Exploring the Analogy between Modern Trafficking in Humans and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

Abstract

Ironically, there are more slaves now than there were even at the height of the transatlantic slave trade. We must show new energy in fighting back an old evil. Nearly two centuries after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, and more than a century after slavery was officially ended in its last strongholds, the trade in human beings for any purpose must not be allowed to thrive in our time. Apologists for the trans-Atlantic slave trade of yesteryear advocated for better ventilation and mattresses on ships for slaves, but all the regulation in the world would not have changed the fact that people used as slaves deserved freedom. The children and women of today deserve freedom too.