A Five Part Series from TTBOOK!

Public Radio International

Wisconsin Public Radio

THE NEW ABOLITIONISTS

Program 08-03-30-A

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Would you be surprised to know there are more slaves in the world today than at any other time in human history? An estimated 27 million people live in bondage.In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the new abolitionists – including a reporter who risked his life to document the global traffic in human beings, and a woman who is free today for the first time in 28 years.

SEGMENT 1:

Maria Suarez tells the story of the five years she spent as a slave and the twenty three years she spent in prison for a murder she didn't commit. Today, Maria is active with a group called "Free the Slaves." Also, Benjamin Skinnner talks with Anne Strainchamps about his book, "A Crime So Monstrous." Skinner tells the story of how he infiltrated slave markets on five continents from slave quarries in India to child markets in Haiti and says that in Manhattan, you're five hours away from negotiating the sale of another human being in broad daylight.

SEGMENT 2:

Journalist Adam Hochschild has written "Bury the Chains" about the anti-slavery movement in Britain two hundred years ago. He says they invented many of the political tools and tactics today's protesters still use. Also, Katrina Browne produced and directed the documentary "Traces of the Trade" in an effort to come to terms with her family's legacy of slave trading. Browne talks with Jim Fleming and we hear excerpts from her film.

SEGMENT 3:

Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work as a visionary economist who founded the micro-credit movement and India's Grameen Bank. Yunus talks with Steve Paulson about what he calls "social business," in which charitable dollars keep working as they would in any other business. His new book is called "Creating a World Without Poverty."

CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 08-03-30-A.

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Books:

E. Benjamin Skinner, A Crime So Monstrous : Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery (Free Press)
Muhammad Yunus, Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism (Public Affairs)
Adam Hochschild, Bury the Chains : Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves (Houghton Mifflin)
Thomas Norman DeWolf, Inheriting the Trade : A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U. S. History (Beacon Press)

Websites:

Traces of the Trade
http://www.tracesofthetrade.org/

Free the Slaves website:
http://www.freetheslaves.net/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=183&srcid=-2

Music:

• - After Maria Suarez, we heard “Window on the Deep,” a tune on guitarist B.J. Cole’s CD, “Transparent Music.” (Hannibal HNCD-1325)

  - After Benjamin Skinner, we heard a choral piece, “Surrender,” from the CD “Song for Humanity,” produced by flutist R. Carlos Nakai and pianist Peter Kater. (EarthSea Records)

  - After Adam Hochschild, we used a selection from Fela Sowande’s “African Suite,” written in 1930. We found it on the Chicago Sinfonietta’s “African Heritage Symphonic Series, Vol. I”. (Cedille Records CDR 90000 055)

  - We followed Katrina Browne’s interview with a selection of one of Arthur Benjamin’s “5 Negro Spirituals for Cello and Piano”, on a CD title “Arthur Benjamin Chamber Music.” (Dutton CDLX 7110)

  - And we ended the show with a solo guitar rendition of “Amazing Grace”, from Harvey Reid’s “Solo Guitar Sketchbook.” (Woodpecker WP 105)
  

Distribution dates: week of 03/30/2008 - hour 1

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Questions and comments can be addressed to: flemingj@wpr.org

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