• Source: Thomas Gilman (miner)

      • Thomas Gilman (1830–1911), nicknamed Uncle Tom Gilman, was an American freedman, miner, farmer, and businessperson. He was an enslaved African American who self–purchased his freedom from mining during the mid-19th-century, and notably contributed to African American history in California.


      Biography


      Thomas Gilman was Black and born enslaved in 1830, in Tennessee, U.S.. He was owned and enslaved by Joseph B. Gilman of Greene County, Tennessee. Thomas was brought to California by his enslaver in 1850, during the California gold rush in order to work in the mines in Dragoon Gulch. After two years of mining, he was able to purchase his freedom, however Joseph B. Gilman tried to continuously delay the purchase of freedom, until the self–purchase was recorded by the state court on August 1852.
      Gilman spent the remainder of his life in Tuolumne County in his small cabin located on the Sonora–Shaws Flat Road, mining, and farming. He never learned to read or write. When he reached an age in which he could no longer farm, his local friends supported him. Not all freedman in California were able to live such long, and peaceful lives.
      Gilman died at age 85 on December 15, 1911, in Shaw's Flat, and he is buried at the Shaw's Flat Cemetery.


      Legacy


      The California State Library holds the Thomas Gilman Papers, 1853–1907. "Uncle Toms Drive" in Sonora, California was named in his honor.


      See also



      Archy Lee (1840–1873)
      History of slavery in California
      Manumission


      References

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