963. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1993.

#44 Curtis, Nancy C. Black Heritage Sites: An African American Odyssey and Finder’s Guide.

Chicago: American Library Association, 1996.

#45 Daniels, Douglas Henry. Pioneer Urbanites: A Social and Cultural History of Black San

Francisco. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.

#46 Wheeler, B.Gordon. Black California: The History of African-Americans in the Golden State.

New York: Hippocrene Books, Inc., 1993.

#47 Still, William. The Underground Railroad. Chicago: Johnson Publishing Company, Inc. 1970

(Originally printed in 1872).

#48 Klare, Normand E. The Final Voyage of the Central America 1857: The saga of a gold rush

steamship, the tragedy of her loss in a hurricane and the treasure which is now recovered.

Spokane, Washington: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1992.

#49 Detter, Thomas. Nellie Brown or The Jealous Wife, With Other Sketches. Lincoln: University of

Nebraska Press, 1996 (Originally self-published in 1871 in San Francisco).

#50 Bettencourt, John Black Internments Sacramento City Cemetery 1850-1910: A Survey and Study

of Black-American Burials in the City Cemetery From 1850 Past the Turn of the Century.

Sacramento, California: Sacramento City Cemetery Archives, 1992.

#51 Ripley, C. Peter, ed. The Black Abolitionist Papers, vol. IV. Chapel Hill: The University of North

Carolina Press, 1991.

#52 Palmer, George W. The Pioneer Family Gooch/Monroe. Coloma, California: Marshall Gold

Discovery State Historic Park, 2002. Unpublished essay, including attached documents, written by

park docent.

#53 Switala, William J. Underground Railroad in Delaware, Maryland and West Virginia.

Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 2004.

#54 Sterling, Dorothy. Speaking Out in Thunder Tones: Letters and Other Writings By Black

Northerners, 1787-1865. New York: De Capo Press, Inc., 1998.

#55 Billington, Monroe Lee and Roger D. Hardaway. African Americans on the Western Frontier.

Niwot, Colorado: University Press of Colorado, 1998.

#56 Drew, Benjamin. A North-Side View of Slavery, The Refugee: Or The Narratives Of Fugitive

Slaves In Canada Related By Themselves, With An Account Of The History And Condition Of

The Colored Population Of Upper Canada. Boston: John P. Jewett and Company, 1856

#57 Skinner, Byron R. Heritage Tales-1983: Sixth Annual Publication of the City of San

Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society. San Bernardino, California: City of San Bernardino

Historical and Pioneer Society, 1983.

#58 Marc Primus, ed. Monographs of Blacks in the West: Number 1, Manuscript Series.

San Francisco: San Francisco African American Historical and Cultural Society, Inc., 1976.

#59 Yellin, Jean Fagan. Harriet Jacobs A Life. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2004.