James Boisclair was an

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

merchant and

gold miner Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining. Historically, mining gold from Alluvium, alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. The expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface has led to mor ...

who achieved notable fame and success during the

Georgia Gold Rush The Georgia Gold Rush was the second significant gold rush in the United States and the first in Georgia, and overshadowed the previous rush in North Carolina. It started in 1829 in present-day Lumpkin County near the county seat, Dahlonega, ...

. Boisclair was known as "Free Jim" and was highly regarded at the time for his entrepreneurial work and part-time efforts as a preacher.

Early life

James was born on the plantation of Daniel Grant in

Wilkes County, Georgia Wilkes County is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,565. The county seat is the city of Washington. Referred to as "Washington-Wilkes", the county seat and ...

around 1795. James was born into slavery, but Grant specified in his will that his slaves should be freed after reaching a certain age (31 for men, 28 for women). In 1814, James was sold to Michael Boisclair of

Augusta, Georgia Augusta is a city on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The city lies directly across the Savannah River from North Augusta, South Carolina at the head of its navigable portion. Augusta, the third mos ...

, where he remained until he was freed in 1826.

Dahlonega and the gold rush

Boisclair arrived in

Dahlonega, Georgia Dahlonega ( ) is the county seat of Lumpkin County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the city had a population of 5,242, and in 2018 the population was estimated to be 6,884. Dahlonega is located at t ...

in 1833 during the

, and opened a small shop, and started searching for gold. While panning for gold, Boisclair found an impressive vein of ore. As a black man in the

Antebellum South The ''Antebellum'' South era (from ) was a period in the history of the Southern United States that extended from the conclusion of the War of 1812 to the start of the American Civil War in 1861. This era was marked by the prevalent practic ...

, he was not able to legally buy the plot of land for a gold mine. Instead, he was able to get

Joseph Singleton Joseph Edward Victor Fairfield Daveran Singleton (1 March 1879 – 24 October 1946) was an actor of the silent film, silent era. An Australian, he appeared in 74 films between 1913 and 1925. He was born in Melbourne. Selected filmography ...

, the head of the

Dahlonega Mint The Dahlonega Mint was a former Branch mint, branch of the United States Mint built during the Georgia Gold Rush to help the miners get their gold assayed and coining (mint), minted, without having to travel to the Philadelphia Mint. It was locat ...

, to take legal ownership of the lot while Boisclair maintained de facto control. Boisclair began

Gold panning Gold panning, or simply ''panning'', is a form of placer mining and traditional mining that extracts gold from a placer deposit using a pan. The process is one of the simplest ways to extract gold, and is popular with geology enthusiasts espec ...

at his mine, and used the gold dust he collected to build the largest general store in

. The mine came to be known as the Free Jim Mine. Other Boisclair achievements of the time included his building of an ice house and popular saloon, despite the fact that all of his establishments faced problems because the laws of the time prevented black men from buying real estate or holding a liquor license.

Move to California and death

James Boisclair traveled to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

in a search for fortune in the new gold rush, and in 1850 Boisclair took his entrepreneurial efforts to a new level by hiring fifty men to come help him mine for gold. According to most accounts, Boisclair died at age 46 after being shot during an argument over a disputed gold claim. The Probate Court in Sacramento country records the death of a James Boisclair on November 20, 1861, who died from natural causes, according to a filing in the Probate Court in Sacramento that quotes C. B. Hawkins, Boisclair's care-giver. In 1860, free blacks made up less than 1% of Georgia's black population, and the majority of them were poor. James Boisclair was a rare example of a black man in the

Antebellum Antebellum, Latin for "before war", may refer to: United States history * Antebellum South, the pre-American Civil War period in the Southern US ** Antebellum Georgia ** Antebellum South Carolina ** Antebellum Virginia * Antebellum architectu ...

-era Georgia who was able to prosper economically in spite of harsh legal repression he had to work around.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boisclair, James African-American businesspeople Year of death missing Year of birth missing 19th-century American businesspeople American mining businesspeople Businesspeople from California Businesspeople from Georgia (U.S. state) Free Negroes