Slavery in Sonoma County: An Untold Story

This event will unveil the first findings of a new research project investigating the history of slavery in Sonoma County. Although California entered the Union as a “free state” in 1850, the enslavement of both Black Americans from the South and Natives of California was widely practiced and permitted. While a few historians have recently studied this topic, this County’s involvement in slavery has been overlooked before now.

Through a partnership between the Santa Rosa-Sonoma County NAACP and Sonoma State University, a research team has spent the summer exploring the archives to identify both those who were likely enslaved and those who did the enslaving. We will have a panel discussion sharing research findings followed by a period for questions from the public.

We will also have key documents on display for all to see.

Virtual attendance will be made possible by the Santa Rosa-Sonoma County NAACP.

To attend virtually, please register https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcqc-6upj4rGNIV0sLTYDWeSy5zgmnRsOii#/registration.

Please note virtual capacity is 100. This event will be recorded and posted on the NAACP's YouTube after the event. 

The research team:

Amy Kittelstrom, director of research for the project, is a Professor of History at Sonoma State University and the author of The Religion of Democracy (Penguin, 2015) and other publications. A specialist in modern thought and culture, she is currently writing a deep intellectual history of James Baldwin (1924-1987).

Jeremy Medrano, a researcher on this project, is a student of Anthropology at Sonoma State University. Growing up Queer and Afro-Latino, Medrano has lived at the borderlands of social identity. As a result, he believes in projects like this one that tackle the intersections of race, power, and politics.

Juliana Chand is 2nd year student at Sonoma State University working to earn her Bachelor’s degree in history. Her interest usually take her outdoors but this summer was spent in the Sonoma County History and Genealogy Library working on the Sonoma County Slavery Historical Research Project. Here she has spent many hours researching original documents and transcribing to do her part in the project. She hopes to use this experience as a jumpstart to her history journey so that one day she can guide young minds as a high school history teacher.