Welcome to the conversation!


Welcome to the conversation!

Harriet Beecher Stowe's (1811-1896) best-selling anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), made her the most famous American woman of the 19th century and galvanized the abolition movement before the Civil War.

The Stowe Center is a 21st-century museum and program center using Stowe's story to inspire social justice and positive change.

The Salons at Stowe programs are a forum to connect the challenging issues (race, gender and class) that impelled Stowe to write and act with the contemporary face of those same issues. The Salon format is based on a robust level of audience participation, with the explicit goal of promoting civic engagement. Recent topics included: Teaching Acceptance; Is Prison the New Slavery; Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North; Creativity and Change; Race, Gender and Politics Today; How to be an Advocate

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Monday, March 24, 2014

Connections between human trafficking and poverty

Last month, Mexican national Joaquin Mendez-Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison for operating a sex trafficking ring between Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas. He was also fined $705,000 in restitution for the women who worked as his personal prostitutes. While many may feel that his sentence and fine do not begin to make up for his horrendous crime, defense attorney Jonathan Hunt pleaded for a lighter sentence, arguing that "Many of the decisions made were influenced by this poverty and the need to survive."

Read more in the Huffington Post's "Joaquin Mendez-Hernandez, Accused Pimp, Gets Life In Sex Trafficking Case." How do you react to the claims that the sex ring was connected to "poverty and the need to survive"? 

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