How can this be? Didn't President Lincoln issue the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves? Actually this applied only to the Confederate states, but the 13th Amendment was passed in 1865 that freed all American slaves.*
Recently to strengthen the prosecution of slavery cases, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) was passed. Non-U.S. citizens must be certified to participate by the Department of Health & Human Services (Usually must cooperate in prosecuting their oppressors. Victims under age 18 need not be certified. U.S. citizens need not be certified.).
The TVPA authorizes up to 5,000 victims of trafficking each year to receive permanent resident status after three years from issuance of their temporary residency visas.**
Victims of trafficking under the law include making housing, educational, health care, job training and other Federally-funded social service programs available to assist victims in rebuilding their lives.
Created new law enforcement tools to strengthen the prosecution and punishment of traffickers, making human trafficking a Federal crime with severe penalties.
Addresses the subtle means of coercion used by traffickers to bind their victims in to servitude, including: psychological coercion, trickery, and the seizure of documents, activities which were difficult to prosecute under preexisting involuntary servitude statutes and case law
In 2003, more than $200 million was authorized to combat human trafficking through the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003 (TVPRA). TVPRA renews the US governments commitment to identify and assist victims exploited through labor and sex trafficking in the United States.
On December 12, 2008 the House and Senate unanimously passed the "William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2008" which reauthorizes the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.
Types of modern slavery: almost anything can have slaves, but the main types are:
Agriculture (mainly men)
Forced prostitution (mainly women, but underage is common)
Domestic work
Importation of goods made with slave labor elsewhere.
Removal of organs
and of lesser numbers:
American females being exported for forced prostitution, perhaps mainly to Mexico.
At least one case is known where the slaves were paraded naked in a bidding room remindful of when slavery was legal.
Elements of modern slavery: foreigners and American
Foreigners
A locator finds candidates in a country, often promising high paying work compared to local opportunities and/or opportunities for education. Anyone is vulnerable, especially the mentally impaired.
The locator or someone in their organization transports the slave, often with a fake passport or smuggles the slave into the U.S. for a high fee ($1,500 seems to be a common fee which is very large for the mark or their family). The slave is to work off this fee or the family borrows the money which may be a year’s income for the family which must be repaid.
The locator (In Mexico, they are called “coyotes.”) sells the slave to a recipient organization (Agricultural picking, prostitution ring, or domestic family for quite a high sum, perhaps another $1,500). Beatings begin upon entering the U.S. and are an important part of the slavery to break the spirit. If prostitution, the slave is often “indoctrinated” upon entering the U.S. The slave often does not know where they are and does not know the local language which inhibits escape.
The recipient takes the slave’s documents and tells the slave that, if they try to escape, they will be caught and maybe killed and/or their families back home will be harmed.
The slave is often locked up when not working, often in crowded rooms with many others, sleeping on the floor perhaps on thin pads. Often there is little time for sleep and meals are poor or even non-existent. Beatings continue on the slightest provocation. In domestic cases the mark often sleeps in the basement on a small pad.
Introducing drugs to the slave seems mainly used in forced prostitution. If the slave does not “behave” drugs are withdrawn until the mark complies.
Americans: i.e homegrown slaves
Psychological methods
Drugs
Emphasis in the course was placed on North Carolina where the course was held:
News Item: Make sex trafficking unwelcome in Charlotte (Charlotte Observer, Oct. 9, 2006.
News item: Sex rings prey on immigrant women (Charlotte Observer, Jan. 29, 2006)
News item: Woman rescued after investigators discover human trafficking operation in Greensboro; Five arrested (Burlington: TheTimesNews.com, May, 8, 2010).
Some Books of interest:
"The Slave Next Door" by Keven Bales and Ron Soodalter . University of California Press, 2009, 312 p. ($16.47 at Amazon.com). The text of the course.
“The War On Human Trafficking: U.S. Policy Assessed” by Anthony M. DeStefano, Rutgers University Press, NJ, 2008, 175 p.
“A Crime So Monstrous” by E. Benjamin Skinner, Free Press, NY, 2008, 328 p.
Some Organizations:
Coalition of Immokalee Workers (perhaps the first organization to take trafficking head on) (http://www.ciw-online.org/)
Freedom Network (USA) (http://www.freedomnetworkusa.org/) which was established in 2001, is a coalition of 25 non-governmental organizations that provide services to, and advocate for the rights of, trafficking survivors in the United States (http://www.freedomnetworkusa.org/). Since the enactment of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (VTPA), Freedom Network (USA) members have worked closely with trafficked persons to ensure that they receive necessary services guaranteed under the VTPA and have also been engaged in monitoring implementation of the law.
FreeTheSlaves (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_the_Slaves) US sister organization of Anti-Slavery International (the world's oldest human rights organization). The largest anti-slavery organization in the United States. Emphasizes international slavery. The coauthor of the text for this Adult Academy is Keven Bales a cofounder of Free The Slaves and current president.
Break The Chain Campaign (http://www.breakthechaincampaigndc.org/) Rescues women domestics that are mistreated or enslaved.
Other Articles
Coalition of Immokalee Workers involvement in several anti-slavery agricultural cases:
http://www.ciw-online.org/slavery.html
Slave Labor on Hawaii's Second Largest Farm:
http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/slave_labor_on_hawaiis_second_largest_farm
6 charged in human trafficking scheme involving Thai farm workers:
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-09-03/justice/hawaii.human.trafficking_1_global-horizons-president-thai-workers-guest-workers?_s=PM:CRIME
Seeking justice for trafficked domestic workersin American Courts:
http://www.iwpr.org/PDF/05_Proceedings/Bahan_Della.pdf
Selling Our Children: Atlanta does battle against the sex trafficking of kids:
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj1008&article=selling-our-children
Make sex trafficking unwelcome in Charlotte, NC:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2009/10/09/991874/make-sex-trafficking-unwelcome.html
Woman rescued after investigators discover human trafficking operation in Greensboro; five arrested:
http://www.thetimesnews.com/articles/woman-33668-rescued-human.html
Virginia's human trafficking problem:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-opinions/2010/06/human_trafficking_comes_to_vir.html
31 Arrested in Human Trafficking Case (New York):
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/16/nyregion/17ringcnd.html
Footnotes:
* The 13th amendment, which formally abolished slavery in the United States, passed the Senate on April 8, 1864, and the House on January 31, 1865. On February 1, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln approved the Joint Resolution of Congress submitting the proposed amendment to the state legislatures. The necessary number of states ratified it by December 6, 1865. The 13th amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
In 1863 President Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring “œall persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free. “ Nonetheless, the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation. Lincoln recognized that the Emancipation Proclamation would have to be followed by a constitutional amendment in order to guarantee the abolishment of slavery.
The 13th amendment was passed at the end of the Civil War before the Southern states had been restored to the Union and should have easily passed the Congress. Although the Senate passed it in April 1864, the House did not. At that point, Lincoln took an active role to ensure passage through congress. He insisted that passage of the 13th amendment be added to the Republican Party platform for the upcoming Presidential elections. His efforts met with success when the House passed the bill in January 1865 with a vote of 119 to 56.
With the adoption of the 13th amendment, the United States found a final constitutional solution to the issue of slavery. The 13th amendment, along with the 14th and 15th, is one of the trio of Civil War amendments that greatly expanded the civil rights of Americans.
Page URL: http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=40
U.S. National Archives & Records Administration 700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20408 • 1-86-NARA-NARA • 1-866-272-6272
**Visas: There are many kinds of Visas: T-Visa (allows victims of trafficking to become temporary residents of the US), A-3 Visas for household employees of diplomats who have diplomatic protection, G-5 visas for households of international agencies such as the United Nations, B-1 Visas for domestic workers who “belong” to business people, foreign nationals and Americans with foreign residencies, J-1 visas for “au pairs” from Europe, H-2A visas are for temporary agricultural guest workers.
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