Saturday, January 27, 2007 (SF Chronicle)
SAN FRANCISCO/Slavery in Gold  Rush days/New discoveries prompt exhibition, 
re-examination of state's  involvement
Jason B. Johnson, Chronicle Staff Writer


Adam Willis was brought to California as a slave in 1846, gained his
freedom  nine years later, then searched the country using newspaper ads to
find his  family and build a home for them in Solano County.
The recent  discovery of Willis' 152-year-old manumission record in the
Solano County  Archive has, along with other records from that era,
stimulated a new  examination of California's past that's been left out of
the Gold Rush  history books.
The existence of slavery in early California and  the debate over whether
it would enter the union as a free or slave state had  momentous import.
That past is featured in a special program this afternoon  at San
Francisco's Museum of the African Diaspora, known as MoAD, as well as  in a
new exhibit that opened Wednesday.
"As you know, slavery  just tore apart so many families," said Vallejo
resident Sharon  McGriff-Payne, who found Willis' document in August while
doing research for  a book about the history of African Americans in  Solano
County.
Like many former slaves, Willis ran newspaper  ads searching for his
family, said McGriff-Payne, one of three speakers at  today's 2 p.m.
presentation, "Slavery in 19th Century California." Such ads  ran in
newspapers with black readership throughout the country as late as  the
early 1900s.
The museum has incorporated material about  California slavery, some of it
never shown to the public before, into an  exhibit called "Slavery: Inhuman
History," which also features a traveling  exhibit on slavery in New York,
thus giving visitors a perspective on African  American life on both coasts
from the colonial period through the  1800s.
The documents regarding Willis and another former Bay  Area slave, Plim
Jackson, will have their first public  viewing.
"We're often taught that California was a 'free state,'  and so what we
want to do is understand what that means, because there were  slaves in
California," said Eduardo Pineda, director of education at  MoAD.
In addition to portraying the institution of slavery, the  display also
strives to treat these people as individuals, Pinedan  said.
Adam Willis was born in Missouri and came to California  with his master's
family in 1846, before California became a state in 1850.  He was freed in
Benicia in 1855, according to his manumission record, the  first
documentation found in Solano County of a freed person.
Solano County's 1850 census shows 21 African Americans living in the
county,  14 of them slaves brought from Missouri, under a contract
promising to free  them in two years, to work in Vacaville at the Vaca
family ranch. All 14  workers were men ranging in age from 18 to 40.
Willis'  manumission document, on display at the museum, is written in a
slanted  cursive style by Willis' owner, Singleton Vaughn, who once served
as Solano  County assessor. He refers to Willis as "my negro man named
Adam." While the  document starts in cold terms -- referring to Willis as
property -- it ends  powerfully with Vaughn declaring Willis free from all
claims of service by  Vaughn and his descendants.
Once freed, Willis, who stood 5 feet  2 inches tall, became a well-known
cook and one of the county's most  prominent black residents. County
records show he voted in the 1890s in local  elections. But most compelling
was his effort to reunite his  family.
"He was looking for his sister, Mary Ann. The last he  had heard from her,
she was in Ray County, Missouri," McGriff-Payne said. "By  1880 she was
living with Mr. Willis. She also brought two of her adult sons  with her."
"He found his family," McGriff-Payne said. "In the  case of so many, they
never found their families."
McGriff-Payne said finding Willis' public documents and learning about  his
life was like finding her own family. "I don't know my  own
great-grandfather, but it was for me as if I looked into my  own
background," she said. He was an African American born in the South,  but
she is not sure if he was a slave.
Pineda compared the  post-slavery newspaper ads run by African Americans to
printed and televised  pleas on national television by separated families
from the Gulf Coast in the  aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
"It's an eerie parallel how  these kinds of catastrophic events can tear
apart families," Pineda  said.
Jackson was released from slavery in Santa Clara County in  1854. His
freedom record also was stored in county property files, like that  of
Willis, and was found more than three years ago. Jackson turned out to  be
one of two former slaves belonging to the same owner who were freed on  the
same day, said Jim Reed, curator at History San Jose, a  nonprofit
organization that provided Jackson's manumission  document.
The document reads in part "Plim Jackson is to be  forever free."
The museum exhibit contains also an 1873  autobiographical booklet, "Life
and Adventures of James Williams: A Fugitive  Slave," which includes a
description of another oppressed group, Chinese  workers in the gold mines:
"As cheap as they work, they pay more for rent and  are taxed more than any
race of people."
Organizers hope the  New York exhibit will enhance the California
presentation. The traveling  exhibit features nine illustrated panels
highlighting the history of slavery  in New York and the story of the fight
for freedom.
Street  scenes depict African Americans, likenesses of little-known
pioneers of the  abolition movement, and historic manuscripts documenting
New York's  involvement in the slave trade.
"I was really fascinated to find  out that Wall Street was actually named
after a wall that was there that was  built by slaves," Pineda said.

Those wishing to attend today's "Slavery  in 19th Century California"
program, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at the Museum of the  African Diaspora, are
requested to RSVP online at  www.moadsf.org/visit/calendar.html. They can
call the admissions department  after 10 a.m. at (415) 318-7144 to see if
seats are still  available.
The exhibition, "Slavery: Inhuman History," runs  through April 30. The
museum is at 685 Mission Street. Further information is  available at
www.moadsf.org and (415) 358-7200.

E-mail  Jason B. Johnson at [log in to unmask]  
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