Slave Stealers: True Accounts of Slave Rescues Then and Now

Gr 7 UP—Ballard is the founder of Operation Underground Railroad which works to end human trafficking all over the world today. After the earthquake in Haiti in 2012, sex traffickers took advantage of orphaned or lost children. Ballard posed as a sex trafficker and entered an orphanage that was selling children. He managed to save several and grew particularly fond of a brother and sister, Marky and Mia, who he eventually adopted. This story alternates with that of Harriet Jacobs, an enslaved person who lived in the South during the 1800s. She managed to evade her enslaver who tried to force her into sexual victimization. Eventually she had two children with a man she was not allowed to marry. She was separated from her children but managed to hide from her tormentors. The author goes on to talk about other people in history who inspired him in his endeavor, including Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman, Little Mia, and Guesno Mardy.