Most people recognize 1865 as the year slavery ended. But the truth is, it was only picking up speed. Today, there are more people in human bondage than at any time in the world’s history, according to the International Labor Organization, an agency with 175 member countries that monitors working conditions. The international slave trade is growing so rapidly, in fact, that Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has said that in a decade, it will exceed both the arms and narcotics trades.
Such realities of slavery’s continuance comes as a shock to many people, like Boston University College of Arts and Sciences senior Adam Friedman, who, until recently, thought slavery was a thing of the past. Two years ago, Friedman attended a gospel concert in Cambridge sponsored by the American Anti-Slavery Group. The featured speaker was Frances Bok, who spent 10 years enslaved in Sudan before escaping at the age of 17.
‘The things he was saying really blew my mind,’ said Friedman. ‘I had no idea this still went on.’
Friedman’s response is not uncommon. He directed friends to the Boston-based abolitionist group’s web site, www.iabolish.com, and some were so surprised by what they saw that they suspected an internet hoax. ‘That’s how recessed this tragedy is,’ he said. ‘That 27 million humans can be owned by other humans is such a wild idea. They didn’t even know what to make of it.’
Friedman didn’t either, but he educated himself and now serves as an intern for the American Anti-Slavery Group. He is currently working on their S.T.O.P. program (Slavery That Oppresses People), an awareness campaign geared toward getting Boston school children involved in the abolitionist movement. He also advises students from the University of North Carolina, who are organizing an on-campus ‘Emancipation Rocklamation’ benefit concert.
Tommy Calvert, Chief of External Operations for the American Anti-Slavery Group, said he believes these publicity-seeking initiatives are important steps.
‘We have to break through this lazy-brain syndrome,’ he said. ‘Too many people say, ‘Slavery? But we got rid of that in 1865!’ Or, ‘Oh no, we have to deal with slavery again?”
The American Anti-Slavery Group defines a slave as anyone forced to perform unpaid labor under the threat of violence.
Calvert warns the problem of slavery is only getting worse and claims 27 million slaves worldwide is a conservative estimate. About 15 to 20 million Southeast Asians in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal make up the largest concentration of slaves, said Calvert. But he noted, ‘No nation is immune to slavery.’
The U.S. State Department estimates between 50 and 75 thousand slaves are currently believed to be in the United States.
Though contemporary slavery takes many forms, most fall into the categories of chattel, sex or debt-bondage enslavement. Calvert said chattel enslavement, common in Sudan and Mauritania, is what most Americans would identify as slavery. Humans are bought and sold as property.
Most American slaves fall into the category of sex slaves. They are usually kidnapped, or lured from their homes by false promises of legitimate employment in more prosperous nations, perhaps as waitresses or housekeepers, Calvert said. Upon their arrival, they are beaten or intimidated with threats of violence against them and their families. The slaves’ inability to communicate in their new surroundings, Calvert explained, makes such cases difficult to find.
Debt bondage is the most complicated form of slavery. ‘In this situation, a factory owner says, ‘Come work for me,” Calvert described. ‘With no other options, the job is taken, but the little pay is spent buying food, which has to be bought from the boss-man’s store. They pay to live in a shack owned by the boss-man, and if their kid gets sick, they borrow money from the boss-man to take him to the doctor.’
Slave owners tally what Calvert calls ‘an Enron-ized tab,’ and the slave quickly accumulates a debt he can’t possibly repay. Some slaves are born into these debt bondage situations, paying off two or three generations of debt.Calvert estimates that working with the human rights organization Christian Solidarity International, the American Anti-Slavery Group has freed over 70,000 slaves in Sudan alone. The country is divided by civil war, and for 20 years, black Africans in the south have been enslaved by mostly Arabs from the north. During redemption missions, sympathetic Arabs have traveled to the north to retrieve slaves, buying them from slave masters and transporting them back to the south where they are sold to abolitionist representatives for $75.
Some have criticized the process, claiming purchases fuel the slave trade industry. But Calvert contends these accusations come from ‘theorists and philosophers who have never been to Sudan or talked to the communities who want their families back.’
‘You will find no report that says we’re increasing the slave trade,’ Calvert said. ‘In fact, since the redemption program has been in existence, the number of slaves in Sudan has decreased every year because the abolitionists exposed our government to the embarrassing fact that in Sudan, you can buy a person for less than a VCR. And that pushed them to push the Sudanese government.’
In October 2002, President Bush signed the Sudan Peace Act that formally condemned the government’s human rights violations.
Calvert said each country presents different challenges to the abolitionist movement, and resistance may come from accomplices within the police, military services, organized crime or government. But he maintained that the biggest obstacle is the public’s lack of awareness.
‘From the general population to policy-makers, even to other human rights organizations, people are just missing the point,’ he said.
He recalled a recent relief effort in Cambodia by an aid program focused on HIV-AIDS prevention. ‘This group went into brothels where women are enslaved and did absolutely nothing to try to free them,’ he said.
‘They distributed condoms and tried to build better relations between the slaves and the brothel owners. But if they weren’t sex slaves, they wouldn’t be getting AIDS. Instead of trying to build relations with the slave owners, they should be fostering relations with the police to have these people arrested.’
Calvert cited this as indicative of the fear and ignorance that surrounds the issue of slavery, calling for more people to get involved.
‘Financial resources and donations are important but not all-important,’ he said. ‘We need to organize meetings and get these voices heard. We offer speakers, and to hear from a slave survivor really brings the message home. People should contact us, and we’ll work with their networks and resources, whatever they are. We really think we can make a difference in all of these places.’
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