{"product_id":"the-california-gold-rush-and-the-coming-of-the-civil-war","title":"The California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War (Vintage Civil War Library)","description":"\u003cp\u003eAward-winning historian Leonard L. Richards gives us an authoritative and revealing  portrait of an overlooked harbinger of the terrible battle that was to come.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen gold  was discovered at Sutter's Mill in 1848, Americans of all stripes saw the potential  for both wealth and power. Among the more calculating were Southern slave owners.  By making California a slave state, they could increase the value of their slaves—by  50 percent at least, and maybe much more. They could also gain additional influence  in Congress and expand Southern economic clout, abetted by a new transcontinental  railroad that would run through the South. Yet, despite their machinations, California  entered the union as a free state. Disillusioned Southerners would agitate for even  more slave territory, leading to the Kansas-Nebraska Act and, ultimately, to the  Civil War itself.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50968033165600,"sku":"9780307277572","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0836\/3661\/7504\/files\/9780307277572.jpg?v=1764093664","url":"https:\/\/creativebysanchez.com\/products\/the-california-gold-rush-and-the-coming-of-the-civil-war","provider":"Creative By Sanchez","version":"1.0","type":"link"}