Forced labor in California
Forced labor of Native Americans in California spanned from the Spanish missions of the 18th century to the gold rush era of the mid-19th century. Native Californians were subject to systematic exploitation, forced labor, and cultural disruption.
Background
Spanish California
Pre-European contact, the estimated population of Indigenous persons native to California varies with accounts ranging from 300,000 to nearly one million. Spaniards first arrived in California when explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo landed in San Diego Bay in 1542, however, the Spanish didn't successfully settle the region until 1769 when Padre Junípero Serra founded the first Spanish mission, el Misión San Diego de Alcalá, located in modern-day San Diego.While Native Californians were treated with differing levels of respect from the padres who oversaw them, many of the Spanish soldiers in the area at the time, saw them solely as manpower to be exploited. These soldiers would often force the Native Californians to perform most of the manual labor needed in their fortresses and would hunt down any natives who refused or tried to escape. These fortresses consisted of four military installations, primarily in place to reinforce Spanish claims to Alta California. They were known as el Presidio Real de San Carlos de Monterey, el Presidio Real de San Diego, el Presidio Real de San Francisco, and el Presidio Real de Santa Bárbara. The soldiers occupying these fortresses would treat the natives poorly, often raping the native women of the villages.
Due to the conditions that the natives were forced into, there were several recorded uprisings where Native Californians resisted Spanish rule. One of the earliest instances of these uprisings was the attack on Mission San Diego de Alcalá on November 4, 1775. The Tipai-Ipai organized around 800 Native Californians from nine different villages to destroy the mission, killing three Spaniards in the process. The Tipai-Ipai were successful in their goal, burning the original mission down prior to the reconstruction of it in 1769. Despite this instance, not every Native Californian uprising was violent. An example of this can be seen in September 1795, when over two hundred natives deserted San Francisco in droves, citing their poor treatment at the hands of Spanish soldiers and priests as their reason for abandoning the area. Regardless of the nature of the uprisings conducted by Native Californians, they were met with harsh punishments at the hands of the Spanish. Even natives who conducted nonviolent forms of resistance such as deserting missions were punished by being hunted down and forced to return to where they were attempting to flee from. Other punishments for instances of resistance include execution or imprisonment while subjected to harsh labor.
Mexican California
After Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821, California became a Mexican territory. In 1824, the Mexican constitution guaranteed citizenship to "all persons", which provided Native Californians with the right to continue occupying their villages. However, the same year, the Mexican National Congress passed the Colonization Act of 1824 which granted large sections of unoccupied land to individuals in an effort to promote agriculture and economic development in California. While this act can be seen as a negative for natives during this time as it created and enforced a large class division between Native Californians and the new rancheros in the area, it also allowed for many natives to learn how to grow crops which would prove to be an essential skill.In August 1833, the Mexican government passed the Mexican Secularization Act, which secularized missions in an effort to transfer the land in which the missions were built from the Catholic Church to private individuals. In doing so, the Mexican government hoped to promote private enterprise and settlement throughout California, however, this would prove to be detrimental to the Native Californians who resided near or on these missions. While this act did state that around half of the mission's land was to be given to the natives who resided and worked there, very few natives actually received this compensation. Instead, many civil authorities confiscated most of the land for themselves as a majority of the natives were ill-equipped to accept the land that they were promised. Rather, the natives who lived on these missions were further exploited by the rancheros who took over, being forced to work for virtually nothing.
Population of Native Californians
Throughout the settlement of California, the indigenous population of the state dropped from 300,000 during Spanish rule in 1769 to 250,000 in 1834. This significant population drop is widely attributed to increased contact with new diseases brought by settlers coming into California from other parts of the world. Additionally, after gaining independence from Spain in 1821 and the secularization of the coastal missions by the Mexican government in 1834, the indigenous population suffered a much more drastic decrease in population.In the wake of American settlers streaming into California during the 1820s, it was officially acquired by the United States in 1848. Under U.S. sovereignty, the Native American population plummeted from an estimated 150,000 to 30,000, reaching a low of 16,000 in 1900.
Settlement of California
U.S. acquisition and consequences of the Gold Rush
The acquisition of California by the United States in 1848 drastically impacted the Native American population in the area. As settlers began flooding into the state during the subsequent Gold Rush in 1849, Native Californians found themselves once again drastically impacted by the ensuing societal upheaval.The influx of settlers coming into California during this time resulted in further displacement of Native Californians from their land. Settlers seeking gold and agricultural opportunities in California would exploit the Native Americans they encountered for labor and economic gains, often subjecting them to harsh working conditions in various industries including mining, agriculture, and ranching. The arrival of these settlers also affected the lives of the indigenous population by introducing new diseases that they had not encountered before. This would further deplete the Native American population within California, making them more vulnerable to exploitation and manipulation as their communities became weakened.
The establishment of reservation systems within the United States was promoted as a way to concentrate and protect Native American populations; However, it too became a mechanism for further labor control of the natives. Under the reservation system, life for the indigenous population was harsh and labor was often a condition for receiving rations and other forms of support from the government. This would prove to be detrimental for Native Americans as it effectively destroyed native autonomy and created a cycle of dependency within their community on the United States government.
California genocide
American settlers who came to California during the Gold Rush often found themselves at odds with the native population in the area. The confrontation between Americans and natives was often brutal, resulting in the enslavement, murder, and rape of Native Californian men, women, and children. As more hostile interactions began to take place between Americans and natives, incidents such as the Bloody Island massacre near Clear Lake of 1849 began to take place. During the Gold Rush, the native population of the Central Valley and adjacent hills and mountains decreased from around 150,000 to 50,000.Between 1851 and 1852, the federal government appointed three Native American commissioners—Redick McKee, George W. Barbour, and O. M. Wozencraft—to negotiate treaties with Native Californians. At the time, native tribes were recognized as foreign nations, making treaties the legal form of negotiation. However, the commissioners that were appointed knew nothing about Native Californians or their culture, making the process extremely difficult. 18 treaties were drafted, allocating 7.5% of the state of California to Native Californians residing in reservations. However, in June 1852, all of the treaties were rejected by the Senate and marked as classified documents; they were not seen again until 1905.
U.S. legislature
Despite being admitted to the Union as a free state on September 9, 1850, the 1850 Act for the Government and Protection of Indians allowed for the indenture of Native Californians. This act introduced a system of custodianship for indigenous children and established convict leasing as a form of forced labor. These systems were supported by the legal authorization of corporal punishment for Native Americans and stripped them of numerous legal rights. In 1860, the Act was amended to allow any Native Californians who were not already indentured to be kidnapped under the guise of apprenticeship. In an 1867 analysis done for the Secretary of War, it was noted that the rapid advancement of American settlements had greatly depleted sources of fish, wild fowl, game, nuts, and roots. By 1870, the population of Native Californians had declined from 40,000 at the time of the United States acquisition of California to 20,000.Abolition
During the American Civil War various political factions in opposition to slavery and other forms of forced labor united as the Union Party and began to slowly dismantle forced labor systems in California. Republicans had decried the kidnapping and forced apprenticeship of Native Americans but still viewed the arrests and leasing of Native Americans as a necessary evil to civilize them.In April 1863, after the declaration of the Emancipation Proclamation, the California legislature abolished all forms of legal indenture and apprenticeship for Native Americans. Illegal slave raiding and holding continued afterwards but died out around 1870. The end came due to the increase in European and Chinese immigrants that served as cheap laborers, and the massive reduction of California's indigenous population.