The sweltering box truck served as an overnight padlocked prison for enslaved Mexican and Guatemalan tomato pickers, who were forced to urinate and defecate in its corners.
Workers managed to escape through the truck's roof and report brutal abu
ses -- they had been kicked, beaten and chained -- to Collier County authorities in November 2007.
ses -- they had been kicked, beaten and chained -- to Collier County authorities in November 2007.
Their bosses later were sentenced to 12 years in federal prison. And the tomato-pickers' wheeled, windowless dungeon became a symbol for advocates devoted to eradicating human trafficking across Florida.
Sunday, parishioners explored the Florida Modern-Day Slavery Museum -- a replica of the cargo truck -- at Ascension Catholic Church.
"Can you imagine being locked in here?" Claire Maliszewski asked a trio of Boy Scouts inside the truck. "Goodness gracious. That's scary."
The Florida Modern-Day Slavery Museum features court documents, newspaper clippings, photographs of injuries, menacing chains and other educational displays highlighting indentured servitude in Fort Pierce, DeSoto County and elsewhere.
A key artifact: a blood-soaked blue-and-white striped shirt worn by a 17-year-old farmhand who was violently pummeled in 1996 in Immokalee after stopping work to drink water.
Hundreds of his fellow workers carried the stained garment during a nighttime protest march, said Margaret Gleeson, a museum volunteer.
The Diocese of Orlando has launched a human-trafficking awareness campaign highlighting Florida's agriculture and tourism industries.
The cargo truck travels today to Melbourne Central Catholic High. The display is not open to the public.
"Can you imagine when it's hot in the night?" Romeo Ramirez, a Guatemalan farm worker whose undercover work helped prosecute a Lake Placid citrus-slavery operation, asked of the poorly ventilated truck.
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http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110411/NEWS01/104110314/Mobile-museum-recounts-horrors-modern-day-slavery-Florida
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