Basil Campbell

  Basil Campbell, a black slave, comes to California with his master John D. Stephens,  owner of the land that will become the Cache Creek Nature Preserve.  Campbell is thought to be the first African American in Yolo County. Stephens pays Campbell for his labor, and in 1861—two years before the Emancipation Proclamation—Campbell buys his freedom.  Campbell had invested part of his wages, so that when freed he is able to buy farmland and livestock.  In 1865 he begins buying land in Yolo County and also serves as a delegate to the State Convention of Colored People in Sacramento. In  1873 he serves as a state delegate to the National Convention of Colored People in Washington D.C.  By 1884 he is worth $100,000, and word of his success brings more African Americans to the area.