After the White Slave Traffic Act passed in 1910, the federal government was ready to start enforcing it with help from the young Bureau of Investigation. The problem is that the gangs of white slavers who snatched innocent girls off the street proved to be more difficult to find than they thought. Instead, the law was used to enforce a moral crusade, punishing citizens who engaged in sexual activity that prosecutors deemed immoral. It was also used by J. Edgar Hoover to target Charlie Chaplin at the beginning of the second red scare.

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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:

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

Sbardellati, John and Shaw, Tony (2003) Booting a Tramp: Charlie Chaplin, the FBI, and the Construction of the Subversive Image in Red Scare America, The Pacific Historical Review

Charlie Chaplin’s FBI File

https://vault.fbi.gov/charlie-chaplin