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Slavery in the Twenty First Century
essays on 13th amendment
Slavery in the Twenty First Century
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Since the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution by the states on 6 December 1865 was suppose to be huge celebration for equal rights that recognized all people are created equal and free from slavery. This type of crime committed against humanity was solely directed against certain races, social, or economical classification indifferences in America. However, this explicit 150-year-old constitutional right to remain free continues to be violated daily through out the United States and internationally by the actions of criminal organizations, corporate businesses, and governments with the Human Trafficking epidemic.
My intent is to bring awareness to our communities at the lowest level possible to protect our families against these criminals and organizations that continue to operate freely to manipulate people at all ages, race, gender, social, or economic classification through the means of new modern day slavery tactics that is better known as human trafficking. First, what actually declares Human Trafficking as a crime or conveyed as slavery? According to the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), it defines the term used by the United Nations as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons by improper purpose including forced labor or sexual exploitation. This includes given consent or not by the victim for these actions. (Office of Justice Programs, 2012)
This international accepted definition used by the NIJ for human trafficking provides the legal system a secure parameter of the law to prevent these criminal elements from using the content as a loophole in the law wording to avoid legal ramifications from the justice systems either in America or Internationally. The corrupti...
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...s report points out the lack of control the victims have minimal personal possession of items, no financial connection with legitimate institutions such as banking, credit affiliations, and the lack of actual currency. They often circulate in the public without having proper identification (driver’s license, passports, Visas, or SSN card) with guardians in close proximity of them monitoring their actions and what they say to outside sources. Even when the victims make contact with other people, the conversation capabilities of the victims demonstrate many inconsistencies about their knowledge of time, factors with familiar geographical location and to logically explain themselves in general conversations that bring attention to them. These victims remain in state of confusion due to the physical and psychological circumstances they encounter in each human trafficking
It should be noted that the Declaration of Independence made it clear that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Although this progressive view was shared by many of the members of the Constitutional Convention, it is clear that the original text of the American Constitution is rather pro-slavery and up to a certain point protects the slave-owners. It is of utmost importance to note that the words slavery/slave are not used in the text of the Constitution.
As victim count continues to rise, its difficult to see how such great numbers of men, women and children are bought and sold every year. Trafficking can be found in many forms, including: prostitution, slavery, or forced labor (Harf and Lombardi, 2014). It wasn’t until the 1980’s that international human trafficking became globally noticed. With the lack of government intervention and control in several nations, and the free trade market, slavery once again became a profitable industry (Harf and Lombardi, 2014). As previously mentioned, easier movement across nations borders is one of the outcomes of globalization. It is also what makes human trafficking so easy today. It is estimated that about 20.9 million people are victims across the entire globe (United Nations Publications, 2012); trafficking accounts for 32 billion dollars in generated profit globally (Brewer, n.d). 58 percent of all human trafficking was for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and of this 55-60 percent are women (United Nations Publications,
This study examines the research that initially began on October 28, 2000 and spanned through to October 31, 2009. If a human trafficking case occurred in the US, with the victim being under the age of 18, and at least one arrested, indicted or convicted felon, their case would be filed in the data analysis report. This research resulted in the finding of 115 separate incidents of human trafficking, involving at least 153 victims and 215 felons or perpetrators, 117 (53.4%) of them being convicted of their heinous actions. Each individual case consisted of anywhere between 1 to 9 victims of trafficking. 90% of these victims were females between the ages of 5 to 17 years who were held captive from less than 6 months to 5 years. 25 (16.3%) of these minors were exploited through some type of false promise and 15 (9.8%) were kidnapped. 34 (22.2%) of the victims were abused through com...
As Abraham Lincoln was president “On February 1, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln approved the Joint Resolution of Congress submitting the proposed amendment to the state legislatures.” President Lincoln was a big and a decisive part of ratifying the 13th Amendment.” (Our Documents). The passing of the 13th Amendment was one of the most influential Amendments passed in the U.S. ended slavery, but African Americans still did not have the same rights that white Americans did. With the help of the 16th president Abraham Lincoln the ratification of the 13th Amendment would not exist. After the passing of this document the African Americans did not have the same freedom the white Americans did but they had a lot of freedom. Without this document where would the United States be?
Many citizens in the United States were led to believe that after the Civil War, the United States and its’ territories had indeed freed all slaves from their masters but, what many did not see coming was a loophole in the 13th Amendment that would leave a major footprint in U.S history. The thirteenth 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". However, the key phrase in this amendment was “except as a punishment for crime”. Since slavery was illegal because of the 13th amendment, many individuals and large corporations found a new and legal method to continue
The thirteenth amendment to the Constitution proclaims that “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.” This amendment was the piece of history that abolished slavery and did innumerable things for our country, but it also made room for something now known as black criminality. Through the thirteenth amendment emancipation was born. Through the language of the constitution— “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime”, the amendment was able to make loopholes for certain social agendas that led to the opposite of what the amendment intended to do.
In 1865 the United States passed the thirteenth amendment of the constitution which formally abolished the practice of slavery in the United States. Over a century has gone by since this day, and yet somewhere behind the mask of freedom that our country holds with such pride lingers a hidden trade. This is the trade of modern-day slavery that remains prevalent in our country. Despite the freedoms we are granted as a citizen of the United States, human trafficking is an enormous issue that is often overlooked. In fact, very little light is shown on this topic, but the awful reality is there.
Identifying the victims and rescuing them is the main key to preventing human trafficking, which in turn reduces costs to the healthcare system. Human trafficking is a form of organized crime. It involves a hierarchical system, which is similar to that of other criminal organizations. The traffickers represent every social, racial and ethnic group. Some traffickers are involved with local gangs, while others are members are part of nationally recognized gangs and organizations. Some traffickers are independent and do not have any affiliation with other gangs or organizations. Traffickers exist irrespective of gender. There are several women in human trafficking activities along with men. Several young girls living on the streets, engage in prostitution. Some of them are involved in nationwide organized criminal activities where the organizers of crime force these young girls into human trafficking. It is problematic to enforce anti-trafficking laws because in most of these cases, the victims do not tell the identity of the traffickers with the fear of being
The United States is a major port for human trafficking and, “Due to the covert nature of human trafficking, it is difficult to ascertain which countries are the primary source nations for trafficking into the US” (Hepburn). People of all ages and genders are at risk to human trafficking (Hepburn). Women and girls make up about fifty-six percent of the people trafficked for forced labor, while men and boys make up the other forty-four percent; children make up forty to fifty percent of those numbers (Hepburn). Ninety-eight percent of the people trafficked for sexual explorations are women and girls (Hepburn). Children tend to be targeted more than adults because they are much more vulnerable. Human trafficking has different forms, and “While trafficking for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation is more publicized in the media, it is not the only form of trafficking that takes place in the US” (Hepburn). Trafficking for the purposes of forced labor is just as likely to occur as trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation (Hepburn). Many citizens have never heard of human trafficking for something other than sexual exploitation. Hepburn shows that, “Forty-three percent are trafficked for purposes of...
The 13th amendment was adopted speedily in the aftermath of the Civil War, with the simple direct purpose of forbidding slavery anywhere in the United States. The 13th Amendment took authority away from the states, so that no state could institute slavery, and it attempted to constitutional grant the natural right of liberty. Think that this amendment would suffice, Congressional Republicans pushed the amendment through. To counter the amendment, a series of laws called the Black Codes were enacted by the former Confederate states, which
Summary: We see that there are many different aspects and types of human trafficking that everyone should be made aware of. As a whole human trafficking is a lucrative industry raking in $150 BILLION globally. The impact that this industry has on its victims is
Human trafficking is the act of coercing someone into working against his or her will. Anyone can be a victim, especially young girls who are vulnerable to the captor’s lies. Victims have been found anywhere from driving ice cream trucks to touring boys’ choir. In her talk, Noy Thrupkaew shares several examples about how people are deceived and coerced into coming to the United States and being forced to work for someone else. She focuses on how close to home human trafficking really is and how the victims don’t necessarily need saving but solidarity. In Noy Thrupkaew’s speech about human trafficking, she not only shares her own story but also the different situations regarding how the crime functions. Because the speaker
Many organizations and programs are working to stop human trafficking and its insubordinate criminals. Organizations, such as the United Nations Conven...
One reason why human trafficking is a serious crime that many people are unaware of is because it secretly takes place in the United States. Between 2007 and 2012, there were reports of 9,298 different cases of human trafficking (Polaris Project). An example of how unknown this topic is is that 41% of sex trafficking cases and 20% of labor trafficking cases were proven to have United States citizens as victims (Polaris Project). And this is only what we know so far. There are thousands of cases that we don’t know about. Many people also don’t know that men, women, and even children are also taken hostage by human traffickers. An example of this would be that out of those 9,298 cases that were reported, women were victims of sex trafficking in 85% of those cases. Men were victims of labor trafficking in 40% of those cases (Polaris Project). Approximately 300,000 children are at risk of being prostituted in the United States (U.S. Department of Justice). Children are even more under the radar than we know about. On average, one in three teenagers on the street will be lured toward prostitution within 48 hours of leaving their home (National Runaway Hotline). For example, two female friends who were minors ran away from home and were prom...
In the international effort to prosecute human trafficking, several guidelines and definitions of human trafficking have been provided: