During
the first hundred years of Chinese immigration--from 1848 to 1943--San
Francisco was home to a shockingly extensive underground slave trade in
Asian women, who were exploited as prostitutes and indentured servants.
In this gripping, necessary book, bestselling author Julia Flynn Siler
shines a light on this little-known chapter in our history--and gives us
a vivid portrait of the safe house to which enslaved women escaped. The
Occidental Mission Home, situated on the edge of Chinatown, served as a
gateway to freedom for thousands. Run by a courageous group of female
Christian abolitionists, it survived earthquakes, fire, bubonic plague,
and violent attacks. We meet Dolly Cameron, who ran the home from 1899
to 1934, and Tien Fuh Wu, who arrived at the house as a young child
after her abuse as a household slave drew the attention of authorities.
Wu would grow up to become Cameron's translator, deputy director, and
steadfast friend. Siler shows how Dolly and her colleagues defied
convention and even law--physically rescuing young girls from brothels,
snatching them from their smugglers--and how they helped bring the
exploiters to justice. Riveting and revelatory, The White Devil's Daughters is a timely, extraordinary account of oppression, resistance, and hope.
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