When The Queen’s Daughters was released last September, Mia Rae Robinson was not in the picture. I dedicated the book to my nine great-granddaughters at the time, with these words:

I pray that in their lifetime sex slavery will become a thing of history.

I’ve added Mia Rae, my 21st great-grandchild,  to that prayer.

Today, according to the FBI, human trafficking is believed to be the third-largest criminal activity in the world .  It includes forced labor, domestic servitude, and commercial sex trafficking. It involves both U.S. citizens and foreigners alike.

Human trafficking is the third largest international crime industry (behind illegal drugs and arms trafficking). It reportedly generates a profit of $32 billion every year. Of that number, $15.5 billion is made in industrialized countries, according to the CNN Freedom Project. The average cost of a slave is $90.

Katharine Bushnell, the historical heroine of my book, The Queen’s Daughters , investigated trafficking , called white slavery in the west  in the nineteenth century. She faced danger and personal deprivation, never having a family of her own. She crisscrossed the ocean numerous times to give reports of  the heart breaking things she’d seen before government  bodies, who often refused to believe her.  (After all, no honorable woman in the Victorian era should even mention such things. )

Since Kate’s pioneering days, the scourge of trafficking has increased like  an untreated Ebola epidemic. But today many organizations are following her example to investigate, report and rescue  young girls and boys caught in this evil around the world

Perhaps Mia Rae will only know of trafficking through history books.