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QAA Podcast

Trickle Down Episode 4: White Slavery (Part 2) Sample

QAA Podcast

Julian Feeld, Travis View & Jake Rockatansky

News

4.54.4K Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2022

⏱️ 13 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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. This is a 10-part series brought to you by the QAA podcast. To get access to all upcoming episodes of Trickle Down as well as a new premium QAA episode every week, go sign up for $5 a month at patreon.com/qanonanonymous 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.

Transcript

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0:00.0

On July 10, 1910, the New York Times published a tiny report about a recent arrest in Chicago.

0:24.8

It was headlined, first arrest under White Slave Act.

0:28.2

In just 59 words, it told the story of the first law enforcement action under the authority

0:33.3

of a new federal law passed just a few weeks earlier.

0:37.1

This law was designed to prosecute evil men who attempted to kidnap helpless women

0:41.8

and force them into a life of prostitution.

0:45.1

But curiously, the events described in the report did not involve the arrest of a man,

0:50.0

nor did it involve anyone being forced in the prostitution.

0:53.0

The report said, quote, the first arrest under the man White Slave Act approved by present

0:57.8

a taff on June 23rd was made yesterday.

1:00.7

Miss M. Jenkins, a resort keeper of Houghton, Michigan, was arrested by Deputy United States

1:05.6

Marshals at the Union Station here just after she had bought tickets and boarded a trade

1:10.5

with five girls.

1:12.1

This arrest carried out by multiple federal agents of a female brothel keeper traveling

1:16.5

with five experienced sex workers was very far away from the White Slavery narratives

1:21.3

that had frightened Americans for decades.

1:23.8

But by this point, it was too late.

1:26.0

The fear generated by White Slavery narratives birthed a sweeping law which helped them

1:30.6

power a new federal detective agency, which the government could now use to punish anyone

1:36.1

who traveled across state lines with a woman for any immoral purpose.

1:41.4

The best part for the federal officer to wielded this new law was that an immoral purpose

1:46.0

was any purpose that the government decided was immoral.

...

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