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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2002-01 > 1011058636


From: Arthur Murata <>
Subject: RE: American Religious Freedom
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2002 17:37:21 -0800 (PST)
In-Reply-To: <5B26630DC488D411AB6200D0B7C9FF49685A13@DCSRV09>


I was with you until you got to California. Then the whole
thing got muddy somehow. It happens that many non-Native
and non-Spanish-speaking came to California in 1849 and
through the 1850s into early statehood for reasons other
than gold. There was a railroad to be built (the Chinese
left behind 20,000 pounds of bones alongside the tracks
while the Irish were applauded at Promontory Point); there
were services to be performed (laundry, restaurants,
prostitutes, casinos, travel accommodations,
photography...), and usually some mining on the side. My
great-great-grandfather Maurice Newman married a lady from
Germany in Mariposa County, bought John C. Fremont's
ranchhouse (directly from Fremont) to live in, and became
the first county clerk in the courthouse of Mariposa (which
is still standing). His son, Maurice Jr., became the `2nd
one.I do not believe that he ever had an interest in
mining. And the gold country is dotted with dozens of towns
that bear the names of women. Guess what they were there
for and why the townspeople were grateful (there are great
stories about how the prostitutes would form volunteer
bucket brigades to fight the fire and thereby earn the
respect of the townspeople). And the reason why there is a
familiar stereotype of Chinese Mandarin men setting up
laundry shops stems from their having done so in the
goldfields. The prospectors represented every walk of life
and every ethnic group in California, including the Native
people. Actually, though, I don't quite get your point.
Best, Bronwen Edwards




--- "Carpenter, Charles" <> wrote:
> I am amazed at the way this debate goes each time it
> comes up. There's a
> line of thought that since the religious dissenters who
> came to North
> America didn't extend religious freedom to people who did
> not agree with
> them, the whole idea that people came to North America
> for religious freedom
> is a myth. The fallacious nature of this argument is
> easily demonstrated by
> substituting the motive for settlement of a different
> part of North America:
>
> People must not have traveled to California in 1849 to
> find gold and get
> rich, because once there they did not try to find ways
> for new people going
> there later to get rich too.
>
> Puritans and others went to America to experience
> religious freedom. They
> were not interested in establishing tolerance for other
> people -- let them
> go found their own societies where they can have their
> own freedom. This is
> why banishment, rather than execution, would be the first
> penalty of choice
> for heresy (unless, of course, Satan himself was directly
> involved . . .)
>
>
>
>
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>


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