There Are More Slaves Today Than at Any Point in History
March 27th, 2008Via: Los Angeles Times:
It wasn’t the first time I had encountered a slave in bondage. It wasn’t even the first time I had been offered a slave for sale. Over five years on five continents, I had infiltrated trafficking networks and witnessed other negotiations to buy and sell human beings. Worldwide, I’d met more than 100 current and former slaves.
Many people are surprised to learn that there are still slaves. Many imagined that slavery died along with the 360,000 Union soldiers whose blood fertilized the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment. Many thought that slavery was brought to an end around the world when most countries outlawed it in the 19th century.
But, in fact, there are more slaves today than at any point in history.
That last line doesn’t really tell you very much, IMHO. Remember that the 20th Century saw a massive human population explosion.
That being said, the fact that slavery was effectively legally abolished more than a hundred years ago didn’t change the fact that the world was run by a sick and evil patriarchy.
Its a little ridiculous to imply that slavery was mainly limited to the Western Hemisphere from the 17th – 19th centuries. Europe had a thriving slave market in Venice for much of the Middle Ages, mainly dealing in Eastern European “Slavs”, exporting them to much of the known world.
We’ve had slavery ever since the end of the hunter-gatherer cultures. It is an inevitable byproduct of regimented, highly stratified societies. By the looks of it, it will be common again in the future.
Believe it or not, a form of slavery, “indentured servitude”, is still in existence in Britain. Met a British woman once who knew some indentured servants–they were indentured to the royal Family! Further, in Vonnegut’s “Hocus Pocus,” an American family of indentured servants, indentured to one of the oligarchical families that lives on one of the huge estates along the Hudson River, is mentioned…if Vonnegut puts a fictional family of indentured servants in his novel you can bet real indentured servants still exist in this country. Years ago in the New York city papers someone did a series on slaves owned by UN functionaries. National Geographic did a story a couple of years ago on worldwide slavery. And Mauritania’s biggest claim to “fame” is the fact that it is Africa’s present day slave trade hub. Albania-Kosovo is Europe’s, and Thailand is supposedly Asia’s. And I agree–slavery now is more prevalent than at any time in history, especially if you include serfdom, indentured servitude, and sharecropping, and other forms…debt slavery, perhaps?
the issue of serfdom is why I am not all cought up in the China – Tibet thing. Fact is before China came in in 1951 the overwhelming majority of Tibetans were serfs living in the worst poverty imaginable. Now all Tibetans have schools, hospitals, etc. Most of the Tibetan protestors appear to be Buddhist monk students and other students…the same folks who would benefit if the Dalai Lama returned and re-instituted feudalism the way it had been before the Chinese came (which I’m not saying he would). Most of the reporters and “Free Tibet” types have no clue as to the real history of Tibet, its fuedalism up to the modern times, and the way aristocrats brutalized the serfs, all in the name of preserving “Tibetan Buddhism” (who ever said Buddhism was an “enlightened religion”?)
And let’s not forget Immokalee, Florida, the hub of slave trade in migrant laborers. These folks are paid a “slave wage”, but what makes them slaves is that they cannot leave their jobs. One group of Hispanic laborers were liberated by Florida law enforcement…they were locked up in a truck trailer at night so they wouldn’t escape, and were not allowed to leave the plantation. Any food they ate had to be bought at the “company store”. And not all these migrants are Hispanic either, some a black and yes, some are white homeless people lured into “good paying” jobs. Including children.