Alvin Coffey
Many slaves were brought to California from slave states to work in the gold mines during the gold rush. Often slaves were able to buy their freedom with money earned doing odd jobs in their spare time for their owners or other white miners. Alvin Coffey, born in 1822 as a slave, was first brought to California in 1849 by Dr. Bennett of Missouri to work for a short time in the gold mines. In 1854, Coffey returned to California with another owner, and bought freedom for himself and his family by working in the gold mines of Placer (Lapp 69). After Alvin Coffey death, several members of Alvin Coffey’s family, specifically, his granddaughter Mrs. Ora Williams, San Francisco’s first black nursery school teacher, settled in San Francisco and worked to improve education and civil rights for African Americans during the early 1900s. Alvin Coffey died in 1902 (Thurman 1). “(Courtesy of the African American Museum and Library at Oakland (AAMLO)”