A Crime so Monstrous

Several years ago, while I was still in Haiti, I was approached by a writer who was investigating modern forms of slavery. His name was Benjamin Skinner, and since my NGO worked regarding child trafficking to the Dominican Republic, where kids wind up in sugar cane plantations or sometimes the sex industry, we rode my bike together to the Dominican side and saw a lot, talked a bit, about child slavery, definitions, Haiti, and in general, exchanged...

His book has just been published, this after four years of research all over the world, and from what I can judge, it is definitely worth the read... The sample you can read by clicking there is part of the chapter about Haiti by the way, his first stop and his negociating with a seller of kids, for domestic or other purposes...

Anyway, this is what he wrote to me today....

Friends, Collaborators,

As many of you know, I have spent four years on five continents in order to find and give voice to slaves, who are more numerous today than ever before. I'm now writing to ask for your help in the last leg of that journey.A Crime So Monstrous goes on sale today. (At least the American and British editions do; German, Italian and other editions will follow next fall.) I wrote the book for people who love to read, but who wouldn't ordinarily pick up a book about slavery. Actually, I wrote it even for those who, like me, don't love to read but are fascinated by the human condition.

The stories are threaded like a novel, and none is simple. Slave traders sometimes showed me remorse as well as barbarity; slave liberators showed idiocy as well as courage; and sometimes, somehow, some slave men managed to regain their dignity, some slave women managed to trust men, and some slave children managed to be kids. (Click here for a sample chapter.)

In southern Sudan in 2003, the first survivor that I spoke with asked a question that I heard often thereafter: "Why does no one care about our slavery here?" One reason is that few know what slavery means. My attempt to show the world what slavery means, and thus to spark action against it, is A Crime So Monstrous.

When Uncle Tom's Cabin became the best-selling novel of the nineteenth century, Abraham Lincoln called Harriet Beecher Stowe "the little lady who started this big war."

We've had enough war; but we need a movement. This starts with you. Forward this email. Read the book. Write about the book. Talk about the book. Get angry. Shout about the crime until you're hoarse. Then act with resolve to end it. Please visit www.acrimesomonstrous.com. There you can read about the book and the cause. Then please consider buying a copy today—a spike in first-day sales will bring attention to the cause, and a portion of the proceeds will go to Free The Slaves and Anti-Slavery International, the American and British wings of the oldest human rights organization.

Thank you all for your support over these years. I owe you a drink.