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Freeing Dora: A Modern-Day Slave Narrative In July 1947, all eyes were on a San Diego courtroom. Elizabeth Ingalls stood accused of not paying domestic worker Dora Jones for over thirty years, keeping her in psychological bondage, and then trafficking her from New England to California. The US Attorney Ernest A. Tolin crafted a modern-day slave narrative, convincing an all-white jury of ten men and three women to convict Ingalls of “transportation with the intent to enslave.” U.S. vs. Ingalls has emerged as a landmark because it applied the Thirteenth Amendment to twentieth-century working conditions. Dr. Boris's interest lies in what this history tells us about power between women, intimate labor within the household, and the boundaries between free and not so free labor. Ending Dora’s invisibility exposes the afterlife of slavery and the centrality of household work to the making of race, gender, and class.

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