Traffic in Souls

The beginning of the twentieth century in America is referred to as the Progressive era for the numerous

cultural changes that occurred.  City life was rapidly growing as a result of both rapid industrialization and a significant influx in the immigrant population.  Accompanying this expansion was an increasing amount of corruption at both the political level and in the emergence of organized crime.  Amidst these social developments was a newfound prominence of educated, conscientious women moving upward in society and working to obtain the rights once reserved for men.

It was against this backdrop of social reform that "white slave" narratives became a sensation.  These stories generally followed a formulaic outline: young girls in big cities who are kidnapped by prostitution rings and forced into sexual servitude.  The tales drew their inspiration from a expose funded by the John D. Rockefeller Foundation called Commercialized Prostitution In New York City.  In most cases, the claims made by such reports were greatly exaggerated and largely fictitious.  This mattered little to the public, however.  The white slavery narratives appealed to audiences because they capitalized on common fears about the shifting morals associated with urban development.  By emphasizing that the women living a life of prostitution are being held against their will, these stories upheld expectations about female sexuality as submissive and non-imposing.  They also segregate sexual behavior to red-light district where brothels were housed, further connecting a change in sexual norms with urban development.  Under the guise of progressive reform, traditionalists used white slave narratives to uphold the old guard of sexual behavior and perpetuate a fear of city environments. University of Illinois professor Brian Donovan estimates that at least fifteen white slavery related plays and six  movies were produced in the early twentieth century at the height of their popularity.

The first of these movies was George Loane Tucker's Traffic in Souls, released in 1913 by Universal Studios.  The film tells the story of Mary and Lorna Burton (played by Jane Gail and Ethel Grandin, respectively).  The two sisters are Swedish immigrants in New York City, who work together in their father's candy shop.  Tragedy strikes when Lorna is drugged and abducted by Bill Bradshaw (William Cavanaugh), a member of a powerful prostitution ring that preys on vulnerable young immigrants.  Mary teams up with her cop boyfriend Officer Burke (Matt Moore) to find her sister and bring her captors to justice. Through
secretly recording phone conversations using wax cylinders, Lorna reveals the operation to the police and has ring leader William Trubus (William Welsh) arrested.  The film ends with Trubus returning home after getting out on bail, only to find that his daughter is distraught and his wife has killed herself.

Traffic in Souls is different from typical white slavery narratives in that it is not the immigrants who are the perpetrators of evil, but rather the victims whom the film sympathizes with.  Rather, it is the institutions central to cities that Traffic in Souls takes ire against. The villains are not shady alley-dwellers but prominent businessmen: Turbus is a wealthy business owner of significant wealth who himself works for social reform.  He and his associates stalk their prey near the immigration offices in Ellis Island, dashing new immigrants dreams of success and exposing them to the darkside of urban life immediately upon their arrival.  Even the Burton sister's boss at the candy store is unnecessarily harsh to the two simply in regards to their occasional tardiness, and unjustly fires Mary once her sister goes missing.  In addition, the fact that Laura is unable to do anything about her enslaved situation is another feature common to white slavery narrative.  She is powerless without the aid of a man.  It is only with Burke's fighting in the film's action sequences that she is able to be set free of enslavement.  This reinforces the idea that male authority figures are the source of salvation for women who are victims of prostitution rings. Indeed, white slavery narratives were entirely written by men for a female audience.  This speaks to their fear of the emerging 'new Woman' as confident and in control of her sexuality.  Traffic in Souls enforces a regulatory agenda where sex is a crippling force that a woman must fear, and from which she must be rescued by the males who hold power.

Picture on right is one promotional poster used to promote the film.  It is a blatant exaggeration of a scene that occurs toward the end of the movie.  Rather than a large group of women, Trubus is only about to beat Lorna - and even then, the whipping itself is never shown itself on screen.  By relying on this kind of sensationalist imagery for promotion, Traffic in Souls caters to a latent obsession with sexuality and male dominance.  Taken on its own, the image resembles those of plantation owners disciplining slaves. Just as blacks were relegated to the status of property in slave-holding states, this poster similarly turns women into objects, whose very sexual agency is under the control of their male superior. The transfer of these symbols normally associated with African-Americans was particularly shocking to the white audiences the film was intended for, as femininity had been equated with the freedom that defined America ever since the term "Lady Liberty" was invented.  Note that the figures are exclusively white: white slavery narratives  ignored other races entirely, as if the capture of white women was the only kind of prostitution that proposed a threat to society.

Traffic in Souls was a smash hit, grossing $450,000 in its first few weeks and putting Universal on the map.  It is also notable for being the first movie with an original screenplay to open on Broadway. The film's use of parallel editing techniques to cut between multiple narratives was also an innovation that can still be seen today in pictures about social reform such as Crash.  Many viewers who had been misled into believing the film contained sex scenes were disappointed to find an elaborate police drama instead.  Regardless, the picture was still controversial, and was banned in many cities, including Chicago.  Its release and successive popularity was largely responsible for 'white slavery' being added to the list of unacceptable film content in Hollywood's Hays Code.  These restrictions led to the white slavery phenomenon gradually fading out of the public consciousness, only to be replaced by other methods of female objectification.

Works Cited:
Brownlow, Kevin. "Traffic in Souls." Griffithiana 32 (1988): 227-36
Donovan, Brian. White Slave Crusades: Race, Gender, and Anti-vice Activism, 1887-1917. Urbana: University of Illinois, 2006.
Hiroyuki, Matsubara. "The 1910s Anti-Prostitution Movement and the Transformation of American Political Culture." The Japanese Journal of American Studies 17 (2006): 53-69.
Olund, Eric. "Traffic in Souls: The New Woman, 'whiteness' and Mobile Self-possession." Cultural Geographies 16.4 (2009): 485-504.