This handwritten letter from John Sinclair to Washington A. Bartlett shows why Montgomery’s proclamation mattered.
Seven weeks after Montgomery declared that Native Californians were not to be regarded as slaves, Sinclair wrote to Bartlett about Thomas Larkin’s request to have four “Indian Children” bound to him.
The children were not present to be questioned, and Sinclair specifically wondered whether a six-year-old child was capable of entering into this kind of contract.
That is the troubling part. The law used words like contract, benefit, care, and approval but the children themselves were absent. So, whose consent mattered?
Heller Reading Room, Bancroft Library, Folder 173
