Free to Live will bring together worship leaders Jon Egan and Meredith Andrews, as well as, Tom Davis-CEO of Children’s HopeChest, for a night of worship, speaking, and a call to action. We cannot ignore the millions living in the awful bondage of sex trafficking and Free to Live is bringing awareness in a multi-media, multi-sensory event sure to empower and equip you to fight against this awful crime against humanity.

Here are the dates and the best part is the tickets are completely free!

To get more information and request tickets, go here.

I won’t be back in the country yet so everyone else needs to go and tell me about it!! I know this is sure to be an experience you won’t soon forget!!

How well have we remembered..?

The 13th Amendment states 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.

That was written in 1865. Right after a bloody war. Fast forward to the year 2011. And we have forgotten. The US has once again become a hotspot for slavery.We are a destination country for slave labor. Sure, we made the term a little fancier. We call it Human Trafficking (HT). But as I sat through a week of training on fighting against HT, I heard story after story, case after case, and statistic after statistic describing and detailing this growing, global industry that is slavery at its very core. We have truly forgotten who we are and what America is supposed to stand for.

HT is simply slavery. And it doesn’t look that much different from the slavery that led us to the Civil War. Remember that excerpt from part 1 detailed the life of a slave in early America? I updated it a little to describe what life is like for a slave in modern America.

The life of a slave is a life of hard work. Most slaves work 12-20 hours a day, seven days a week. Some slaves work in the “employers’” home cleaning, cooking, or taking care of the children. Some slaves work in the fields planting or picking tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables. Some slaves work our streets to provide “services” to paying customers.

Slaves live in cramped rooms with many other slaves. They own nothing and most often do not have access to their wages, documents or personal possessions. The slave owners feed them the least expensive food available – usually noodles and water. Meat is never eaten and most are constantly hungry. They are not allowed to leave.

Slaves are made to work by “traffickers.” These are men and women who manage the slaves and beat and abuse them if they d0 not work hard enough.

Once again we have deemed that we are too good to work in the fields and thus we exploit foreign workers to harvest and pick our fields. We have lost respect for our women and children and subject them to awful, disturbing crimes.  And our country is one of the biggest perpetrators and suppliers of demand for modern-day slavery. We have forgotten our history. And sometimes its the very people that fight for our freedom today that  are part of the reason so many are enslaved. What are we doing as a country? How have we so quickly forgotten that we came here and fought awful wars to gain and protect our freedom and the freedom of all men?

3,000 children are sold into HT every day. Over 1.2 million a year. 100,000 of those are children from our neighborhoods and sidwalks. US Citizens. Born with unalienable rights of life and liberty. Nicholas Kristof told a college assembly that sex trafficking of girls now is 10 times larger than the slave trade was before the Civil War. But its not the numbers that will change your mind. Its the face of a 12 year girl who is required to earn $500 on the streets tonight or she will be beaten and raped by her trafficker. Its the face of the laborer from South America who was promised a good paying job, but instead is beaten for not picking fast enough and hasn’t seen a dime of money in months. We have to wake up. We have to open our eyes. We cannot ignore the problem any longer or the values that so many men have lost their lives over will be nothing more than history themselves.

We need modern-day Harriet Tubmans. We need abolitionists. We need people who are willing to stand up and say “Enough is Enough!”  People who will stop ignoring the reality that a country that should be a beacon of hope is becoming a country that is a haven for slavery. And we need people who are educated on the issue because most of the victims of this industry have no idea they are victims. Most think they are just in a bad situation, not that they are a victim of a crime prepetrated against mankind all across the world.

I will be one of those people. Will you? I will believe that this is not the end, that there is hope for a better world. I will fight for the freedom of ALL once again. Will you join me in that fight?

Check out The Polaris Project for more information on the fight against Human Trafficking in the US.

They say if  you don’t learn from history you are bound to repeat it.

Go back to America in the early to mid-1800s. Although newly formed as a nation, we were already divided on what would become an issue that led to a very bloody war. Slavery.

The Northern States saw slavery as being contradictory to the ideals and principles upon which they had fought the Revolutionary War and sought the gradual emacipation of slaves. In the South, however, the slave population was much larger and played a key role in their economic success. More slaves=more profit from free labor. White males believed they should not be subject to the hard labor of harvesting cotton, tobacco, and rice. Hence, we went to Africa, rounded up a whole herd of blacks, shipped them here under awful circumstances, and if they lived, subjected them to even more awful working conditions. Slaves in the lower south were often not fed, housed, or cared for well, if at all. They were not allowed to read or write. They were not allowed to leave their plantations. Slave patrols were set up to canvas the area and look out for runaways. The cost was often your life if you dared to run or the life of your family or in the least a very severe beating.The slaves were treated as animals, property to be bought and sold, and as lower then the whites. (Source: Slavery In The Civil War Era) Here is another description of what it was like to be a slave in early America:

The life of a slave was a life of hard work. Most slaves worked from sun-up to sundown, six days a week. Some slaves worked in the “master’s” home cleaning, cooking, or taking care of the children. Most slaves worked in fields, planting or picking corn, tobacco, or cotton.

Slaves lived in small wooden shacks. They had one set of clothes, which they wore until they couldn’t mend them any more. The slave owner fed them the least expensive food available – usually corn meal or grits. Meat was a special treat reserved for holidays.

Slaves were made to work by “overseers.” These were men who managed the slaves and beat them if they did not work hard enough. (Source)

White owners kept their slaves from being educated, threatened, and beat them to keep them under their control and ensure that their slaves did not try to escape. And still, slaves attempted to escape-even if it meant their life. A vast network rose up-The Underground Railroad-to help slaves escape to the North. The network consisted mostly of individuals that helped move slaves from the South to the North where they would be free. Estimates indicate that the South lost of 100,00 slaves to the Underground Railroad between 1810 and 1850. (Source: PBS) However, the Southern plantation owners were smart and by keeping their slaves un-educated and not allowing them to speak, they could keep them from identifying themselves as slaves. Harriet Tubman, an abolitionist who was key in the Underground Railroad said, “I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” (Quote)

While in highschool, I had the unique opportunity to experience a reenactment of the Underground Railroad. It took place at night and despite the fact that I knew I would go home in a few hours, it was very real and very scary. I have never gotten over experiencing being yelled at at, marched in a single file line, chased down the road by barking dogs and fake guns, and listening to people explain the dangers of attempting an escape. The slaves who escaped were told to look for the light in the houses and there they could find a safe place in which to rest and eat.

That light of hope was cast in another profound way in 1860 with the election of President Abraham Lincoln. He despised slavery and the North saw this as an opportunity to defeat the evil practice of slavery. Abolitionists pressed him to outlaw slavery, and the Southern states got nervous. Finally, over fear of losing their labor and livelihoods, the South suceded from the Union, and war began.

While historians argue over the reasons for the Civil War, there can be no doubt that slavery was an issue that played heavily into the war. It was not the only reason, but it was a reason. (Source) States rights and other economic concerns also played into a war that has become the bloodiest war we have ever fought. Brother fighting against brother, this war and all that it stood for are a part of our history we would do well to not forget. With the signing of The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, slaves were given the hope that they would be free. And as the war ended, we see the practice of slavery outlawed in the USA.
The 13th amendment of the US Constitution reads, “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 addition, Title 18, U.S.C., Sec. 1584, makes it a Federal crime or offense for anyone to willfully hold another person in involuntary servitude. (source)

While slavery was now outlawed, the road to equality in America would be paved with more bloodshed and violence. While African-Americans were now free, they were not considered equals. They were not seen as victims to a heinous crime, but as criminals and individuals that were unworthy to ride on our buses, eat at our tables, or drink from our water fountains. It took a group of people led by Martin Luther King, Jr. to finally win civil rights for black Americans in 1968-almost 100 years after slavery was outlawed and “freedom” was gained.

It is year 2011. How well have we remembered 1865? Stay tuned for part 2 of this discussion.

Glad you asked! 🙂

I am attending the CNMI Human Trafficking Intervention Coalition Regional Training Conference.

For those of you that may be new to my blog, abolishing human trafficking in an issue I am very passionate about. I tread, I donate, and I plan to spend my life fighting against this disgusting and awful industry. So when a friend told me she could get me in on this conference, I was all over it!!

The FBI is coming, and Homeland Security, and a bunch of lawyers and other really important people fighting this crime. The training should be awesome and I am pretty stoked to have the week off work!

All that to say, I am very excited for the week ahead! Not to mention its also the first official week of Tread on Trafficking!! Head over here to donate to my cause and help me fight this awful crime!!