Survivors of Slavery: A Collection of Modern Day Slave Narratives

Murphy, assistant professor of English at Loyola Univ. New Orleans, has compiled an anthology of narratives told or written by survivors of modern-day slavery. The experiences of women forced into sex work, children exploited as laborers, female domestics held prisoner, and others who endured forced factory work are described with unflinching honesty. By highlighting the various types of slavery and its persistence worldwide—the venues are as varied as the forms it takes, from Southeast Asia and the U.S. to Europe and Africa—Murphy makes clear that slavery is not simply some other country’s problem. Each story is succinct and is preceded with summaries that give the victim’s country of origin, the place to which they were trafficked, the form of slavery, and their current status. Cumulatively these summaries and interviews give testimony to the horrific affect slavery has on its victims, but also the life affirming potential of freedom. In addition to the first-person narratives, Murphy describes the mechanisms of enslavement, how people become victims, the work of slavery, and how those affected have fought back. It is not an easy read, but Murphy never sensationalizes, and by making the stories seem almost ordinary, paradoxically succeeds in underscoring the breadth and perniciousness of slavery’s evils. (Mar.)