The White Slave Trade Panic

The "white slave trade"—forced prostitution of European women—became Belle Époque obsession mixing real problems with racist fantasies. The panic revealed anxieties about women's independence, immigration, and racial mixing while obscuring actual exploitation's economic roots.

Lurid accounts described innocent French girls drugged, kidnapped, and shipped to foreign brothels. South American ports, particularly Buenos Aires, featured as destinations for "white slaves." The narrative typically involved Jewish or Arab traffickers preying on Christian victims. This racialized story ignored most prostitution's voluntary if desperate nature.

Real trafficking existed but differed from sensational accounts. Women were deceived about employment conditions rather than physically kidnapped. Promised work as dancers or domestics, they found themselves in brothels with confiscated documents and accumulated debts. Return passage costs trapped them in sexual servitude. Yet most prostitution involved local women serving local men.

The panic justified restricting women's freedoms. Unaccompanied female travel became suspicious. Police harassed women in ports and railway stations. Charities established "protective" institutions virtually imprisoning "rescued" women. The campaign against white slavery often harmed the women it claimed to protect.

International conferences addressed trafficking, producing conventions still influencing anti-trafficking efforts. Yet focus on dramatic kidnapping narratives obscured economic exploitation driving most prostitution. Reformers preferred saving innocent victims to addressing poverty forcing women into sex work.