Modern Slavery

1
Modern Slavery
Gustave Boulangers The Slave Market (1882)
Tea picker in Kirinyaga, Kenya (2001)
Chris Barrett Cornell University January 27, 2008
2
The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
11-20 mn people shipped from Africa to Americas,
1480-1880 Elmina Castle, Ghana first and
largest slave point in Africa and also home to
the oldest Catholic church in Africa.
3
Slavery Abolished?

• Slavery supposedly abolished in the 19th
  century
• - UK Wilberforce/Pitt and 1807 Abolition
• - US Emancipation Proclamation (1862)
• - Brazilian ban on slave trade (1888)
• Banned internationally by agreements
• - 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
  Article 4
• - 1956 Supplementary Convention on the
  Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and
  Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery

4
No! 0.5 3.9 million trafficked annually!
5
Plus ça change

• Slavery is based on power the forced
  exploitation of anothers work. Often involves
  violence.
• Driven by economics competition to reduce
  production costs (demand for slaves) and desire
  to find better work or make profit through
  capture (supply of slaves).
• Poorer communities and households are the main
  sources, richer ones the destinations. Poverty
  and inequality a major driver of slavery.
• Big and lucrative business billions profit
  from trafficking 500K-1 mn persons each year.

6
Whats Different Today

• Less visible because of illegality less chattel
  slavery than in previous centuries.
• More services (sex work, domestic, soldier) and
  less manufacturing economic change.
• Proportionately more children and women.
• More lure than capture slavery, largely
  through tricking youth into distant jobs or
  through debt peonage/bonded labor.
• Slaves are far cheaper disposable workers.
• Far greater scale probably 25-30 million
  people. 1 mn children forced into prostitution/yr
  (UNICEF)!

7
What Can We Do

• Be aware and vigilant sex trafficking on
  Craigs List, locked up domestic workers, etc.
• Encourage greater local action by church and
  public officials roughly as many people are
  trafficked in the US each year as murdered
  (18,000).
• Support programs that help prevent kids from
  falling prey and that aid victims of human
  trafficking (visas, supporting charities, etc.)
  Free The Slaves, Polaris Project, Coalition
  Against Slavery and Trafficking, NotForSale
  Campaign, etc.
• Buy products labelled/certified for fair/ethical
  trade (Rugmark, chocolate, soccer balls, etc.)

8

• If you were born to a poor woman in rural
  Africa, what would you want others to do for you?