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What Can Ordinary People in Ordinary Places do to Bring and Sustain Freedom for the Enslaved?

The pungent smell of stale urine set me back a step. Rats rested in leisure. The sound of disease could be heard echoing off the worn walls, and if these walls could talk, as the saying goes, few could stomach the stories. I moved forward, up two fli

David Brion Davis: An Appreciation

On July 28, President Obama awarded the National Humanities Medal to eminent historian of slavery David Brion Davis. This is no small achievement. The Medal is the highest honor bestowed by the National Endowment for the Humanities, a prize that “hon

Flor Molina

In 2001, Flor Molina became a victim of slavery in the garment industry in Los Angeles. She was an easy target: a desperate mother who had just lost her baby because she didn't have the money to hospitalize her sick child. This article originally app

Vannak Prum

In 2006, Cambodian Vannak Prum arrived in Malai, a city located in northwestern Cambodia along the Thai border, with the promise of a job. Prum left his pregnant wife in the hopes of returning home in a few months with the money to support his growin

Shamere McKenzie

Shamere McKenzie was a college student struggling to pay her tuition when she met her trafficker in 2005. He was a charismatic man who lured McKenzie into a relationship, promising to help and give her an opportunity to safely and quickly earn money

Dina Chan

In 1993, Dina Chan found herself owned by a pimp in northern Cambodia. An orphan who got into debt for overdue rent payments and tuition fees, Chan was trafficked from Phnom Penh to Stung Treng at the age of 17. Her narrative describes police corrupt

Beatrice Fernando

A divorcee at age 23, Sri Lankan Beatrice Fernando answered an ad from a local agency looking to employ housemaids. Desperate to support her three-year-old son on her own, Fernando agreed to travel and work as a maid in Lebanon. Unbeknownst to her, t

Christine Caine - The A21 Campaign

In 2007, while walking through the airport in Thessaloniki, Greece, evangelist and motivational speaker Christine Caine passed by a number of handmade posters with pictures of missing girls. Astounded that so many kids were missing, Caine did some re

Maureen Dunn - Mata Traders

When Maureen Dunn started Mata (Hindi for “mother”) Traders, a vintage-inspired and artisan-made Indian imports business, she was excited about bringing striking eastern textiles and jewelry to Chicago. Her sales were flourishing, and then one day so

Zach Hunter - Loose Change to Loosen Chains

Zach Hunter was in the seventh grade when he began studying the history of African American leaders who made a significant impact in the U.S. It was Black History Month, and Hunter was learning about abolitionists and freed slaves such as Harriet Tub