Trafficking hysteria as rape fantasy

In 1910 Congress passed the White-Slave Traffic Act.

The turn of the century saw white girls leaving their family farms and moving to the cities in record numbers. Most of them did domestic or factory work until they married. Some did sex work to make ends meet. But rather than contend with a frightening reality of social change and increased freedom for white women, moral scolds attempted to force white girls into compliance by making up a boogeyman of Black men kidnapping white women and forcing them to perform sex acts for money.

This served several purposes simultaneously.