Title: Trafficking in Slavery’s Wake: Law and the Experience of Women and Children in Africa , 2012, http://www.amazon.com/Trafficking-Slaverys-Wake-Experience-Histories/dp/082142002X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1362105770&sr=1-1&keywords=trafficking+in+slavery%27s+wake
Author: Edited by Benjamin Lawrance and Richard Roberts
Genre: History
Comfort level: Academic reading, intense concentration to data
Synopsis: Academic readers seeking a scholarly study of the African slave trade will find this work to be essential reading. For Individuals seeking information regarding the legacy of human trafficking, the tragic links between atrocities of the past and present are illustrated here. Lawrance and Roberts, the editors of this text, bring together several perspectives on the subject. The reality is that fertile women and young males were the desired commodities during the African slave trade. The human, personal accounts of the trials of the victims are to be provided via Elisabeth McMahon’s chapter (Trafficking and Reenslavement). McMahon provides stories about women that endured the trials of slavery. Jelmer Vos’ chapter (Without the Slave Trade, No Recruitment) provides statistical information regarding the African slave trade in the Congo (1830-65). Scholars and students studying this period will find that the attention to detail is very resourceful in this chapter. Dates of the departure of victims and the port of exit are meticulously chronicled in this chapter. A final, afterword is written and entitled The Paradox of Women, Children, and Slavery by Kevin Bales and Jody Sarich. They remind us that history may become contemporary reality. Women and children are still victims of the slave trade because the same grave situations still exist for these groups.
Critique: This was a book which required close attention to the information in the chapters. I was impressed with the statistical information and research provided by the scholars. However, I felt that this work was solely devoted to scholars. Facts are impressive and important to prove cases. Slavery exists today. Women and children continue to be enslaved and impoverished by our apathy. This is fact. Apathy continues today. This is a sad fact that this book thrusts upon us.
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