Comparison of Historic and contemporary forms of slavery and how they relate to Freedom and Movement
Both sex trafficking and historic plantation slavery revolve around movement and freedom as slaves often come from foreign countries and lose their freedom when they become a slave. In the transatlantic slave trade, Africans lost their freedom and then were forced to move to America, as well as other countries through the Middle Passage. Inversely, in sex trafficking, people are drawn to America as well as other countries that currently have sex slaves through incentivized movement. However, the soon to be slave gets to decide for themselves whether they want to travel. Once they arrive though, the slaves lose their freedom and the debt of their travel forces them into the harsh reality of being a sex slave.
It also is interesting to look at the development of slavery. While it still exists, people have established that is wrong and illegal. This made finding information about sex trafficking much more difficult because it is not talked about as frequently as planation slavery is in history classes and more effort is put into hiding it from the public and government.
As the first hand accounts on the pages about both types of slave show, slaves have been forced to engage in sexual acts with masters throughout all of history. This is an unfortunate similarity between the two types that sadly highlights people's lack of freedom as a slave, regardless of what type.
How can we change or help improve these issues today?
While plantation slavery and the transatlantic slave trade occurred in the past, it is important to remain educated about these topics to prevent history from repeating itself. As shown through this project, there are many similarities between the transatlantic slave trade and modern-day human trafficking, which shows that more change needs to occur to help eliminate slavery today. Though sex trafficking is illegal and prohibited by laws, it is still a problem in society which shows a greater need for further restrictive legislation and more accessible information about these topics. It is also important for citizens to do their part in ending modern slavery and report human trafficking. If you recognize that someone shows signs of being a victim of human trafficking, please call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline.