Nancy Ross Gooch, CA Pioneer, Presente! Wanda Ali Batin Sabir, California Institute of Integral Study
Introduction or Abstract
September 9, 1860, is California Admission Day. 2025 marks its 175th Anniversary. It is a perfect time to remember the life and legacy of this powerful Black woman who symbolized industry, intelligence, faith and forgiveness, Mrs. Nancy Ross Gooch (Aug. 1811-Sept. 17, 1901).
The way people live in the minds and hearts of future generations is by naming institutions after them, by erecting monuments, by continuing their work, by calling their names. In a state the size of a
country, California should have more public art honoring its citizens, especially this women, California pioneer and citizen, Nancy Ross Gooch. Join the campaign. #sayhername #nancyrossgooch #californiapioneer
Literature Review
There are not many books written about these early Black settlers. Much information is in early Black newspapers, correspondence, and published meeting notes for the Colored Conventions an early civil rights organization that provided legal representation for Black communities in California and elsewhere. Regions had chapters. There are also few recorded oral histories, and fewer structures and signage. For the most part, historic landmarks are gone, like the Black church in Coloma; however, Nancy Gooch’s orchard is still bearing fruit, and her grandson Pearley’s rental property and Blacksmith shop are still on Main Street. A marker was added recently, and I saw family portraits in the Blacksmith shop which was open. Brochures with the Gooch-Monroe family portrait and history were available to take. There were also signs advertising an open house for the holidays Dec. 13-14.
Besides the signage, The Monroe Nature Trail was named in this family’s honor. Most of the people who were alive when the trail was dedicated and shared stories about Pearley are now dead. The park official doing the honors that day, didn’t know where the Gooch-Monroe family was buried. There are no Black residents in Coloma; however, their absence does not negate their important legacy in shaping the narrative that is early California.
For two years, the California Reparations Taskforce invited families, especially descendants of early Californians, to tell their stories. Many Black Coloma pioneers moved away from Coloma and didn’t share with their children or grandchildren what happened there or what was lost. These descendants left behind wealth: land the state of California took from these families. Many of these stories are a part of recent news reports, yet families have found family documents, letters, journals, and photos, that validate these tales.
People have gotten away with murder in this state, and it seems like nothing is being done to address this. Black families have suffered from poverty because we have no generational wealth. When there is wealth, Black people have lost their rights to it. In the legal system, whether it is state law or federal law, Black people have suffered huge losses from the unjust application of these laws regarding inheritance and property. In my family, the State of Mississippi took our ancestral village, Logtown to build NASA’s test site. The checks the state sent my grandmother’s heirs were a pittance. The result is stolen generational wealth.
Besides Black newspapers, Delilah Beasley’s Negro Trailblazers (1919) was an invaluable record of the early Black pioneers as well as the generations that followed. Beasley knew a lot of the people she interviewed. She even knew the historians whose work she read and cited. Personalities, situations, or circumstances are descriptive, and so engaging one cannot stop reading. Significant historic moments are written with such emotional appeal. The book is a page-turner. It is both informative and engaging reading. Beasley’s work is pivotal in giving voice to many of these early Californians whose voices would have been silenced without her tireless hard work. Black newspapers like the Sacramento Observer highlight pioneer family descendants who learned of this hushed or silenced family history late in life. These descendants learn of their courageous ancestors with pride. Perhaps the biggest reason these stories have such currency is the California Reparations Taskforce’s willingness to listen. Black families in California were invited to share their family histories with the commission and many of them like Pearley Monroe’s granddaughter, Dawn Basciano.
Enough cannot be said for the Colored Conventions minutes and notes and the recent study, Archives from the State Library, The Library of Congress, YouTube theatre productions, Blogs like Confluence and California State Park Histories, California Black Agriculture Working Group, Tourism sites, Instagram school reports, and even a children’s book were just a few of the many documents read. Most of them said the same thing about Nancy Gooch. The details were slim. She worked hard, she saved her money and after her son was free, she bought land.
Methodology or Ways of Knowing
Research Question(s):
1. Why does California history exclude its Black pioneers, especially Black women like Nancy Ross Gooch?
2. Today there are no Black residents in Coloma. How did these small all white towns develop? What are potential consequences of racial homogeneity or segregation?
Nancy Ross Gooch was born enslaved, yet she worked hard, invested, and became a respected wealthy businesswoman. A contemporary of Mary Ellen Pleasant, known as California’s Mother of Civil Rights, Pleasant was its first millionaire. She lived in San Francisco and supported many causes, her primary goal was African liberation. People knew Mrs. Pleasant’s name. Mrs. Pleasant probably knew Ms. Nancy. Pleasant knew and financed John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry; however, Brown changed the plan, and we see what happened. Coloma was a much smaller town than cosmopolitan San Francisco. Coloma’s claim to fame was Sutter’s Mill. However, for the Gooch-Monroe family and other legally silenced Black California pioneers, it was home.
With the conclusion of the Reparations Task Force’s two-year study of Slavery in California, the Black Caucus refused to present its recommendations to Gov. Newsom to sign into law. Instead, Gov. Newsom apologized for California’s policies which enabled systemic political, social, and economic inequalities in fact and defacto slavery. Several of this state’s founding architects were Southerners. California’s entry into the Union in 1850 as a free state was strategic. The white legislators have continued to try to rid this state of its Black citizens then and now. This plan has not succeeded, because from 175 years ago to this very day, all legislators do not agree. If one looks at how Mrs. Gooch was able to save and purchase land at a time when Black women, especially a single woman—a widow like Nancy Ross Gooch, who didn’t have any support or protection, was impressive.
Ms. Nancy is certainly an example of fortitude and faith, and her ethics were reflected in her son, daughter-in-law, and grandsons who came to live with her. Separated from her only child for twenty years, their reunion was an unbelievable joy for their family. The time after slavery was a time for nation-building. Black people who learned to dream dreamed of a world where white people would respect Black autonomy and leave them alone.
Still hasn’t happened. A Black person minding her own business is interrupted by a curious white person who wants to know what the Black person is thinking. Free Black people are not allowed to have independent thoughts. Absolutely not.
Presentation and Development of Theme
Nancy Ross Gooch (1811-1901) was born enslaved, yet when she died she was a respected wealthy businesswoman. Gooch was a contemporary of Mary Ellen Pleasant (1814-1904), known as California’s Mother of Civil Rights, and was America’s first Black millionaire (Willis). She lived in San Francisco and supported many causes, her primary goal: Black liberation (Willis). People knew Mrs. Pleasant’s name. Mrs. Pleasant probably knew Ms. Nancy. Through the Colored Conventions, Black Californians were in conversation with each other. Everyone with means supported the Executive Committee including Mrs. Gooch (Pfaelzer). Pleasant supported the Archy Lee case in the $100,000s (Beasley). It was successful. Archy Lee was allowed to give testimony in court and was freed. She also knew and financed John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry; however, Brown changed the plan, and we see what happened (Willis). Coloma was a much smaller town than cosmopolitan San Francisco. Coloma’s claim to fame was Sutter’s Mill. However, for the Gooch-Monroe family and other legally silenced Black California pioneers, it was home (Beasley).
With the conclusion of the Reparations Task Force’s two-year study of Slavery in California, the Black Caucus refused to present its recommendations to Gov. Newsom to sign into law (NBC.com). Instead, Gov. Newsom apologized for California’s policies which enabled systemic political, social, and economic inequalities in fact and defacto slavery. Several of this state’s founding architects were Southerners. California’s entry into the Union in 1850 as a free state was strategic. The white legislators continued to try to rid this state of its Black citizens. With the decision to continue to allow slavery in the California Constitution do those sentiments continue 175 years later?
If one looks at how Mrs. Gooch was able to save and purchase land at a time when Black women, especially a single woman—a widow like Nancy Ross Gooch, who didn’t have any support or protection, was impressive (Simon; Schwenk). Ms. Nancy is certainly an example of fortitude and faith, and her ethics were reflected in her son, daughter-in-law, and grandsons who joined her eleven years after her husband died. Separated from her only child for twenty years, their reunion was an unbelievable joy for their family. The time after slavery was a time for nation-building. Black people who learned to dream dreamed of a world where white people would respect Black autonomy and leave them alone.
Still hasn’t happened. A Black person minding her own business is interrupted by a curious white person who wants to know what the Black person is thinking. Free Black people are not allowed to have independent thoughts. Absolutely not (Colored Conventions).
Nancy Ross Gooch was a Black woman whose family—the Gooch-Monroes, owned most of Coloma, specifically the area around Main Street. Coloma, a small city in El Dorado County, is where James Marshall discovered gold at Sutter’s Fort in 1848. If it weren’t for her family’s stewardship of the land, this town might not exist, yet Californians do not know her name. Children in Coloma and residents in the nearby towns of Placerville nor Sacramento know this important history. It is time to change this (Schwenk; Sugarman).
September 9, 1860, is California Admission Day. 2025 marks its 175th Anniversary. It is a perfect time to remember the life and legacy of this powerful Black woman who symbolized industry, intelligence, faith and forgiveness, Mrs. Nancy Ross Gooch (Aug. 1811-Sept. 17, 1901).
The way people live in the minds and hearts of future generations is by naming institutions after them, by erecting monuments, by continuing their work, by calling their names. In a state the size of a country, California should have more public art honoring its citizens, especially this women, California pioneer and citizen, Nancy Ross Gooch. Join the campaign.
Conclusion
From its founding documents, the state of California has legislated policies to disenfranchise its African American citizens, for no other reason than that they were Black. Whether formerly enslaved when they arrived or people who worked to free themselves and their families by working hard in the gold mines, these citizens were without due rights in the courts. Black people could not give evidence of wrongdoing, because they could not testify in court. White men and women got away with literal murder and worse. California was founded by prosperous African Diaspora citizens such as Ms. Mary Ellen Pleasant, a free woman of color, and William Leidesdorff, a free man of color. Pleasant was swindled out of her wealth before she died, and Leidesdorff's family was cheated out of their inheritance by Folsom, a man with a town and a prison named after him. Though California in 1949 boasted a cultural and racial diversity unparalleled in the rest of the Union, Black people were still unwelcome. Pushed out, Black miners established their own camp, Negro Bar, and village Negro Hill. Negro Hill was founded by two African Americans, one a Methodist minister. This gold rush town welcomed miners of all ethnicities, and the area prospered. By 1843 the population was 1,200. According to California State Parks, Office of Historic Preservation, in 1849, Charles Crocker and Dewitt Stanford, joined this community to destroy it. State laws passed the next year when California joined the Union that allowed these white men to use terrorism and violence to disturb the peace and dismantle Black prosperity. By 1860, the town was gone. What happened here is indicative of similar economic disenfranchisement throughout California to Black pioneers. It happened in Coloma too, just more subtly. The State of California took the Gooch-Monroe land.
Selected Bibliography
Alvarado-Gil, Marie, California State Senate, District 4, El Dorado County
http://sr04.senate.ca.gov/content/about-marie
Beasley, Delilah. Negro Trailblazers of California. Los Angeles: Times Mirror Printing and Binding House, 1919.
Butler, Laphonza, U.S. Senate, www.butler.sentate.gov
Caleb, Nelson, Kermit Roosevelt. Supremacy Clause: Interpretation and Debate. In constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/articles/article-vi/clause/31#the-supremacyclause
California Ntional Parks. “Historic Properties Once Owned by African American Families in Coloma.” Accessed Oct. 2, 2024. http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id+30776 and http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=484
California Reparations Taskforce: Witness Testimony, ‘Dawn Basciano,’ Witness Panel #4:Political Disenfranchisement,” September 24, 2021. http://www.youtube.com/watch?vBkWapbiHPSg
Monroe-Gooch. “Coloma’s Full Story—Official Monroe Family Integral Chapter in Community History,” In El Dorado County, California, History & Genealogy. http://www.genealogytrails.com/cal/eldorado/pioneers/pioneers1.html.
Moses, Bob. “Constitutional People and Slavery by Another Name.” June 27, 2014. Originally broadcast on Reality Assets Itself. Paul Jay, Senior Editor. www.crmvet.org/comm/moses8.htm
Pfaelzer, Jean. “None but Colored Testimony Against Him: The California Colored Convention or 1855 and the Origins of the First Civil Rights Movement in California. In The Colored Conventions Movement: Black Organizing in the Nineteenth Century, edited by P. Gabrielle Foreman, Jim Casey, and Sarah Lynn, (330, 348). Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2021.
Shaw, Marlena. “California Soul” In The Spice Of Life ℗ 1969 UMG Recordings, Inc. Released on: 1969-01-01 Producer: Charles Stepney Producer: Richard Evans Associated Performer, Vocals: Marlena Shaw Composer Lyricist: Valerie Simpson Composer Lyricist: Nickolas Ashford, YouTube, Dec. 7, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUosSQZSw5c
Vonderschmitt, Andrew, Director. “Nancy Ross Gooch-1811-1901.” Buried History presents, Save the Graves. May 10, 2022; Placerville Union Cemetery. YouTube Video, http://www.youtube.comwatch?v=wadCswMmN3Q
Zavala, Ashley. “California Reparations Taskforce Report.” NBC News. Accessed October 3, 2024. http://www.kcra.com/article/ca-reparations-task-force-leader-responds-black-caucas-block-bills/62049034
Contact information
If you are interested in the campaign to have a statue erected to honor Nancy Ross Gooch contact the author: Ms. Wanda Sabir
walibatinsabir@mymail.ciis.edu or 510-397-9705
posted by Interchange @ 12:55 AM
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