Smith’s book examines the Civil War’s battle over slavery as it unfolded on the multiracial Pacific Coast. Despite its antislavery constitution, California was home to a dizzying array of bound and semi-bound labor systems: African American slavery, American Indian indenture, Latino and Chinese contract labor, and a brutal sex traffic in bound Indian and Chinese women. Discover the startling ways in which the contest over slavery’s fate included a western struggle that encompassed these diverse labor systems and workers.
415-561-4000
