Voices in the wilderness showed the way for the modern anti-slavery movement

In the fight against modern-day slavery, four distinct anti-slavery approaches have emerged: faith-based, secular abolitionist, feminist, and human rights. While some have argued for one approach over another, each of these traditions is unique and plays an important role in combating human trafficking. They play off one another, strengthen one another, borrow language, concepts, advocacy and activism from one another, and often build on each other’s prior work. Advocates have delivered speeches, written articles and books, organized protests, and devised ways to capture the public’s attention and make the harm of slavery visible.

Each of these approaches had leaders who relied on foundational documents to make their arguments against slavery. Christians had the Bible; secular abolitionists referred to the Declaration of Independence and other founding documents of the United States; feminists created their own references, including the Declaration of Sentiments, a statement of women’s equality patterned on the Declaration of Independence; and human rights advocates used the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other documents drafted in the League of Nations and the United Nations.

“Liberty is the right of every human creature, as soon as he breathes the vital air; and no human law can deprive him of that right which he derives from the law of nature,” John Wesley, an 18th century Methodist preacher, wrote. He believed that God was on the side of the abolitionists. He described slavery as a sin and referred to it as “the execrable sum of all villainies.” The last letter he wrote before he died was in 1791 to William Wilberforce, a fellow Christian, abolitionist and parliamentary member in England, in which Wesley said, “Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.”

Some decades later, anti-slavery activists began moving away from the Bible to make their case for freeing the slaves. They may still have been Christian but, by the late 1700s, these secular abolitionists had a whole new set of powerful documents to drive home their arguments: America’s founding documents, including the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, which provided moral and legal arguments for freedom from slavery.

Coming together in 1833, they formed the American Anti-Slavery Society, one the first secular organizations to advance the notion of freedom for slaves in the United States. It grew from a few founding members the first year to a membership of over 150,000 by 1840. Its founder, William Lloyd Garrison, a passionate abolitionist, was a journalist who published a newspaper, the National Anti-Slavery Standard. In addition, the Society petitioned Congress. 

The feminist perspective on slavery, particularly sex slavery (and today sex trafficking), came from women who considered themselves both Christians and abolitionists. Yet despite the anti-slavery focus on both those traditions, something was missing that made possible a terrible exploitation of women and children. Josephine Butler, born in England, was active with her husband in the British abolitionist movement. She remembered walking through a part of London where poor women and children were being bought and sold for sex. She made the connection between females who were compelled to sell sex and the African chattel slavery. In fact, it could be said that she presented the first cogent arguments against sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of women and children.

Butler founded a number of British and international groups arguing that state-regulated prostitution was responsible for enslaving women. They documented types of state regulations of prostitution that bordered on slavery or were themselves enslaving women. Among these were forced vaginal exams conducted by government authorities; registration of women involved or thought to be involved in prostitution, including minors; imprisonment of women who refused exams; and forced hospitalization of women found to have disease. They also documented cases of debt bondage where women were sold to brothels and could not escape from the debt owed.

Representatives from various nations began meeting on causes such as peace following the Napoleonic Wars and World War I, and the prototype was set for a more formal gathering of international organizations to address world problems. The International Abolitionist Federation, formed in 1875, was one of the first and has survived into the 21st century, but many scholars consider the League of Nations, formed on Jan. 10, 1920, to be the first formal intergovernmental organization. 

The League of Nations was the precursor to the United Nations, founded in 1945 to prevent war and advance human rights and dignity. One of its key documents is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, considered a landmark document setting out the basic human rights of all people. Today there are 192 member states of the UN, all of whom have signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since that time, more than 70 conventions have been introduced, including many to address slavery and slavery-like practices.

Anti-slavery and anti-trafficking human rights organizations refer to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related conventions, treaties and protocols in the work they do to stop slavery — the most important of which are laid out in the preamble, especially “the recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world.”

Examining the early antecedents of today’s anti-slavery movement gives us an analytic context and helps us make sense of some of today’s debates on policy, program, priorities and perspectives. The language developed centuries ago by religious, abolitionist, feminist and human rights anti-slavery advocates created frameworks for 21st century anti-trafficking and anti-slavery advocates. Whether it is God’s word — for example, “Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants” (Leviticus 25:10) — or the stirring words from the Declaration of Independence guaranteeing “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” or a vision of equality for women and men, or the universal set of human rights, it is thrilling to trace the arc of the arguments and the progress made to stop slavery.   

The foundation of today’s anti-slavery work was laid in the early efforts of these four traditions, each of which developed arguments based on the tradition in which they were rooted. They protested, wrote, spoke and persevered until their cries were heard. 

Laura J. Lederer served as the senior adviser on trafficking in persons at the Department of State from 2001-2008. She is the author of “Modern Slavery: A Documentary and Reference Guide,” and is writing a new book, “Contemporary Debates in Human Trafficking,” scheduled for publication in June 2023.