CHS Webinar: California, A Slave State

California owes its origins and sunny prosperity to slavery. Spanish invaders captured Indigenous people to build the chain of Catholic missions. Russian otter hunters shipped Alaska Natives and launched a Pacific slave triangle to China. Plantation slaves were marched across the plains for the Gold Rush. Kidnapped Chinese girls were sold in caged brothels in early San Francisco. Indian boarding schools supplied new farms and hotels with unfree child workers.

This program features Jean Pfaelzer, author of California, a Slave State, a newly released book that exposes how California’s appetite for slavery persists today in the global trade of human beings lured by promises of jobs in sweatshops and marijuana groves, or sold as nannies and sex workers. Pfaelzer shares her unyielding research and vivid interviews in this talk.

The California Historical Society (CHS) encourages everyone interested to register, even if you cannot attend. This webinar will be recorded and all registrants will receive an email with a link to the recording when it is available on their YouTube channel.