Enslaved in a Free Country: Legalized Exploitation of Native Americans and African Americans in Early California and the Post-Emancipation South

In 1850, California joined the United States as a free state. However, one of its first laws, 1850 Law for Government and Protection Indians, legalized enslavement Indians. Drawing comparisons between early Californian Southern statutes that maintained racialized political economies, we argue institutionalized oppression perpetrated against Native Americans in bears important legal similarities to African South, both before after Reconstruction. This similarity is not coincidence; presence American populations legislation, movement Southerners West participate California’s development, regional history Mexican Spanish systems Indigenous enslavement, economy reliant on underpaid or unpaid labor, all created conditions legally retain de facto slavery context jure freedom.