User:Cjcarney/White slavery

White slave traffic
The International Agreement for the suppression of the White Slave Traffic is a series of anti–human trafficking treaties, the first of which was first negotiated in Paris in 1904. It was one of the first multilateral treaties to address issues of slavery and human trafficking. The Slavery, Servitude, Forced Labour and Similar Institutions and Practices Convention of 1926 and the International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women of Full Age of 1933 are similar documents.

White Slave Traffic Act of 1910
In 1910 the US Congress passed the White Slave Traffic Act (better known as the Mann Act), which made it a felony to transport women across state borders for the purpose of "prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose." The Act was applied to a wide variety of offences, many of which were consensual in nature.

Criminal Law Amendment (White Slave Traffic) Bill
An attempt was made to introduce a similar law into the UK between 1910 and 1913 as the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1912. Arthur Lee would state in the House of Commons: "the United Kingdom, and particularly England, is increasingly becoming a clearing-house and depot and dispatch centre of the white slave traffic, and the headquarters of the foreign agents engaged in the most expensive and lucrative phase of the business." South America was stated as the main destination for the trafficked girls. The Spectator commented that "the Bill has been blocked by a member [alluding to Frederick Handel Booth ] or members who, for various reasons consider that it is not a measure which ought to be placed upon the statute book" as it would affect the liberty of the individual.

White Slavery and Race
While women were indeed victims of trafficking in the US, the public outcry about white slavery was mostly in response to racial anxieties about interracial contact. John D. Rockefeller Jr. was the first to convict a defendant for “white slavery” case using the Mann Act. In People v. Moore, an all-white jury convicted Bella Moore, a mixed race woman from New York, for the “compulsory prostitution” of two white women - Alice Milton and Belle Woods. Another notable court case involved Jack Johnson. Using the Mann Act, federal prosecutors convicted Johnson of transporting his white girlfriend across state lines.