their employer's presence, but they were so subjugated to them that they were kept in attics or in chicken cubes, ever felt little they were paid almost nothing for their labor, they were never given days off. and there are cases that the civil rights section prosecuted in which they say even though they weren't held in change, even though they were being held by coercion, this is a form of slavery. and people can treat other people this way. >> when did the term civil rights become into our lexicon, and prior to the era that you were talking about, when the civil rights legislation or action start to move forward? >> american history -- it means different things over different periods of time. one of the things that i discovered as i wrote this book was that during the early 20th century, civil rights largely referred to property rights and contract rights of individuals who wanted to be free to contact with employers or employees or a property owner about interference from the government. in the mid- 1930s with the new deal regulations, every individual can have a right to contract to take on