How California Became a 'Slave State'

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KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 13 July 2023

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

More than a decade ago, historian Jean Pfaelzer was shown a photograph of a young Chinese woman, displayed for sale in a caged brothel in San Francisco in the 1870s. The image made Pfaelzer question her own assumptions about California’s claim to have entered the union as a free state and about the force and effect of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery at the end of the Civil War. Pfaelzer traveled the state for seven years excavating accounts of Black, Indigenous, Asian and immigrant enslavement, concluding that “the story of California is a history of 250 years of uninterrupted human bondage.” We’ll talk to Pfaelzer about her new book “California, A Slate State” and how we might reckon with a history that’s far darker than many Californians realize. Guests: Jean Pfaelzer, historian; author, "California, a Slave State" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:17.6	I'm Nina Kim.
1:19.6	When historian Jean Felser was shown a photograph of a Chinese girl for sale in a caged brothel in San Francisco in the 1870s, the image made Felser question her own assumptions about California's claim to have entered the Union as a free state that would not tolerate slavery.
1:37.3	Felser traveled the state for seven years, excavating accounts of black enslavement, indigenous, Asian, and immigrant enslavement,
1:45.0	and concluded the story of California is a history of uninterrupted human bondage.
1:51.0	We learn why Felser says California was and is a slave state.
1:55.0	Join us.
2:10.5	Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. After historian Jeannie Felser spent seven years traveling up and down California,
2:15.9	gathering accounts, some firsthand and even recent, of those who were enslaved here,
2:19.9	Felser says she felt like she'd never truly lived here.
2:25.4	In beautiful, diverse California, which entered the union as a free state in 1850,
2:31.2	Felser found stories of black Americans turned over to plantation owners after the Civil War.
	...

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