Slavery Today | Sojourners

Slavery Today

Letter to the Editors

Rose Marie Berger’s article “Slaves in Our Family” (February 2012) is a reminder to us that slavery in our country didn’t end with the Emancipation Proclamation.

I retired four years ago after running a ministry for ex-offenders and homeless individuals. It wasn’t unusual for young men to come to me after escaping from a farm labor camp. They told me that someone pulled up to the homeless shelter where they were staying and offered them good-paying jobs. The homeless men were then taken to a farm labor camp where they were provided with drugs, alcohol, and the services of prostitutes, which they paid for out of their meager earnings. Within a short time they were in debt to the leaders of the camp.

 If they tried to leave, they were pistol-whipped or beaten. The men who came to me were the lucky ones who were able to escape.

—Stan Grenn
Jacksonville, Florida

This appears in the May 2012 issue of Sojourners
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