New Books Network Jean Pfaelzer, "California, a Slave State" (Yale UP, 2023)
Dec 29, 2025
Jean Pfaelzer, a historian focusing on slavery and race in California, dives deep into the historical roots of slavery in the Golden State. She reveals how Spanish missions and the Russian fur trade initiated cycles of exploitation, setting the stage for plantation slaves during the Gold Rush. Pfaelzer also discusses the chilling history of gendered sexual slavery involving kidnapped Chinese girls. Drawing parallels to modern trafficking issues, she emphasizes ongoing struggles for freedom and calls for active abolitionist efforts today.
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Slavery Shapes California's Long Arc
- Jean Pfaelzer traces 250 years of layered unfreedom in California from missions to modern trafficking.
- She argues slavery shaped California's economy, institutions, and social fabric across eras.
Photo That Sparked The Investigation
- Pfaelzer was haunted by a photo of a caged Chinese girl in a San Francisco slave brothel from the 1870s–80s.
- That image and a 2015 case of a teen chained at a Humboldt marijuana grow propelled her investigation into modern and historical slavery.
Missions As Slave Plantations
- The Spanish mission system was a formal slave plantation that enslaved Native Californians under church and crown orders.
- Early mission slave revolts, like the Kumeyaay rescue of Mission San Diego, reveal continuous Indigenous resistance.