The word "slavery" is a loaded term. The American Society is still recovering from the practice of one ethnic group having another in "forced solitude" (King 1). The Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863 and many different groups in American society are still fighting for equality for today. Even though slavery has been outlawed throughout the globe, human trafficking has boomed on the black market, from babies to adults of any gender, age, or ethnicity. Some women and girls in third world countries are lured by bait and switch-schemes that promise a better life in first world countries, but instead acquire massive debt to pay for phony papers and then are unable to break out. Many of them are kidnapped, forcibly addicted, and made to be sex slaves. This slave market also flourishes exporting humans for cheap labor- men for the agricultural industry, and women for servants or prostitution. Governments that are tolerating this trade "are tolerating a form of slavery" (King 3). After giving a brief history of human trafficking, the horrors of this increasing trend will become apparent to the reader; because this is such a problem, a global solution must be sought after and enacted to alleviate this atrocious institution.
In 1833 the British Parliament passed a bill led by William Wilberforce to ban transatlantic slavery. Now, over 180 years later, almost all countries across the world have banned slavery (Greenhaven Press). However, while these countries have made human trafficking illegal that doesn't mean it no longer exists. Although the forms of slavery have evolved since Wilberforce's time, there is still an issue remaining throughout the United States and internationally. Statistics collected by the Polaris Project show that every year the number of humans all over the globe that are sold into slavery is increasing. Over eighteen thousand foreign nationals are being trafficked, annually, through the United States (Greenhaven).