People ask, “How do you get your ideas?” The idea for a story on “white slavery” came from my hippie hitchhiking trip to India in 1968-69. But then researching the subject wasn’t that easy. I was living in Santa Barbara the time. It was 1990, before Google searches and instantaneous Internet access to research.
The Santa Barbara Public Library is a beautiful traditional Spanish building and is relatively sizeable for a small town like Santa Barbara. I searched the index cards for “white slavery” but there were no books at all on the subject. Then I asked one of the librarians Olivia Flisher for help. She suggested I check the Library of Congress book, a colossal tome you’d imagine finding a monk scribing in. She flipped it open and flapped open the huge pages, running her finger down the page and coming to “white slavery.” She looked up at me. “It refers you to ‘prostitution.”
It was like a sucker punch. “No,” I said. “How can that be?” I looked at the page, incredulous. I just couldn’t believe it. “But white slavery is rape.” Olivia’s reaction was the same as mine. We were both shaking our heads in disbelief. I haven’t forgotten that moment all these years because of the sheer injustice of that stigma.
But I’ve learned as I’ve gotten to know more about this subject that the stigma is more than half of the battle that victims of sexual slavery face. It’s a major reason why most women don’t break out of slavery. Because once they are forced into prostitution society, their families, their religions, their judicial systems turn against them.
On September 7, 1968, the day after I turned eighteen I left the States and flew to Europe. All I cared about was experiencing adventure and I was stupid and blind to any potential danger. I was met in Luxembourg by my boyfriend, a Swiss guy who had already traveled in India for a year and a half. We hitchhiked down through Italy and caught a boat to Greece and then another to Istanbul. From there we traveled by trains and local buses—think bleating goats and squawking chickens as fellow passengers. We made it all the way to India. (I am writing a memoir about this trip so stay tuned!)
My blog is dedicated to my Life Mission: Living a happy and fulfilled life, caring about body, mind, and spirit. I hope you come back and read how you can define, explore, and live your Life Mission.
NO ONE WANTED TO TALK ABOUT WHITE SLAVERY
In 1990, twenty-two years after I first heard about “white slavery” and thought to use it as a subject for writing my first novel, I tried to research the subject at the library. After being shocked and repulsed by the fact that the Library of Congress considered rape to be prostitution, I pressed on to see if there were any books on the subject.
Back then the only way to get books that were not within the library was to utilize the “gold system.” You filled out a card with the name of the book, the Dewey Decimal Classification number and your address. A few weeks later you would get a card in the mail alerting you that the book you wanted had made its way from some distant library to your local library and you could come and pick it up.
As it turned out, there was very little written about “white slavery,” since Emma Goldman’s time. Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869-May 14, 1940) was a political anarchist but she was also one of the first feminists who spoke out on behalf of young working class girls who were being kidnapped or lured into prostitution. Ms. Goldman argued that the economic disparity between women and men—insufficient compensation for honest labor—worked in favor of and increased the success of white slavers. She writes, “. . . the daily routine, the drudgery, the monotony of the servant girl’s lot, and especially the fact that she may never partake of the companionship and joy of a home, is no mean factor in forcing her to seek recreation and forgetfulness in the gaiety and glimmer of prostitution. In other words, the servant girl, being treated as a drudge, never having the right to herself, and worn out by the caprices of her mistress, can find an outlet, like the factory or shopgirl, only in prostitution.”
Another problem, which Ms. Goldman recognized and was ahead of her time, was that “Everything dealing with the subject [of sex/prostitution] is suppressed, and persons who attempt to bring light into this terrible darkness are persecuted and thrown into prison.” She was so right. How can you fight rape if you can’t even talk about it?