by Lauren Hunter
Two hundred years ago, Member of Parliament William Wilberforce presented to the House of Commons a petition with 390,000 signatures, the climax of a campaign that led to the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.
To mark the bicentennial this month, London hosted a march through the city led by ecumenical clergy, and on March 27 Westminster Abbey was the site of a national commemorative service. It was attended by the Queen, who laid a wreath at the Abbey's memorial to Wilberforce, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who told the assembly of political and religious leaders that slavery remained "hideously persistent" around the world, and those who led the abolition movement "woke up the conscience of an entire civilization."The British bicentennial has received wide recognition in the U.S. as well, and this year contemporary abolitionists hope to submit a petition to the Congress with the same number of signatures as Wilberforce's historic document -- a symbolic effort to urge American policymakers to combat global slavery more actively, and not just abroad.
"For most Americans the occasional newspaper headline is the only indication that forced labor exists in the United States. Each year forced labor generates millions of dollars for criminals who prey on the most vulnerable," according to "Hidden Slaves," a 2004 report published by the Human Rights Center at the University of California at Berkeley in collaboration with Free the Slaves, a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., and the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights at Florida State University. "Forced labor," says the report, "is a serious and pervasive problem in the United States for four reasons: it is hidden, it is inhumane, it is widespread, and it is criminal."
Slavery and human trafficking for labor and sex were the topics at a recent event at the Tivoli Theatre in Washington, DC featuring the leaders of groups making awareness and, ultimately, abolition of modern-day slavery their goal. The evening was sponsored by the Not for Sale campaign, a collection of "individuals, musicians, artists, people of faith, businesses, schools and sports teams," according to its Web site, who are united to end slavery, and hosted by Sojourners, the progressive evangelical magazine.
"Bring what you are passionate about and skilled in to this movement," said David Batstone, a professor of ethics at the University of San Francisco and head of the Not for Sale campaign, to an audience of mostly college and young career people. "I'm not going to tell you what an abolitionist looks like," he added, inviting wide involvement in the movement. Batstone, who is also the author of NOT FOR SALE: RETURN OF THE GLOBAL SLAVE TRADE AND HOW WE CAN FIGHT IT (HarperSanFrancisco, 2007), said the campaign's goal is to use people's natural abilities and passions to stop slavery.
According to Not for Sale, 27 million people are enslaved worldwide, and at any given time approximately 10,000 people are enslaved in the United States. In 2000, Congress passed the Trafficking and Victims Protection Act, legislation that recognizes human trafficking as synonymous with slavery and that declares it a federal offense. The act was reauthorized in 2005 to increase its protections.
The largest concentrations of trafficking for both labor and sex in the United States take place in California, New York, and Texas. The majority of the victims are from Korea, Thailand, Peru, and Mexico, according to the Office of the Attorney General. But the Polaris Project, an antislavery grassroots organization, emphasizes that one of the major trafficking myths is its victims must be foreign. US citizens, too, are caught up in human trafficking and modern-day slavery. The UC Berkeley research found forced labor in the U.S. predominantly in prostitution, domestic work, agriculture, sweatshop factories, restaurant and hotel work, and entertainment.
Pop culture icons such as Snoop Dogg and Fifty-cent promote prostitution and trafficking by mainstreaming the word "pimp," according to research conducted by Kathleen Y.S. Davis of the Polaris Project. Many young people now think of "pimping" as glamorous, she told the Washington audience, when in fact it is another form of modern-day slavery. In response to the sexual libertarianism of MTV and other pop culture venues, added Batstone, "one person's freedom might mean another person's bondage."
Still, Batstone said he firmly believes the modern abolitionist movement will be led by young people like Wilberforce, who was only 21 when he was elected to the House of Commons and introduced his first anti-slavery bill. Most of the attendees at Sojourner's Washington event were between 20 and 35 years old, and a major theme of the evening was embracing a Wilberforce spirit and believing that one person can make a difference.
"I hope this generation identifies themselves as Generation J -- 'J' for justice," Batstone said, and there is evidence around the country that some of them are doing just that.
The University of Minnesota has a group called Students against Human Trafficking, according to the Minnesota Daily, the school newspaper, that focuses on sex trafficking and the travel industry. Campus Coalition against Trafficking, sponsored by the Polaris Project and Fair Fund, is an international coalition that engages young women in working "to build the anti-trafficking movement by training emerging leaders, fostering youth empowerment, raising awareness about human trafficking, and encouraging cross-sectoral linkages among social justice issues." And fifteen-year-old Zach Hunter of Georgia has written BE THE CHANGE (Zondervan, 2007), a compilation of the stories of both modern-day slaves and historic abolitionists who have inspired him to raise thousands of dollars to fight slavery.
Hunter is the youth spokesman for Amazing Change, a campaign linked to the release of AMAZING GRACE, the recent movie about the life of Wilberforce. The movie's title is after the famous hymn written by John Newton, slave trader turned pastor, who served as Wilberforce's mentor. According to Erik Lokkesmoe, project manager for the movie, a portion of its proceeds will go to fighting human trafficking and finishing what Wilberforce started. People can still sign the congressional petition to end modern-day slavery on the Amazing Change Web site at www.amazingchange.com, where by late March the number of signatures had surpassed 100,000.
Many important American abolitionists such as Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and Frederick Douglass figure significantly in the history of anti-slavery.
