The last ship to bring slaves to the United States was found buried in mud in the Mobile River in 2018. The business of importing slaves was outlawed in 1808, but the Clotilda’s owner made a bet that he could still do it in 1860. He won. To hide his crime–after selling of the 110 […]
slavery
Worse than Dead: the Next Best Thing
Author Nancy Gadzuk enrolled me in The Next Big Thing meme. First, I had to look up the word “meme.” The short definition: it has something to do with repetition. And that’s what we’re doing. Answering questions sent by our writer friends about our works in progress and posting answers on our blogs. Be sure […]
Obama order prohibits human trafficking in federal contracts
What industry earns more money than major league baseball, and the national basketball, hockey and football leagues combined? Sex trafficking and forced labor. It’s a $32 billion industry. On Sept. 25, President Obama signed an executive order prohibiting human trafficking in all federal government contracting. The order applies to federal contractors and subcontractors working in […]
Buy her bag, not her body
Nomi Network, a non-profit organization that trains survivors of sexual slavery to produce products that will sell in the global market, was named after an 8-year-old survivor of sex trafficking in Cambodia. Nomi was so mentally disabled after her treatment as a sex slave, that she will spend the rest of her life in a […]
Book research comes alive in Louisville
Last summer I took a combined research/pleasure trip to Maysville and Louisville, KY. I learned so much and had to get right down to fixing parts of my story that didn’t jibe with history. I may be writing fiction, but I want the historical parts to be as accurate as possible. I was concerned about […]
D.C. wax museum adds Harriet Tubman
I wonder what it feels like to have a famous ancestor. Some of my ancestors were left on the other side of the Atlantic and the ones who came over on the boat lived ordinary lives in places like Schenectady and Cleveland. No one made it to The President’s Gallery by Madame Tussauds as did […]