Slavery as we know it is a term denoting a grave sin of our nation’s past. A dark chapter in our country’s history abolished in 1865 through the passage of the 13th Amendment.
Many believe that that's when the story ended, however slavery still persists as an active injustice of this century too.
Modern-day slavery, commonly referred to as “human trafficking” or “trafficking in persons,” is today’s reality for over 45 million individuals globally.
Trafficking in persons is defined by Article 3 paragraph (a) of the UN Protocol as an act of “recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons” by means of “threat, force or coercion” for “the purpose of exploitation.” More tangibly, however, modern-day slavery is a broad term encompassing the injustices that are human trafficking, forced labor, sex trafficking, bonded labor and descent-based slavery, child labor, early and forced marriage, domestic servitude and child soldiering.
For most of human history, the enslaved were considered expensive, with a 19th century slave from America’s South being equivalent to today’s $40,000. The average slave today, however, holds a market value of approximately $90.
These statistics are disturbing in more ways than one. First of all, I find myself wary in my verbiage, as market value and actual worth are not synonymous in this context. Additionally, these figures note an increasing devaluation of the individual over time, yet another reason to be concerned about this practice’s existence. It further engrains the 21st century propensity towards the commodification of any and all, making the discussion of the morality of economics futile. If people remain up for sale, there is no true moral limit for markets.
Along with this notable decline in the market value of an enslaved person, modern-day slavery is now the third largest international crime industry, following illegal drugs and arms trafficking. And it's a profitable one at that, generating around $150 billion (with a B) annually, according to a 2014 International Labor Organization figure.
The declined market value of a single slave necessitates an increase in the number of victims affected by modern-day slavery in order to reap such large profits.
And, that is precisely the case. There are more people trapped under slavery today than at any other time in human history, almost three to four times more than those who suffered under the centuries-long trans-Atlantic slave trade.
While slavery may have taken on different forms over the years since then, it remains an unjust practice which disproportionately plagues the lives of communities of color in the US far greater than any other ethnicity. The US Department of Labor has estimated that more than 77 percent of trafficking victims in the US are individuals of color. This statistic thus adds modern-day slavery to the plethora of other modern racial issues under current social concern, and when considered with the US State Department estimate of 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals being trafficked into the US annually, there is much reason to be concerned about this human rights violation’s national implications.
The existence of slavery domestically and internationally makes its defeat an all the more urgent endeavor for American society; it is an injustice that I hope to see truly eradicated on a global scale in my lifetime.
It is thus imperative to end the years in which modern-day slavery thrives in the shadows, bringing this human rights concern to the forefront for firm humanitarian action to be taken, for in the words of Gary Haugen, the founder and CEO of the antislavery organization International Justice Mission, “Nothing happens just because we are aware of modern-day slavery, but nothing will ever happen until we are.”
