History of slavery in California

This has been described as de facto slavery,[1] as they were forced to work on the mission's grounds amid abuse, malnourishment, overworking,[2] and a high death rate.

[4][5] White colonists from the Southern and Eastern United States brought their systems of organized slavery to California.

To the padres, the Native Californians were newly baptized members of the Catholic Church and were treated with varying amounts of respect, depending on the priest in question.

The soldiers would force the Native Californians to perform most of the manual labor needed in their fortresses, and often raped the women of their villages.

A system was devised where it was virtually cost free to utilize indigenous labor; workers were exchanged between ranchos and essentially became indentured servants.

President Vicente Guerrero, who was of Spanish, African and Native American descent, abolished slavery within Mexico in 1829.

Between 1846 and 1855, the Native population decreased by two-thirds and in order to craft California's own code of labor, the Act for the Government and Protection of Indians was passed in 1850 which "legally" curtailed the rights of the Indigenous.

With the addition of vast new, agriculturally rich territories, including California, the debate over slavery intensified dramatically.

[citation needed] To the later chagrin of his fellow Southern members of Congress, he did not write the institution of slavery into the 1849 Constitution.

State Senator David C. Broderick, a fierce opponent of slavery and former firefighter from San Francisco, managed to kill the bill through parliamentary maneuver.

A backlash against these legal wins for the free black community in California whipped up in the State government; the Chinese Exclusion Act was also being debated at that time.

During the American Civil War, clergyman and politician Thomas Starr King was a fervent speaker, he spoke in favor of the Union and was credited by Abraham Lincoln with preventing California from becoming a separate republic.

[26] Starr King also raised $1 million in fundraising for Union soldiers, California's largest charity effort during this war.