Download or read book Antebellum and Civil War San Francisco written by Monika Trobits and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2014-11-11 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Americans migrated westward, they took their politics with them, making San Francisco a microcosm of the nation as the Civil War loomed. Spurred by the promise of gold, hungry adventurers flocked to San Francisco in search of opportunity on the eve of the Civil War. The city flourished and became a magnet for theater. Some of the first buildings constructed in San Francisco were theater houses, and John Wilkes Booth’s famous acting family often graced the city’s stages. In just two years, San Francisco’s population skyrocketed from eight hundred to thirty thousand, making it an “instant city” where tensions between transplanted Northerners and Southerners built as war threatened the nation. Though seemingly isolated, San Franciscans took their part in the conflict. Some extended the Underground Railroad to their city, while others joined the Confederate-aiding Knights of the Golden Circle. Including a directory of local historic sites and streets, author Monika Trobits chronicles the dramatic and volatile antebellum and Civil War history of the City by the Bay. Includes photos