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Presentation
The Immortal Spirit of Harriet Tubman: Scholarly Reconceptualization of Human Trafficking and Slavery
Crossing Boundaries, Making Connections, Historians Against Slavery Conference (2013)
  • Donna M. Hughes, Dr., University of Rhode Island
Abstract

I propose a presentation in which I will describe my personal and professional experiences developing and teaching university level courses on human trafficking, including both sex trafficking and forced labor.

Although I have read about historic slavery all my life, my research, writing, and teaching has focused on contemporary human trafficking, particularly sex trafficking. Seven years ago, I developed and started teaching a course on sex trafficking and a course on human trafficking, which included forced labor. I have taught these courses every year since 2006.

For some time, I did not include historic slavery in the curriculum. My research and expertise was on contemporary human trafficking. I wasn’t a scholar of slavery and wasn’t sure I was knowledgeable enough about historic slavery to include it in my courses.

Recently, I have felt compelled to include more history in my courses and make the connections between contemporary human trafficking and historic slavery. One of the reasons for this was the increasing awareness that slavery never ended, not in the U.S. or anywhere around the world. There is no demarcation or historic separation between contemporary and historic practices of forced labor or sexual exploitation. A second reason was to draw comparisons between the systems for forced labor, how they were rationalized by ideology, economics, or culture.

The present goal of my teaching is to add historic slavery to my courses and present a more seamless history of slavery and exploitation.

Keywords
  • human trafficking,
  • slavery,
  • curriculum,
  • Harriet Tubman,
  • education
Publication Date
September 20, 2013
Citation Information
Donna M. Hughes. "The Immortal Spirit of Harriet Tubman: Scholarly Reconceptualization of Human Trafficking and Slavery" Crossing Boundaries, Making Connections, Historians Against Slavery Conference (2013)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/donna_hughes/4/