I appreciate this conversation, and I chimed in with the following post on the End Human Trafficking blog (assuming it makes it through the screening process). I thought I would re-post here:
Thanks for your thoughtful initial comments and response to "Anonymous," Erin. Another answer to the question, "can an abolitionist also be a feminist?" is yes: see, for example, Angelina Grimke, her sister Sarah, and the host of other fierce, pious, Quaker women who fought tirelessly for both causes in the 19th century (when we saw the first waves of the abolitionist and feminist movements, whose membership overlapped, whose efforts fed each other, and whose rationales were very often Biblically based). Grimke felt it was not only her right, but her God-given duty to speak out publicly against the evils of slavery, but the proposition of a woman speaking to an audience comprised of both women and men was so scandalous in 1838 that when Grimke spoke boldly about the sin of slavery and the justice of the Lord, her mere presence behind the lectern at Pennsylvania Hall incited an angry mob. Despite their rock-throwing and the rage that drove them to burn down the hall in protest of her speech, Grimke stood her ground, praised the work of British women abolitionists and implored: "Let the zeal and love, the faith and works of our English sisters quicken ours -- that while the slaves continue to suffer, and when they shout deliverance, we may feel the satisfaction of having done what we could." Read Grimke's full address here http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2939t.html and learn more about her and the interconnections between abolition and feminism in Stephen H. Browne's book, Angelina Grimke: Rhetoric, Identity, and the Radical Imagination.
It's good that the there is enough awareness of human trafficking for it to begin emerging as a theme in film and TV. If you don't plan to go out to a film this weekend, here are a few for your Nextflix queue:
Born into Brothels (documentary)
Trade (starring Kevin Kline)
Human Trafficking (with Mira Sorvino and Donald Sutherland--originally aired on Lifetime)
Amazing Grace (inspirational story of William Wilberforce's work to abolish the British slave trade)
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