Americans added their own twist to white slavery narratives around the turn of the century. They placed a greater emphasis on the threat of immigration. The new flow of immigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe made middle class Americans anxious about the changing ethnic character of the country. This growing fear was seized upon by President Teddy Roosevelt’s Immigration Bureau inspector: Marcus Braun. Braun, himself an immigrant from Hungary, traveled the country investigating white slavery. His shocking report was echoed by a congressional investigation. This provided all the pretext necessary for the creation White Slave Traffic Act in 1910. “White slavery” became much more than a narrative. It was law with which the federal government could enforce its version of sexual morality.

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Written by Travis View. Theme by Nick Sena (https://nicksenamusic.com). Additional music by Pontus Berghe and Nick Sena. Editing by Corey Klotz.

REFERENCES

Allerfeldt, KM (2019) Marcus Braun and “White Slavery”: Shifting Perceptions of People Smuggling and Human Trafficking in America at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Journal of Global Slavery

Donovan, Brian (2005) White Slave Crusades: Race, Gender, and Anti-vice Activism, 1887–1917.

Langum, David (1994) Crossing over the Line: Legislating Morality and the Mann Act

Pliley, Jessica (2014) Policing Sexuality: The Mann Act and the Making of the FBI

Letter from Marcus Braun to Theodore Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt Papers. Library of Congress Manuscript Division. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record?libID=o37642. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.