Women fought trafficking and created a refuge in this Chinatown building
There are tunnels in the basement of a community center in Chinatown where rescued women and girls would escape traffickers who had tailed them to this safe house. Around the turn of the 20th century, Chinese women and girls in San Francisco were often forced into sex work and indentured servitude while officials turned a blind eye. A group of women began to rescue them through what came to be known as the Cameron House. Journalist Julia Flynn Siler tells the story in her book “The White Devil’s Daughters: The Women Who Fought Slavery in San Francisco’s Chinatown.”
Civic · Liana Wilcox, Laura Wenus
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Show Notes
Editor's note: The wrong audio file was uploaded to this episode. Apologies to our listeners for the confusion! As of 2:47 p.m. on 12/30, the audio file should be correct.
Read Julia Flynn Siler's additional reporting on allegations against a later director of the Cameron House here.