The ANNOTICO Report

Alessandro Trojani, a history professor at Florence University, followed
the trail of a gold nugget found in the house of one of Garibaldi's
officers, in the Tuscan port city of Leghorn, to San Francisco and other
Pacific coast gold rush cities, finding tales of Italian immigrants who
endured the hardships of gold mining partly for the cause of a united Italy.

Trojani said he found documents belonging to Italian charitable foundations
centered in the Bay area, but scattered throughout California listing
hundreds of donors to Garibaldi's cause."These Italians were from all
backgrounds, but mainly from northern Italy, who believed in the dream of a
united Italy."

Garibaldi came to the United States when, between 1850 and 1851, he stayed
in New York looked for financial backing "He was greeted like a hero by
Italian patriots and Americans."

San Jose Mercury News
Associated Press
Ariel David
Sun, Feb. 27, 2005

ROME - A gold nugget labeled "California U.S. 1853" has revealed a little
known insight into the making of modern Italy.

According to newly publicized research, gold dug up by Italian immigrants
in the 1849 Gold Rush found its way to Giuseppe Garibaldi and his
"Spedizione dei Mille" - the Expedition of the Thousand - that conquered
southern Italy.

Alessandro Trojani, a history professor at Florence University, said he
found the gold nugget in the house of Andrea Sgarallino, one of Garibaldi's
officers, in the Tuscan port city of Leghorn.

Trojani followed the gold trail to San Francisco and other Pacific coast
gold rush cities, finding tales of Italian immigrants who endured the
hardships of gold mining partly for the cause of a united Italy.

"Some just wanted to change their lives, but some also wanted to change
their country," Trojani said in a phone interview from California, where he
is pursuing his research.

Change came in dramatic fashion to Italy, then divided into several small
states, when Garibaldi and just over 1,000 men boarded two ships in 1860
and set sail for Sicily. They were secretly supported by Victor Emmanuel II
of Savoy, who saw himself as the future sovereign of a united Italy.

After landing in Sicily, Garibaldi and his "Red Shirts" - named after the
uniform that always made them visible in battle - pushed north, their
victorious ranks swelling with enemy deserters and patriotic southerners,
to the mainland and Naples.

In 1861, Victor Emmanuel II annexed the newly captured lands and was
crowned king of Italy.

Trojani has been studying the stories of Italian immigrants in the gold
rush since 1999, but it was the discovery of Sgarallino's nugget in 2003
that led him to uncover the link between the early development of the U.S.
Pacific Coast states and the birth of Italy.

Trojani said he found documents belonging to charitable foundations
scattered throughout California listing hundreds of donors to Garibaldi's
cause.

"Such elements told us it was all connected," he said. "These were people
from all backgrounds, mainly from northern Italy but also Americans, who
believed in the project of a united Italy."

"There is no question that Italians in the Bay Area supported Garibaldi,"
said Paola Sensi-Isolani, a professor of social anthropology at Saint
Mary's College of California who has published several books on Italian
immigration in California. "If Trojani has discovered these new elements,
it's definitely interesting and warrants further research."

The Italian seekers who sent aid for their cause were only a few among the
tens of thousands of '49ers who scrambled to California in the gold rush,
and there is no telling how much gold was sent to Garibaldi.

But although the difficult conditions in early California allowed for
little communication with the outside world, Trojani believes large sums
were collected through word of mouth.

He said Garibaldi personally set off the collection effort in the United
States when, between 1850 and 1851, he stayed in New York and set up a
candle shop.

"He was greeted like a hero by Italian patriots and Americans," Trojani
said. "I don't think he needed to make candles. It was just a cover. He was
there to look for financial backing."

Garibaldi soon moved on, leaving behind agents like Sgarallino to gather
money from his U.S. supporters.

Trojani said Garibaldi had a large following among Italian immigrants and
freedom-loving Americans.

Traces of such affection are to be found in a town in Oregon and a gold
mine in Death Valley, Calif., named after Garibaldi, while his statue still
stands in Washington Square Park in New York.

Born in 1807 in what is today Nice, France, Garibaldi was soon taken by the
ideals of freedom and revolution sweeping through Europe. After Italy he
took his guerrilla skills to several South American countries, and became
honored as "Hero of the Two Worlds." He died in 1882, a month before his
75th birthday.

[RAA: Which reminds me that for the most art of 3,000 years Nice was
Italic. A following Report will give evidence. And while we are at it, of
course you all knew that Napoleon was born in Corsica, less than a year
after Genoa sold Corsica to France in 1768. And when Napoleon became
Emperor of France, his mother joined him in Paris at the Palace, and until
her death refused to speak in any language other than Italian!]

ON THE NET
Alessandro Trojani's project, "Italians in the Gold Rush and Beyond":
http://www.igrb.net/

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/
mercurynews/news/breaking_news/
11007805.htm?1c