Aboriginal slavery on the Northwest Coast of North America

by Leland Donald

In addition to analyzing all the available data, ethnographic and historical, on slavery in traditional Northwest Coast cultures, Leland Donald places his findings in a broader context. He compares the status of Northwest Coast slaves with that of war captives in other parts of traditional native North America, determining that such captives elsewhere were not slaves, and he considers the place of slavery in the Northwest Coast cultures as a whole. Given the importance of Northwest Coast ethnology in the history of anthropology, Donald's work will attract readers with more than regional interests, including anyone investigating the comparative and historical contexts of slavery in human society.