PLausability Freedman California

In OTL California became a state very fast because of the Gold Rush.

WI the discovery of Gold was postponed to some decades after the ACW.

I REALIZE that thsi MIGHT have butterflied out the war but on the other hand JKanas and Nebraska had still been obtained. It could have happeneed.

Many people who disliked slavery felt that a multi racial society would be difficult and wanted freed slaves to migrate.

Could California have been a destination?

If its population was predominantly former slaves and their dependents coudl it have been accepted as a State

I think this is mostly implausible. California was a diverse and settled land at the time. There were waves of immigrants to California before the Mexican-American War, mostly those that diverted south from the Oregon Territory. Unless the US Government undertook funding wagon trains across the country to the newly acquired territory exactly how would black freemen afford to move?

David S Poepoe said:

I think this is mostly implausible. California was a diverse and settled land at the time. There were waves of immigrants to California before the Mexican-American War, mostly those that diverted south from the Oregon Territory. Unless the US Government undertook funding wagon trains across the country to the newly acquired territory exactly how would black freemen afford to move?

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Agreed, plus, the land itself was too fertile and potentially mineral-rich to be turned over to freed slaves (or to be permitted to remain in their hands for the long term).