Today vs. Past Slavery

Many people alive today do not realize how many people are involved in slavery and human trafficking. Slavery touches every country and even hits closer to home than you may think. One vast difference seen in slavery today as compared to "traditional" or past types of slavery is that nowadays the slaves are cheap. One could buy a slave for under one hundred dollars and usually the slaves find themselves in continual debt bondage to the owner. In the past the slave owners had to invest more into their slaves and their lives and were physically more expensive.

One might wonder how is it possible that the price of a slave has decreased while national capital and economic wealth in many countries has significantly increased. Another aspect many people do not focus on and realize that in order to truly work on ending slavery, there needs to be systems in place for people who have recently "gained freedom." Without any focus on what happens to the newly freed slaves, a lot of times they end up returning to the slave system out of necessity for food, shelter and hopes of money. There also needs to be a focus on the police systems and judicial systems to ensure that they are not also involved in the problem; as well as enforcing the laws that every country claims to have against slavery. Without support systems in place and cooperation with the local police force, slavery could never truly end.

After learning more about slavery and seeing documentaries on how brutal the lives are of people in forced labor one may wonder how they can possibly help to end it. Right now I feel the best way to help would be through raising awareness of slavery with family and friends and even at WSU. As stated before many people are completely clueless that it still exists, and slaves are even living in Seattle and transported through the Spokane airport. If we can raise awareness and show people that it does affect people who could live down the street from you and not some far away country; then we can evoke real change.

Click HERE to open the feedback tool.