The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-08-01
ARE HELD AS SLAVES.
Condition of Many Girls in the Alaskan
Country.

st. Louis, Aug. 1.-Slavery within the
domain of the United States, white per-
sons sold and held under bondage in
violation of all the laws of civilization
this is the charge of Professor w. A.
Davis, superintendent of the United
States public schools of Unalaska,
Alaska.
In letter to a ST. Louis friend the
professor tells how ne has been at work
since 1893, when he went to Alaska, to
eradicate the evil, but declares he has
been unable to get the United States
authorities Interested, He says he has
personally freed two little girls from
slavery and sent them to their homes,
while he has worked without avail to
procure the release of six other white
girls in Unalaska He says the same
conditions exist in either towns.
EIGHT GIRLS-IN. BONDAGE.
In part the professor writes:
'At the beginning of the second year,
September, 1909 canvassed the village
of UnalaSka for scholars, and to my
horror and disgust / found eight little
girls, ranging in age from to II years,
in slavery When asked their masters
if they intended to send them to school
they seemed much surprised and grew
quite indignant, and in substance said:
Send them to SCHOOL, We did not
get them to send to school; we got them
to wait on our families, and that's what
they're going to do
Immediately upon making the discov-
cry 1 called the attention of the pro-
per authorities to the fact and was as
sured that immediate measures would
be taken to remedy the evil. That was
a year and a half ago, and yet nothing
has been done officially, though by in
dividual effort | have secured the re-
lease of two pitiful little creatures who
were returned to the island from which
they came and in all probability were
sent away again at the first opportuni-
ty in some other direction.
EXTENDS OVER TERRITORY.
I'm the village of Unalaska. with a
population of not more than 200, there
are six girls in bondage as servile as
that of the blacks before their emanci-
patton, and It is safe to assume that the
same conditions prevail all over Alas
ka.
These children are usually orphans.
and are given away by those with whom
they have been left by their deceased
parents as freely and with as little
compunction as one in the states gives
away puppies They are brought here
by trading schooners from various por-
lions of the territory.
They are treated in all respects as
slaves. Their food is of the .commonest,
poorest kind; their clothing consists OF
cast-off garments, and have seen one
of these girls in midwinter swading in
snow barefoot and without enough rags
upon her body to hide her nakedness.
ALMOST BEYOND BELIEF.
with an inherited sentiment in favor
of the enslavement Of weak. oppressed
and helpless human beings, both on the
part of the natives and on the part OF
their absolute masters, the Russians, 1t
was not to be wondered at that when
this territory passed. into the hands OF
the United States slavery was common,
but that it should continue to exist
without molestation inyspite of article
Is of the amendments to the Constitu-
ton of the United States would be be-
yond my belief if 1 were not in plain
view of it's God-forsaken, wretched lit
tie victims every day."