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68 stories matching slave
- The Slave Ship That Vanished: An Old Man’s Confession in Seattle
A weathered sailor walks into a Seattle saloon and recounts the night his crew mutinied against a slaver, only to watch the ship sink with 200 souls aboard.
- The Socialist Critique of the 'Wage Slave'
A speaker at Internal Hall argues that the 'Profit System' is the source of modern poverty and calls for a new industrial order.
- The Threat of Slave Labor in Washington
A local writer warns laborers that the introduction of enslaved people into the territory could crash wages and destroy the dignity of free labor.
- Grinding Wheat in a Coffee Mill
A pioneer’s recollection of early survival in Western Washington reveals a harsh reality of isolation, lack of basic goods, and the brutal collision of cultures on the frontier.
- The Slave Smuggler's Lie: A Seattle Sailor’s Close Call on the Congo
In a gripping first-person account reprinted in local papers, a young American sailor recounts his terrifying encounter with a slave ship off the coast of Africa, where he nearly fell for a deceitful mate's story to avoid a deadly confrontation.
- The 'Contraband' Migration to Walla Walla
Newly freed enslaved people from the South arrive in the territory, facing economic exploitation and virulent local racism.
- The 'Committee of Fifteen' and the Struggle Against Chinese Labor in Tacoma
An archival look at the exclusionary 1886 resolution that fueled the violent campaign to purge Chinese residents from Tacoma.
- The Schoolteacher vs. The Coal Baron
An outspoken Newcastle teacher risks his career to confront the Oregon Improvement Company over its brutal labor practices and the displacement of local widows.
- Fifteen Minutes to Confess: The Morphine Trial of Port Townsend's Captain De Lion
A former mayor, Chilean consul and dry-dock promoter worth half a million dollars sits in superior court while his emaciated wife describes a year of morphine, delusion and a pocket watch set on the table between them.
- The Pony Express Ends: Lincoln Wins, But the South Sees War
As the Pony Express delivers the shocking news of Abraham Lincoln’s election to a nervous Sacramento, Olympia residents mark local weddings and watch their market prices hold steady.
- The Brutal Reality of Convict Leasing in the Washington Territory
A scathing look at the state's profit-driven 'convict lease' system, where human beings were treated as disposable capital and exploited for labor with zero accountability for their survival.
- The Forgotten Addicts of Seattle's Skid Road
A railroad man's harrowing story of dependency reveals the hidden suffering behind the headlines in the turn-of-the-century city.
- The Miner’s Dignity: When Newcastle Stood Against the Clock
A tense standoff at the Newcastle coal mines reveals the human cost of industrial efficiency and a worker's refusal to be 'watched like a slave.'
- The Senatorial Candidate Who Claimed 8,000 Votes
A railroad tycoon attempts to treat his employees' votes as corporate property, drawing sharp condemnation from local editors.
- The Exhausting Wait: How Seattle's 1874 Election Paralyzed the City
After election clerks were locked in a hall for thirty hours to tally votes, local journalists decried the bureaucratic slog as a 'quarry slave' ordeal that turned even the most patient men into irritable, sleep-deprived ruins.
- The Rising Voice of the Labor Movement in 1885
As Seattle's local assembly of the Knights of Labor gains traction, General Master Workman T.V. Powderly outlines a vision for the 'complete emancipation of the slaves of the earth' from the tyranny of capital.
- Twenty-Seven Years Later, a Georgia Slaveholder Walked Into His Former Slaves' Seattle Office
Two men who had once been Col. Clinton C. Duncan's property built new lives in Seattle — one a preacher, one an employment agent. He came to call, and they didn't recognize him until they did.
- YWCA to Deploy Women Officers to Combat 'White Slave' Trade
Tacoma women's organizations move to protect young women arriving at the city's depots and docks from human traffickers.
- Snowbound Actors Race the Clock to Make Their Seattle Curtain
A stalled train nearly cancels the show, but the Riggs company reaches Cordray's at 9, dresses in a hurry — and performs without supper for a handful of loyal ticket-holders.
- The Political Mess of 1880
A biting, satirical critique of the factions coalescing around the Republican party's nominee, James A. Garfield.
- The Preacher and the Circassian Slave
A popular clergyman gets more than he bargained for during a trip to a local photography studio.
- The Scandal of the Sandberg District
City council members launch a blistering investigation into a protected 'vice syndicate' they allege is forcing hundreds of women into a restricted district.
- Crackdown on Human Trafficking in the Pacific Northwest
Federal officials in Portland and Seattle move to deport Japanese women brought into the country for forced labor and prostitution.
- The Strange Odyssey of Princess Louisa
A royal daughter from the Gambier Islands, held in forced labor in Port Townsend, finds her way to freedom through the help of a sympathetic sergeant.
- The Shadow Over Seattle's Early Growth
A vitriolic 1881 congressional speech from Thomas H. Brents reveals the dark, exclusionary labor politics that defined the foundations of the Pacific Northwest.
Also about this, in other words
- The Abolitionist Who Turned His Eyes Toward Capital
Reflecting on the life of Wendell Phillips, the radical orator who identified capitalism as the next great system of servitude after chattel slavery.
- The True Cost of a Hired Hand
A frank critique of the era's labor relations, arguing that farmer complaints about hired help often stem from poor treatment and meager food rather than a decline in worker character.
- Servant Girl Sues for Alleged Cruelty
A domestic worker alleges her employers incited their young son to assault her, leading to a miscarriage and her subsequent abandonment.
- The Hidden Daily Labor of 1891
A quiet, classified advertisement reveals the invisible service economy of late 19th-century Seattle.
- The Labor Vulture: A Radical Manifesto in a Seattle Pawn Shop
An anonymous editorial titled 'Capital vs. Lamb' appeared in the Seattle press in 1876, arguing that laborers are currently enslaved by capitalists and must unite to seize all profits of their work.
- The 'White Slavery' Panic: A Lecture That Shocked the Tri-Cities
In April 1914, a visiting reverend used sensationalized rhetoric to warn Kennewick residents about the dangers of moral corruption, reflecting the era's intense anxiety over women's safety and autonomy.
- The 'Keep Out' Sign Over Snohomish
A local editor warns against the arrival of an agitator, reflecting the volatile labor politics of 1880s Washington Territory.
- The Invisible Laborers of 1891 Seattle
A glimpse into the daily domestic and service-based grind through the classified advertisements of a booming pioneer city.