"That's History. That's Truth. I Seen It Myself": T'tc~tsa (Wailaki) and the Enslavement of California Native Americans.
A brown‑bag lunchtime talk with Professor Jean Pfaelzer exploring the history and legacy of the enslavement of California Native Americans, with a focus on T'tc~tsa (Wailaki) experiences.
Event details
Speaker: Professor Jean Pfaelzer (University of Delaware; Murray Edwards College, Cambridge)
12 May | 12.30 pm to 1.30 pm (brown‑bag lunchtime talk — bring your own lunch)
Bridgetower Room, Trinity Hall, Cambridge, CB2 1TJ
Free and open to all, but booking is essential. Register via Eventbrite.
This session is part of her Easter Term residency as a Senior Research Fellow at Murray Edwards College, and provides an opportunity for colleagues working in slavery studies, human rights, memory, and migration to connect with her work.
Speaker biography
Jean Pfaelzer is the author of California, A Slave State (Yale UP, 2023, 2025) Heyday History of the Year; Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans (Random House) New York Times 100 Best Books of the Year, and four other books. Three operas (one in production), are based on Driven Out which has been optioned for a 4-part t.v. series.
Jean was on curatorial teams for I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story (Smithsonian Museum of American History.) She was featured in Ric Burns PBS American Experience “1882: Chinese Exclusion Act” & CSPAN’s “African American Slavery and the Underground Railroad in California” and other T.V. specials. She speaks on PBS, NPR and Pacifica on labor and immigration.
Currently Professor Emerita at the University of Delaware, Pfaelzer was Executive Director of the National Labor Law Center, Senior Research Fellow at The Institute for Slavery and Dependency Studies, Univ. Bonn, and Senior Legislative Analyst in the US House of Representatives, focusing on immigration, labor, and women. She was Senior Fulbright Scholar at U. Utrecht, and Senior Research Fellow at Cambridge University, Murray Edwards College. Books forthcoming include: "I Seen it Myself" California Slave Narratives: 1769-Present and Muted Mutinies: Slave Revolts on Chinese “Coolie” Ships. In 2025 Jean was a Sr. Fellow at the Institute for Slavery and Dependency Studies, U. Bonn.
She has been on the team of the Eureka Chinatown Monument commemorating Chinese immigrants who were purged from the city in 1885, and consulting on the Los Angeles monument to the mass lynching of Chinese people in L.A. in 1870.
Registration
This event is free and open to all, but booking is essential.
Please register via Eventbrite.