November 3, 2009

Ron Soodalter

Slavery does exist in America today. A few sensational cases make the headlines, but slave labor has an active underground existence in domestic service, prostitution, farm labor, factories, light industry, prisons and mining operations. Soodalter has teamed with Kevin Bales, author of Disposable People and President of Free the Slaves, to document just how pervasive slavery is throughout our country and the world, where as many as 27 million people are its victims.

The result is a riveting new book, which goes beyond documenting modern-day American slavery to focus on causes and solutions, and what ordinary individuals can do to help sever the links that create and hide human bondage.

Ron Soodalter, historian, folklorist and lecturer, is also the author of Hanging Captain Gordon: The Life and Trial of an American Slave Trader, as well as articles on the historic and modern slave trade, the Civil War, and the American West. A respected Lincolnian scholar, he serves on the Board of the Abraham Lincoln Institute.