Julia Flynn Siler, White Devil’s Daughter: The Women who Fought Slavery in San Francisco's Chinatown

This event is co-sponsored by WISC - Women’s International Study Center where Ms. Siler had a fellowship to write the book. This New York Times Editor’s Choice is a revelatory history of the trafficking of young Asian girls that flourished in San Francisco during the first century of Chinese immigration (1848-1943) and the “safe house” on the edge of Chinatown that became a refuge for those seeking their freedom. Known as the Occidental Mission Home, it survived earthquakes, fire, bubonic plague, and violence directed against its occupants and supporters–a courageous group of female abolitionists who fought the slave trade in Chinese women. A remarkable story of an overlooked part of our history.

Julia Flynn Siler is a New York Times best-selling author and journalist. Her most recent book is Lost Kingdom: Hawaii's Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and America's First Imperial Adventure. Her first book, The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty, was a finalist for a James Beard Award and a Gerald Loeb Award for distinguished reporting. A veteran journalist, Siler is a longtime contributor and former staff writer for The Wall Street Journal and has been a guest commentator on the BBC, CNBC, and CNN. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and their two sons.