Reprint of the original, first published in 1881.

Between 1846 and 1873, California’s Indian population plunged from perhaps 150,000 to 30,000. Benjamin Madley is the first historian to uncover the full extent of the slaughter, the involvement of state and federal officials, the taxpayer dollars that supported the violence, indigenous resistance, who did the killing, and why the killings ended. This deeply researched book is a comprehensive and chilling history of an American genocide. Madley describes pre-contact California and precursors to the genocide before explaining how the Gold Rush stirred vigilante violence against California Indians. He narrates the rise of a state-sanctioned killing machine and the broad societal, judicial, and political support for genocide. Many participated: vigilantes, volunteer state militiamen, U.S. Army soldiers, U.S. congressmen, California governors, and others. The state and federal governments spent at least $1,700,000 on campaigns against California Indians. Besides evaluating government officials’ culpability, Madley considers why the slaughter constituted genocide and how other possible genocides within and beyond the Americas might be investigated using the methods presented in this groundbreaking book.

Follow the electrifying footprints of my family through 400 years of American history. The scope and vision of the Godfrey family, is one of maritime history, fortune seeking and western expansion. With an aura of mystique, they were visionaries and dreamers. From high seas adventure, to colonial settlement, slave trading, pioneer exploration, to Civil War heroics, mountain climbing, Forty-Niner's Gold Rush, famous Indian fighters to establishing educational and church policy, the Godfrey legacy is varied, robust and compelling. Their incredible story; unsanitized, tainted with blemishes, scars and harsh realities of life, is revealed for the first time. This book may appeal to family researchers, genealogists, historical societies and libraries.

Bloody Bay follows the history of policing in nineteenth-century San Francisco, exploring the city’s culture of popular justice, its multi-ethnic environment, and how the unique relationships formed between informal and formal policing created a more progressive policing environment than anywhere else in the nation.