In 2010, by presidential proclamation, January was declared National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Since then, twelve presidential proclamations have followed. These proclamations not only raise the profile of the issue, but they are also snapshots of global trends and challenges, and significant U.S. anti-trafficking policy achievements. Some highlights include:

• In 2012, the issuance of the Executive Order ‘Strengthening Protections Against Trafficking in Persons in Federal Contracts‘;
• In 2016, the first convening of the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking;
• In 2017, the State Department’s launched its largest anti-trafficking program, the Program to End Modern Slavery; and
• In 2020, the launch of a whole-of-government website on human trafficking implementing part of the Executive Order on Combating Human Trafficking and Online Child Exploitation

It was actually in 2006 that the issue of modern slavery and trafficking came to the attention of Venita Benitez, who had more than a passing interest in the subject as the descendant of slaves herself. On her mother’s side, Benitez is the great-great-granddaughter of Morton Deane, a black man born into slavery in Buckingham County, Virginia in 1853 who was freed before the end of the Civil War. He and his wife Nannie Mosely Jackson parented 11 children, all but two of whom survived into adulthood. Continue Reading