Would Slavery in Jesus or Pseudelous’s Time be Human Trafficking Now?

Slave is a charged term. It may conjure images of antebellum plantations or Maggie Gyllenhaal in Secretary. Naming an act slavery demands such density of drama, implies such historical tragedy that its use must be earned.

Does modern human trafficking look like the slavery against which Sojourner Truth fought?

A form of slavery which existed in the lifetimes of Ptolemy and Jesus (and Charlemagne and Elizabeth I and FDR and you and I), is the sale of one person to another. Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum depicts it clearly: Not only is Pseudolus trying to buy a woman from Marcus Lycus, but he himself is enslaved to his naive master, Hero. Today, both greedy Marcus Lycus and well-intentioned Hero would be human traffickers; in Rome, they were citizens.

Less charming is the following depiction in Jesus Christ Superstar, where men are selling weapons and drugs and women are selling themselves in the Temple:

The women above are renting themselves rather than permanently selling the way in which the women in Forum were sold. Whether people can rent or sell their own bodies is another field of spirited debate (link NSFW). But the culture of selling people and access to their parts is clear in both clips above.

Is our culture like that?

Many people in the anti-human trafficking movement believe that the slave houses, markets, and auction blocks were not defining characteristics of slavery, but its expression in a given time. Today a man might be sold through an ad on Back Page, a woman through a go-go bar, or a child through a phone call. And with our current slave system, they can be sold again, and again, and again. But slavery is putting a price on a person, and that is what we do today.

Next week, we’ll cover why some people sell their children/buy other peoples’ children.