New article by Durham historian on slavery in California

11 August 2021

Media release
History

Dr Kevin Waite has written for The Conversation on how slaves were transported to California and the American West, despite slavery being illegal in those regions

While the plantations of the American South are better known, the article explores slave ownership in the American West, and how this apparent breach of Californian law was allowed to occur, despite being prohibited in the state's constitution.

Dr Waite is the author of West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire, published in April 2021, which explores these themes in more detail