Slavery​—The Plague Persists

IS SLAVERY dead? Most people would like to think so. The very word conjures up horrific pictures of brutality and oppression. In the minds of many, though, those pictures belong to the past. For example, some envision the slave ships of bygone centuries​—creaking wooden vessels with holds crammed full of frightened hordes of humanity, huddling in almost unimaginable squalor.

Granted, such slave ships no longer ply the seas and today’s international conventions outlaw that form of slavery. Yet, slavery is by no means dead. The human rights organization Anti-Slavery International calculates that 200 million people still live in some form of slavery. They work in conditions that may well be worse than those endured by slaves of previous centuries. In fact, some analysts conclude that “more people are in slavery today than at any time in history.”

The stories of these modern slaves are heartbreaking. Kanji, * who is only ten years old, herds cattle every day for harsh masters who beat him regularly. “If I am lucky I find a piece of stale bread, otherwise I pass the whole day without food,” he explains. “I have never been paid for my labour because I am a slave and their property. . . . Children my age are playing with other children, and I would rather die than lead this awful life.”

Like Kanji, modern-day slaves are often children or women. They toil against their will making carpets, building roads, cutting sugarcane, or even working as prostitutes. And they may be sold for as little as $10. Some children are even sold into slavery by their own parents to cover bad debts.

 Do you find such reports revolting? You are not alone. In his book Disposable People, author Kevin Bales comments: “Slavery is an obscenity. It is not just stealing someone’s labor; it is the theft of an entire life.” In view of man’s inhumanity to man, what reason have we to believe that the scourge of slavery will ever come to an end? This question has more to do with you personally than you might at first guess.

As we shall see, there is more than one form of slavery. It comes in widely different forms, some of which affect every person alive. So all of us need to know if true freedom will ever come to mankind. But first, let us consider a brief history of the traffic in human slaves.

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[Pictures on page 3]

Impoverished women and children have long been victims of the slave trade

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Top photo: UN PHOTO 148000/Jean Pierre Laffont

U.S. National Archives photo