Foreword: Human Trafficking-- Modern Slavery* Michael J. Palmiotto Major Issues - For more than a century, governments have been trying to end slavery and human trafficking. - Trafficking is a large industry that preys on the vulnerabilities of individuals, both foreign and domestic. - The process of human trafficking includes a complex network of individuals. Slavery can be traced to ancient times. The Bible, Islam Koran, and Greek classics all have described slavery. The term slavery simply means that one person owns another human being like a piece of property. The human being is property in a similar way as lamp or cabinet is owned. In earlier times people became slaves by being captured in war and they and their offspring continued the slave culture. During the Middle Ages slavery evolved into a commercial enterprise. Slaves were hunted, captured, and sold into slavery. Commercial slavery is a business that still occurs in some parts of the world. For centuries it is has been an inhumane and abusive form of treatment of one human being to another. Most educated people have some knowledge of how Africans were hunted down, captured, and transported to the Americas. Slavery in America was introduced in 1619 when a Dutch ship brought the first slaves to America. The slave trade increased because cheap labor was important to the economy of the southern region of America-- Provided by publisher.