History Colorado researchers present evidence of enslavement in early Colorado
A presentation to a state commission cited accounts and records from the 1850s and early 1860s, including references to enslaved people and a request to buy a Black woman.
History Colorado researchers presented evidence of Black people being enslaved or trafficked in the area that became Colorado, citing examples primarily from the 1850s through 1863. Researcher Melissa Jones described the examples at a Sept. 30 meeting of the Colorado General Assembly’s Black Coloradan Racial Equity Study Commission.
Jones cited an 1859 account that referred to three Black men accompanying a miner as his property, census material concerning Josephine Stein and her young daughter Arabella at Fort Garland, and an 1860 letter from San Luis mill operator Harvey E. Easterday asking a business partner to buy a Black woman to do housework. Jones described the examples to commissioners. The letter documents a request, not that a purchase occurred; Jones distinguished it as evidence of intent or possible trafficking, rather than evidence that the woman was enslaved.
Jones said the researchers had not documented enslavement after 1863, including during Colorado’s statehood period, but could not rule out later cases. The documentation limit does not establish that enslavement ended in 1863.
The historical research is part of a broader state study. Colorado’s law establishing the study directs research into the potential historical and ongoing effects of slavery and systemic racism on Black Coloradans attributable to state practices, systems and policies. The study also includes an economic analysis and recommendations.
A separate History Colorado historical-research report is due March 5, 2027, followed by the commission’s final report by Sept. 3, 2027. The Legislative Council Staff request for qualifications sets those deadlines and says the economic analysis will use History Colorado’s research as it informs the final report.