A revelatory background of the trafficking of young Asian women that flourished in San Francisco during the 1st century of Chinese immigration (1848-1943) and an detailed look at the ‘safe house’ that became a refuge for all those seeking their freedom

From 1874, the Occidental Mission Home on the edge of San Francisco’s Chinatown served like a gateway to independence for thousands of enslaved and vulnerable young Chinese women and women. Run with a courageous group of female abolitionists who about The White colored Devil’s Daughters: The Women Who Fought Slavery in San Francisco’s Chinatown fought the slave trade in Chinese ladies, it survived earthquakes, fire, bubonic plague, and assault aimed against its occupants and followers. With compassion and an investigative historian’s sharp eye, Siler tells the story of both abolitionists who challenged the corrosive anti-Chinese prejudices of the time and the youthful ladies who dared to flee their destiny. She relates the way the women who ran the house defied contemporary convention–even sometimes breaking the law–by actually rescuing children from the brothels where they proved helpful or by snatching them off boats as they were getting smuggled in–and the way they helped provide the exploiters to justice. She also stocks the moving tales of several of the girls and youthful women who searched for refuge in the mission, and she writes about the lives they continued to lead. This is a remarkable chapter within an overlooked component of our history, told with sympathy and vigor.