Yes. While California did not have large-scale plantations like the Southern states, slavery existed in various forms during California’s early history.
Legally California was not a slave state, yet more than 2,000 enslaved people were brought to the state from 1850 to 1860, typically by plantation owners, to work in gold mines, according to the task force’s report . State and local government officials also, at times, upheld fugitive slave laws.
History of Slavery in California
1850 — A free state? California entered the Union in 1850 as a free state, but its early state government supported slavery. Proslavery white southerners held a great deal of power in the state legislature, in the court system, and among California’s representatives in the U.S. Congress.1852 — Fugitive slave law : In 1852, California passed and enforced a fugitive slave law that was harsher than the federal law. This made California more proslavery than most other free states. California also outlawed nonwhite people from testifying in any court case involving white people. California did not ratify the 14th Amendment, which protected equal rights of all citizens, until 1959. The 15th Amendment, which prohibited states from denying a person’s right to vote because of race, was not ratified until 1962.1854 — Basil Campbell : Basil Campbell was born enslaved in Missouri, where he was married and had two sons. In 1854, a man named J.D. Stephens bought Campbell for $1,200 and forcibly moved him to a farm in Yolo County. J.D. Stephens enslaved Basil Campbell in California, ignoring California’s status as a free state, for another seven years, until Stephens decided that Campbell had sufficiently paid off his purchase price. Campbell never saw his wife or two sons again.1856 — Biddy Mason : Bridget “Biddy” Mason was forced to travel West with Robert and Rebecca Smith, slaveholders who had joined the Mormon migration to Utah. The Smiths eventually took Mason and her three children to San Bernardino, California, still captive. Mason befriended free Blacks who alerted the local sheriff when the Smiths made plans to take Biddy and her daughters to Texas. The sheriff took Mason and her family into protective custody before they could be moved.1857-1858 — “Fugitive slave” Supreme Court case : California’s first governor, Peter Burnett, was a former slave owner from Tennessee and Oregon who wanted to ban African Americans from the state. He served on the state Supreme Court when it ordered a fugitive, Archy Lee, to be returned to his enslaver, in violation of California’s constitution. should include the cessation of continuing violations, and the promise that it won’t
happen again.