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A Crime So Monstrous: Face-To-Face with Modern-Day Slavery
by E. Benjamin Skinner
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Synopses & Reviews To be a moral witness is perhaps the highest calling of journalism, and in this unforgettable, highly readable account of contemporary slavery, author Benjamin Skinner travels around the globe to personally tell stories that need to be told — and heard. As Samantha Power and Philip Gourevitch did for genocide, Skinner has now done for modern-day slavery. With years of reporting in such places as Haiti, Sudan, India, Eastern Europe, The Netherlands, and, yes, even suburban America, he has produced a vivid testament and moving reportage on one of the great evils of our time. There are more slaves in the world today than at any time in history. After spending four years visiting a dozen countries where slavery flourishes, Skinner tells the story, in gripping narrative style, of individuals who live in slavery, those who have escaped from bondage, those who own or traffic in slaves, and the mixed political motives of those who seek to combat the crime. Skinner infiltrates trafficking networks and slave sales on five continents, exposing a modern flesh trade never before portrayed in such proximity. From mega-harems in Dubai to illicit brothels in Bucharest, from slave quarries in India to child markets in Haiti, he explores the underside of a world we scarcely recognize as our own and lays bare a parallel universe where human beings are bought, sold, used, and discarded. He travels from the White House to war zones and immerses us in the political and flesh-and-blood battles on the front lines of the unheralded new abolitionist movement. At the heart of the story are the slaves themselves. Their stories are heartbreaking but, in the midst of tragedy, readers discover a quiet dignity that leads some slaves to resist and aspire to freedom. Despite being abandoned by the international community, despite suffering a crime so monstrous as to strip their awareness of their own humanity, somehow, some enslaved men regain their dignity, some enslaved women learn to trust men, and some enslaved children manage to be kids. Skinner bears witness for them, and for the millions who are held in the shadows. In so doing, he has written one of the most morally courageous books of our time, one that will long linger in the conscience of all who encounter it, and one that — just perhaps — may move the world to constructive action. Review: Freelance reporter E. Benjamin Skinner opens his book on modern slavery with a paradox: Though human bondage is now banned everywhere, "there are more slaves today than at any point in human history." Skinner's assertion is based on worldwide estimates that he acknowledges are vague at best, their imprecision due to the very illegality of slavery. Yet it builds on a basic truth: ... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) Slavery not only continues today, it is thriving. Whether 10 million, or 20 million, or 30 million people around the world are being forced to work, under threat of violence, without pay, Skinner considers the actual number "meaningless." When he set out to write his book, he decided that "I could not prove the definite number of slaves, and I would not try. But I might show what their slavery meant." In "A Crime So Monstrous" Skinner reports from some of the key departure, transit and destination points in the modern slave trade, including Haiti, Sudan, Romania, Moldova, Turkey, India, the Netherlands and Miami. Much like 19th-century abolitionist accounts of slavery in the United States, his book is meant both to inform and to enrage — and it succeeds on both counts. To see slavery up close, Skinner posed as a buyer of humans for forced labor or sexual exploitation in Haiti, Romania and Turkey. In Sudan, he witnessed former slaves returning to villages from which they had been abducted years earlier. In India, he accompanied a gun-toting labor activist organizing quarry workers who had been forced into debt bondage. By juxtaposing these widely differing cultural, economic and legal contexts, Skinner makes clear that no simple fix will eradicate slavery around the world. He describes himself as "overwhelmed" by the scale of bondage in India, where by some estimates between 10 million and 20 million people live in slavery. In one "unmapped hamlet" in Uttar Pradesh, he found that "every single man, woman, and child" was a slave because of generations of debt bondage. Wherever poverty, greed, corruption and government inaction coincide, people are traded as commodities. Sometimes even modest aspirations — to provide one's children with an education, for example — can perpetuate slaving practices. In the rural Haitian village of Bresillienne, Skinner learned that all but one of its 32 families handed over one or more children to a "courtier," or middleman. Although "fear, shame, and regret poured out of the parents," Skinner writes, the system in which unpaid child laborers are sent to middle-class homes as "restaveks" (Creole for "rester avec," or stay with) is deeply entrenched in Haiti. Many of the children are physically and sexually abused. But with no jobs and no schools in Bresillienne, the parents' calculus comes into focus: Maybe the middleman's promises of sending their children to school will prove true? In the book's opening pages, Skinner anticipates a big question his method may prompt: What did he do for those he found in bondage, besides write about them? Some journalists have bought slaves to set them free, but paying slave dealers raises thorny moral and logistical issues, particularly because it may fuel the capture of more slaves. Though Skinner posed at times as a potential buyer, he says he decided that his role was chiefly as a witness and he refused to put any money into the pockets of slave owners or brokers. When speaking with a woman from Eastern Europe who was trafficked into sexual exploitation in the Netherlands, he realized that "there was no way that I could understand what it meant to be a slave." But, he told her, he "hoped to get closer by going undercover, by listening to slaves and slave traders." He listened well; his writing is most persuasive when he is bearing witness to poverty and powerlessness. Describing the smell of "feces and dead mice" in the entryway of a brothel in Bucharest, he writes that "it seemed there was some miasma here, wet and pungent. If, as Cicero said, slavery was death, then this was a charnelhouse." But in the midst of this evocative reporting, Skinner jarringly shifts his pace and tone to examine the Bush administration's embrace of the human trafficking issue. To do this, he uses John Miller, former head of the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, as a central character. It is important to show the long reach of the U.S. government's anti-trafficking policy, and of Miller's role in its crafting, but Skinner's four-chapter profile of a political appointee is fawning rather than revealing. As savvy as the young author is when face to face with criminals who buy and sell humans, he seems throughout the book to be naively captivated by Miller. Only in the epilogue do readers learn that in Skinner's opinion, Miller "oversaw a policy that was defective before his arrival, and after his departure." For the coalition of religious conservatives who backed the administration's policy, Skinner writes, "the only slaves worthy of American attention ... were prostitutes. And all prostitutes were slaves. Theirs was a circular logic that dumbfounded those who regularly aided real slaves, real prostitutes, and really enslaved prostitutes." In addition, Skinner says, the administration's anti-slavery strategy focused on law enforcement and "lacked creative approaches to prevention," such as alleviating poverty. "Denying the central role of poverty in modern-day slavery," he writes, "is like denying the central role of gravity in rainfall." Skinner seems to understand that bottom-up agents of change — local organizations and individuals fighting slavery and forced labor — must accompany top-down policies and laws. Yet he devotes far more ink to Miller's politicking in Washington than to grass-roots organizations such as Limye Lavi ("Light of Life") in Haiti, which he praises for doing "remarkable work with scant funds." And while he recounts a young woman's story of sexual exploitation in Amsterdam in haunting detail, he writes only a couple of lines about the organization that she founded, Atalantas, which reaches out to women in the sex industry. These agents of change have their work cut out for them. The firsthand accounts in "A Crime So Monstrous" make clear that human bondage, though illegal, is the product of economic structures and cultural norms. In Haiti, the head of the Brigade for the Protection of Minors, which "led the national effort to combat the restavek system," keeps child slaves himself. But, he assured Skinner, "I don't rape them." Reviewed by Denise Brennan, who teaches anthropology at Georgetown University and is author of 'What's Love Got to Do with It? Transnational Desires and Sex Tourism in the Dominican Republic', Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
(hide most of this review)Review: "A great storyteller, Skinner brings the whole underworld of traffickers and their victims to life. At the same time, he shows how complex the phenomenon really is, and why the solutions of would-be abolitionists in this country have proven misguided or simply futile." — Frances FitzGerald Review: "This book exposes the horrors of modern-day slavery and human trafficking, demanding attention to an issue that has for too long hidden in the shadows. Skinner's narrative takes us many different places around the world, but can lead to only one conclusion: The U.S. must do more to end this suffering." — U.S. Senator Russ Feingold Review: "Benjamin Skinner's powerful indictment of contemporary slavery must arouse outrage for perpetrators and compassion for their victims." — Elie Wiesel Review: "In his fierce, bold determination to see the lives of modern-day slaves up close, Benjamin Skinner reminds me of the British abolitionist of two hundred years ago, Zachary Macaulay, who once traveled on a slave ship across the Atlantic, taking notes. Skinner goes everywhere, from border crossings to brothels to bargaining sessions with dealers in human beings, to bring us this vivid, searing account of the wide network of human trafficking and servitude which spans today's globe." — Adam Hochschild Review: "Ben Skinner does a great public service by exposing the massive scope of human trafficking in the world today. I appreciate his chapter on the heroic role Ambassador John Miller played in getting the U.S. government to stand against this evil." — U.S. Senator John McCain Review: "An impassioned exposé of a thriving slave economy in the world's poorest regions...An important, consciousness-raising book."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) About the Author E. Benjamin Skinner was born in Wisconsin and is a graduate of Wesleyan University. He has reported on a wide range of topics from Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East for such publications as Newsweek International, Travel + Leisure, and Foreign Affairs. He currently lives in Brooklyn. This is his first book. Table of Contents Foreword by Richard Holbrooke Author's Note - The Riches of the Poor'??'??'??'??
- Genesis: A Drama in Three Acts'??'??'??'??
- Those Whom Their Right Hands Possess'??'??'??
- A Moral Law That Stands Above Men and Nations'??
- A Nation Within a Nation'??'??'??'??
- The New Middle Passage'??'??'??'??
- John Miller's War'??'??'??'??
- Children of Vishnu'??'??'??
- Revelation: Angels with Swords of Fire'??'??'??
- A Little Hope'??'??'??'??
Epilogue: A War Worth Fighting'??'?? Notes'??'??'??'?? Acknowledgments Index'??'??'??'??
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780743290074
- Subtitle:
- Face-To-Face with Modern-Day Slavery
- Author:
- Skinner, E. Benjamin
- Publisher:
- Free Press
- Subject:
- Slavery
- Subject:
- Forced labor
- Subject:
- Modern - 21st Century
- Subject:
- Human trafficking
- Publication Date:
- March 2008
- Binding:
- Hardcover
- Grade Level:
- General/trade
- Language:
- English
- Pages:
- 328
- Dimensions:
- 9 x 6 in
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