Interview: Harriet Beecher Stowe on Human Trafficking

by Amanda Kloer · 2009-03-23 08:00:00 UTC
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Each week, I will be bringing you a new interview with a formerly-active activist or abolitionist, that is, someone now deceased.  I'll be talking to the men and women who paved the way for the abolitionists of today and getting their thoughts on the problems and solutions of modern-day slavery.  How do I contact not just the dead, but the famous and dead?  Every good blogger must have her secrets!

From www.myhero.comThis week... Harriet Beecher Stowe

How's the afterlife treating you?

God bless the computers up here!  I was getting so sick of those fountain pens.

For those non-biography readers out there, how about you tell me a little about yourself.

I wrote a little book called Uncle Tom's Cabin, which accurately showed the terrible conditions slaves lived in before the American Civil War.  Some credit the book with intensifying the conflict enough to eventually lead to the outbreak of fighting in the Civil War.  I was a feminist and abolitionist.

What do you think is the biggest problem in the modern-day abolitionist movement?

We are all living with the wool pulled over our lives.  WAKE UP! We need to see the reality of slavery around us clearly, and acknowledge the role slavery plays in our lives.

If you were alive, what would you do to fight slavery?

I would encourage a greater level of international awareness, specifically encouraging people to understand how slaves play a role in their lives.  Once we see the true origin of the clothes we wear and the electronics we use, the issue of slavery will become a whole new one.

Any last thoughts for our readers?

Love really does win.

Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantraffic
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