Many people traveled to the gold fields of California dreaming of wealth and new opportunities. Once here, their lived realities varied dramatically and often involved cultural and racial differences.
While California joined the Union as a free state in 1850, the state legislature implemented restrictions targeting people of color – specifically Black, Indigenous, and Chinese populations. This included the right to testify against a white person in court, attend publicly funded schools, vote, and homestead on public lands.
For enslaved Black people, their bondage continued in California. For others with Freedom Papers or who had escaped, California offered new opportunities. Exploring their experiences illuminates their individual lives and helps us better understand the complex history of our communities.
One such story is that of Richard G. Rapier, who was born free in the slave state of Alabama. After receiving his education and moving west, he became an involved community member and successful business owner in Auburn.
Although no photographs are known to exist of Richard G. Rapier, he did leave behind a trail of primary sources that offer some insight into his life. Sources used for this essay include official records held at the Placer County Archive, newspaper accounts, United States Census data and publications, including: From Tennessee Slave to St. Louis Entrepreneur: The Autobiography of James Thomas; The Journal of Madison Berryman Moorman; “A Few Observations on the Black Population in Early Auburn,” (John Knox); Knights of the Razor, Black Barbers in Slavery and Freedom, (Douglas Walter Bristol, Jr.); and The Search of the Promised Land, A Slave Family in the Old South, (John H. Franklin and Loren Schweninger).
Gold Miner at Auburn Ravine. 1852. California State Library
Richard G. Rapier
Richard G. Rapier was born in 1831, the eldest of four boys to Susan and John H. Rapier Sr. His father, John, worked as the personal slave of a man named Richard Rapier. Rapier set aside money in his will for John’s purchase of freedom. John soon married Susan, a free born woman from Baltimore. The two settled in Florence, Alabama where John opened a successful barbershop and he and Susan had four children – Richard, John Jr., James, and Henry.
At 14, young Richard G. Rapier went to live with his Uncle Henry in Buffalo, New York while he attended public school. Henry was a fugitive who had escaped enslavement and fled to New York for freedom. In Buffalo, Henry became a barber and political activist for the burgeoning antislavery and free suffrage movement. Rapier left Buffalo when he turned 18 and went to his grandmother’s house in Nashville. There, he learned of the discovery of gold in California and decided to go west.
In 1850, Rapier joined the company of Madison Berryman Moorman. Though free, as a Black man, Rapier could not legally invest in Moorman’s mining company and was hired as an “Outsider” to tend mules. They departed April 27, 1850. Rapier arrived in Placerville in September and carried out a short-lived mining career of about six weeks. After the company disbanded, he purchased land in the Sacramento Valley and began farming. Devastated by fire and drought in the following years, Rapier abandoned farming to join his family’s professional legacy of barbering in the 1860s.
Richard Rapier’s Trip to the West – Franklin and Schweninger
Black Barbershops
In the 19th century, discrimination limited the types of jobs available to free Black people. Most were poorly paid, low skilled jobs. Barbershops provided one of the few opportunities for Black people to establish themselves in a skilled trade.
Barbershops also afforded certain social advantages in a racially divided nation. Barbers could listen to white clients discuss the news, gossip, and politics they were typically excluded from. They could then in turn disseminate this information within their own social circles. Richard’s Uncle James, a barber in Nashville near the Capitol, commented on this: “They had time to talk in the barber shop…everything was discussed – social, commercial, political, and financial.”
It was also a lucrative occupation. Black barbers were some of the wealthiest and most influential members of their communities. This allowed some, like Rapier, to use their position to further their political and social causes.
Background Illustration: A Barber’s Shop at Richmond, Virginia by Eyre Crowe, 1861 - Illustrated London News
Rapier’s Political Interests
Rapier continued to operate his thriving barbershop while also getting involved in regional politics. In 1872, he was appointed to the newly formed Educational Committee for the San Francisco publication, The Elevator. This paper advocated for suffrage, citizenship, and educational opportunities for Black citizens who had been excluded from public schools since California’s admission to the Union in 1850. Rapier was the sole representative in Auburn and one of two representatives in Placer County for The Elevator. The committee challenged unconstitutional school segregation laws; a fight that continued for over 80 more years.
In 1875, The Pacific Appeal, an abolitionist and civil rights paper, began organizing a “Celebration of the Fifteenth Amendment and Civil Rights Bill” in San Francisco. These anniversary celebrations were held in major cities each year since the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870. Rapier was the first person from Placer County to help the 105 other West Coast volunteers with preparations. The Celebration took place on April 20, 1875, at the Horticultural Hall in San Francisco.
In local politics, he was an elector for the County, in 1878, prior to the California Constitutional Convention of 1878 and 1879. In 1879, he was a delegate to the Republican County Convention at the Courthouse in Auburn.
Rapier’s obituary described him as a “great reader, [who] kept well posted on all the events of the day, he was an interesting talker on any current event, and he had a good memory for political history.” Beyond his involvement in the different appeals by The Elevator and The Pacific Appeal, Rapier also subscribed to at least ten different publications including the Charleston News, InterOcean (Chicago), Montgomery Advertiser, Police Gazette (New York), Harper’s Weekly (New York), New York Ledger, Union (Sacramento), and the Placer Republican.
Later Years
Rapier continued to improve and run his barbershop in Auburn until his death in 1887. At the time, he lived in a cottage behind the shop, which appears he had fitted into a residence from the original bathhouse. While never particularly wealthy, he had formed a successful business of over 20 years and made a name for himself in the community. Upon his death, his obituary lauded Rapier as well-read, intelligent, and gentlemanly. On February 9, 1887, he was laid to rest in the International Order of Odd Fellows plot in the Old Auburn Cemetery.
Throughout his life, Rapier was forced to maneuver in a nation and society that did not yet recognize Black Americans as equal citizens. Despite this, Rapier earned an education, came West, and eventually found success as a barber. This occupation afforded him, and many other Black citizens, economic and social independence, which Rapier used to establish himself in Auburn. While many aspects of his life remain unknown, Rapier’s life from the Antebellum South to Auburn expands our knowledge not only of early Auburn’s diversity, but also the complex lived experiences of early Black Californians.
Background Image: R. G. Rapier Barbershop pictured in Auburn, California. Circa 1880. PCM, Placer County Historical Society Collection