SlaveVoyages.org is a website that “is the culmination of several decades of independent and collaborative research by scholars drawing upon data in libraries and archives around the Atlantic world.” The website took two years of research and information to collect. The fact that the creators of this site were able to have access to primary sources which documented the people that were illegally captured is mind-blowing to me. The sources were coming from hard copy volumes of voyages from different ports. What went through my mind was that how fortunate we are (recognizing that this was a very dark and dishonorable spot in history) that we have historical evidence in documentation form. This made me think of how many names we do not have because of the sex trades that occur today.

For example, Yahoo posted an article  about the tourist wonder that is Dubai is having women from Pakistan sold to nightclubs and brothels. Hundreds of women are taken hostage and threatened to become sex workers. In the case of the Yahoo article, the women are coerced by being lied to obtaining beauty parlor work. Unfortunately no progress is made in stopping this horrid trafficking problem in Pakistan because the gangs in charge have influential power and connections to politicians and the police. This is just one country’s problem with trafficking to Dubai. Millions of people are trafficked every year, according to the UN, and 800,000 are trafficked internationally. Those names are not documented. Those names are lost. How do we determine that we want something documented, such as slavery? Would it be that we do not want to document names of people, not just because it is illegal and inhumane, but is seen as a cause of shame? How do we determine ethically what should be database-d and what shouldn’t? The TransAtlantic Slave Trade Database is history to us that we should never forget. Then why should we forget those who are still sold today?

Sources:

Soroptomist faqs: Sex Slavery & Trafficking facts

Database: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database 

Yahoo Article: Agony of Pakistani Women Enslaved by Dubai Sex Trade