UW student organizes benefit concert to end slavery

The 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery in 1865. Yet today, slavery continues to thrive.

There are 27 million slaves worldwide, according to Free the Slaves (FTS), a nonprofit organization with a 25-year plan to end slavery. Of those slaves,14,500 are in the United States.

Tomorrow freshman Whitney Hahn will host a concert, “A Red-Light to Slavery,” at the University Baptist Church to prevent human trafficking in the United States. Hahn was inspired to hold the event after taking a sociology course from UW professor Susan Pitchford.

“I had no idea about slaves in the United States,” Hahn said. “They’re being starved and they’re barely surviving. Someone has to do something. Why not me?”

The fundraiser will provide refreshments from Starbucks as well as entertainment from bands like the DU House Band, the Golden Hahn and Stefan George. Bracelets with the words “Free the Slaves,” resembling Lance Armstrong’s “Livestrong” bracelets, will be sold for $2. All proceeds will be donated to FTS in Washington, D.C.

People usually ask where in Africa the proceeds will go, Hahn said. But the problem is in the United States.

“A couple months ago, I would’ve thought the same thing,” Hahn said. “I had no idea. But it’s still happening. Just because they passed some law, it doesn’t stop anything.”

Slaves in the United States can be found in 90 cities, according to FTS. Fifty percent of the slaves in the United States are in the commercial sex industry, while the remaining half is associated with the agriculture, domestic services and manufacturing trades.

“You can’t find a country today that allows slavery,” Pitchford said. “People think of slavery as legal ownership, but people today are held illegally as slaves.”

Two trends have contributed to this rise of modern-day slavery, Pitchford said.

One is a huge increase in population, and the other is the economic change that forces people to move to urbanized areas, leaving them without job securities, she said.

“A lot of people are desperate and vulnerable,” Pitchford said. “They can be conned into bogus contracts.”

Due to slaves’ vulnerability, rehabilitation and counseling are vital to the prevention of modern-day slavery, she said.

“If we don’t give rehabilitation, they’re just going to get suckered back into slavery,” Pitchford said.

In addition, people are often trafficked into the poorest areas of the world, where rehabilitation is cheapest. Because of this, very little money is needed to prevent slavery, Pitchford said.

“We can save the world without spending too much money,” she said.

Hahn hopes to increase awareness of human trafficking with the concert.

“Hopefully people will walk away with knowledge while having a good time,” she said. “I think for college students it’s the most effective way to learn.”

While Hahn was inspired by Pitchford to put on this fundraiser, she is doing this on her own and not as part of a homework project. She believes that while society is not perfect, things can be done to make it better.

“I started this alone,” Hahn said. “It’s not an assignment. But in the end I want people to walk away with me. To completely abolish it, I’m going to need a lot of help.”

[Reach reporter Kim Lee at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]