When the word “slavery” comes to mind, most people immediately picture 19th-century forced labor.

The International Justice Mission (IJM) defines slavery as “forced labor, with the use of deception or violent coercion to compel someone to labor without pay or for no pay beyond the substance necessary to continue the labor.”

However, most people don’t consider slavery to be a current issue. Despite the 27 million slaves in the world today according to IJM, the issue remains shrouded in mystery. Because of this, three student organizations on campus: Whitman Abolitionists, Whitman Events Board and Whitman Christian Fellowship (WCF) : have teamed up to educate students about modern-day slavery through Slavery Awareness Week. Slavery Awareness Week started on Wednesday, Oct. 13 and ends Thursday, Oct. 21.

This campaign was developed by juniors Abbey McGrath and Lyndsey Wilson, co-founders of Whitman Abolitionists.  According to McGrath in an e-mail conversation with The Collegian of Walla Walla University, Whitman Abolitionists’ main motivation for putting together Slavery Awareness Week was to raise awareness  about slavery in modern-day society.

“Too many people on campus just don’t realize this modern-day slavery exists,” she said. “We are organizing Slavery Awareness Week to educate the campus and Walla Walla community about the overlooked reality of human trafficking.”

Because slavery is not often viewed as modern human trafficking, McGrath hopes that the week will change students’ view of slavery.

“If slavery is putting a price on a human life and selling them for work against their will, then human trafficking is most definitely slavery,” she said.

First-year Paul Lemieux believes that McGrath’s aim to educate and inform students has helped to remind him that modern-day forced labor is still an issue.

“When you hear the word slavery, you don’t think of modern slavery. The idea of modern slavery isn’t one that comes to your conscious very often, so it was good to have something that brought home the fact that slavery is still around,” he said.

Interactive art boards, sponsored by WCF, were displayed on Oct. 13 through Oct. 15 and questioned students on their feelings regarding slavery. Surveys were conducted to test students’ knowledge on the issue, and flyers were handed out with further information on the extent of human trafficking.

Sophomore Ashley Ehlers, a Bible study leader for WCF and a volunteer coordinator for the display, noticed the differences in students’ reactions to the issue.

“A lot of people were really surprised by what they heard because it’s kind of a hidden issue,” she said. “We had websites where people could go and see what products they shouldn’t buy, because some products buy into slavery and you don’t even know it,” she said.

First-year Will Gregg, however, felt that the interactive art boards did not help him learn more about human slavery.

“I would have preferred another means to bring awareness to the issue. A blatantly obvious board in the middle of a field gives me no emotional or intellectual connection to the issue,” he said.

McGrath hopes that now that awareness has been raised on campus,  next year’s Slavery Awareness Week  can focus more on how forced labor can be stopped.

“Hopefully next year it will take the angle of ‘what can we do’ activism,” she said.

Whitman Abolitionists plan to begin advocacy projects to help promote activism on campus much earlier next year.

“We will definitely not be waiting until next year to start with advocacy projects. Next on our list of big events is a chocolate campaign to get people to stop consuming products and supporting companies which use slave-driven cocoa products,” McGrath said.

Other events for Slavery Awareness Week included the film screening of “Cargo: Innocence Lost”, a documentary on human trafficking in the United States that included statements from former human slaves, and Orange is the Color of Freedom Day, where students were encouraged to wear the color orange all day in support of the anti-slavery movement, which was inspired by the anti-human trafficking organization Not For Sale.

A lecture on human trafficking featuring Azra Grudic, the anti-human trafficking coordinator at Lutheran Community Services Northwest in Spokane, will be held tonight in Olin 130 from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m.