This website explores and analyzes two of the main forms of slavery over the course of history, specifically looking at their effects in America. It compares historic plantation slavery through the transatlantic slave trade and modern-day sex trafficking and human trafficking in order to identify how slavery has transformed over time. Although plantation slavery was not the only type of slavery present in the 16th-19th centuries and sex trafficking is not the only type of slavery present today, we chose to focus on these two types of slavery because of their overall presence in Western culture and the similarities that they share. By looking at the primary demographics of these slaves, their conditions, and how these slaves were brought into slavery, people can better understand how one's ability to move and be free is inhibited by slavery. Through the first-hand accounts of people enslaved in these forms of slavery, the emotional impacts and the restriction on individual liberties as a result of slavery are revealed. The transatlantic slave trade and human trafficking serve and have served as ways of moving enslaved people around the world, contributing to a global problem of slavery. As a result, the connection between freedom and movement as it relates to slavery will hopefully be shown. This website also seeks to connect historic forms of slavery with modern forms of slavery to show the change that has occurred in the suppression of certain individual's liberties and the legal responses to restrict those actions.
Photo courtesy of Ialesh Aldarwish used under CC0 License.