Note 100 — Chapter II · GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF SLAVERY.

Of the Northern Californians Bancroft tells us: “Although I find no description of an actual system of slavery existing among them, yet there is no doubt that they have slaves. Illegitimate children are the life-slaves of some male relative of the mother, and upon them the drudgery falls; they are only allowed to marry one in their own station, and their sole hope of emancipation lies in a slow accumulation of allicochick (shell-money), with which they can buy their freedom”100.