Slavery Today

As my research of human trafficking is coming to end, I wish to spend my last post discussing how this personally affects me. During Freshman Seminar, I had the chance to read Frederick Douglass’ narrative. This had a profound impact on me and my research, because I wanted to get an understanding of how slavery has changed. Looking through more statistics and reading personal stories, I cannot help but think that modern slavery is even worse than pre-Civil War era. I found one statistic, which I do not wish to cite as I do not know the accuracy of it, that claimed that there are more affected by trafficking today than of the 400 years of slavery before the Civil War. How can we as world of human beings allow slavery to still exist, let alone allow it to affect a greater population?

Human trafficking, in particular sexual exploitation of women, has been a subject that has always been near to my heart. While I personally have never been sold into sex slavery or known someone who has, I have experienced many horrendous events in my life that I would say are comparable. Living in America, my family and I would be protected from such inhuman events and that justice would be served. However, that is not the case. The United States refuses to try to prevent sexual exploitation and rape and refuses to assist those who have had to experience these horrible crimes. In the Constitution, I am guaranteed the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and yet rape victims are not entitled to any of these. While it is difficult to even get help in this society, if one wishes to pursue charges against the offender, it is the victim that is turned into a criminal during court. I cannot even stomach how the United States claims to serve the interests of its people and allows such heinous events to transpire.

To be honest, I wish the world would completely revise its rape laws. Every nation in the world should work to support victims, particularly those who have been uprooted from their homes and sold into the sex industry. It is the responsibility of every human being to protect their own from what I consider to be the most degrading and scaring crime one could become victim to today. While I wish those who lost their lives during slavery and the Civil War did not die in vain, it seems that perhaps they did since modern slavery is still affecting every nation in the world.

This video is one I came across in my research, but I was not sure when to post it. It seems to be appropriate now.

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