Modern Slavery

Lehman, David Lehman 1

English 2 Honors Gifted

14 May 2007

Mrs. K. Doyle

Modern Slavery

Our sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln spoke the following words in the Emancipation Proclamation, which were meant to free all slaves in the United States from bondage in 1863.

“That on the first day of January A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the

United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and Naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons and will do no acts or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.”

It is amazing to think that slavery can be practiced in today’s society. In fact there are more than twenty million people working as slaves in our modern, more “civilized” society. Several different injustices are classified as slavery: bonded labor, early and forced marriage, forced labor, slavery by descent, trafficking, and child labor. According to www.antislavery.org, slaves are forced to work because of fear, are owned or controlled by an owner, dehumanized, and are restricted in their freedom or movement.

Slavery began in the United States in the country’s earlier years. Slaves were brought from Africa on crowded ships. They were taken from their families and

Lehman 2

friends. Today’s slave trade is, unfortunately, not much different. Children are taken from their families in India to weave carpets for food. Children are captured for prostitution in Asia. The governments of these regions choose to look the other way because child prostitution is a reason for some tourists to visit and spend money (Ricco 1&2).

Many people that are called modern slaves but are usually forgotten about are forced to work in “sweat shops” getting paid next to nothing if that. These people think that they are working for their own benefit; however, they are terribly wrong.

Remember that, the next time that you buy that imitation, knock-off pair of sneakers or handbag.

Researchers found that more than ten thousand people are in forced labor across 90 US cities. These people are forced to work in sweatshops, clean homes, work on farms, or work as prostitutes or strippers. Many of these cases are accumulated in areas with large immigrant populations, like California, New York, and Florida. Most of the victims of forced labor are “imported” from 38 different countries. China, Mexico, and Vietnam top this list of countries (Gilmore 1).

The Berkeley findings also show a case where a Florida employer threatened hundreds of Mexican and Guatemalan workers to harvest fruit. It also shows a case where a Washington D.C. couple brought Cameroonian teenagers to work fourteen hours a day as domestic servants, without pay while threatening them with deportation. The teenagers were promised a better education (Gilmore 2).