Legislating Morality: The Historical Consequences of The Mann Act on the American Public

The Mann Act, officially titled the “White Slave Traffic Act of June 25 1910,” was a product of a time of immense social, ethnic, and political change. The Mann Act was presented as the solution to “white slavery”— an imagined crisis where white-American girls were forced into prostitution. This crisis was attributed to the influx of traditionally “othered” ethnic groups, which shocked the nation and prompted sweeping action by politicians to protect white-American values and culture in the name of stopping forced prostitution. In addition to perceived threats to American values, fears of immigrant power as a voting block and the importation of their cultures was a major driving force behind the Mann Act’s passage. Nativist groups propelled Federal legislators to craft the Mann Act in the broadest possible language to prosecute all ethnic “others.” The Mann Act’s early success in pursuit of that objective stemmed from its careful drafting, which strategically relied on Commerce Clause arguments and language tailored to withstand judicial scrutiny, addressing concerns raised by prior challenges to immigration law. The result of such profound backlash against ethnic others and claimed “immoral acts” culminated in the most successful nationally implemented anti-immigration and anti-immorality act of the period. Immigrants and ethnic minorities faced a crusade against their very existence and the livelihoods they made on the periphery of society for the sake of protecting the exceptional yet delicate American culture. This Comment will present several topics through which the forces behind the Mann Act may be investigated. The goal of this Comment is to understand patterns of legal history observable today through a lens of law and morality enacted over 100 years ago.