Thursday, November 4, 2010

Evolution of Slavery. This is not the type of evolution we want!

      Well slavery is a topic mostly known through reading a history textbook because people might think that it only exist in the past but what they may not know is that like a disease, slavery had evolved into what's known as modern day human trafficking. Before we talk about that, let's get back to the traditional type of slavery which occurs in colonial America.  During that period, slaves obtained from Africa are shipped to the Americas through the triangular trade. On board the ships, the slaves were chained together in a dark space where they were treated inhumanly and diseases were easily spread among them causing high death rates even before the slaves reach their destinations. After arriving in the Americas, they had to work from sunrise to sunset in their master's home without being paid. Also their working conditions were terrible compared to the Africans in the north because the field slaves had be pick cotton which were full of thorns while the house slaves had to work longer hours. The basic needs were barely met considering how some slaves didn't have any clothing to wear throughout the year and others that have to work on empty stomachs for days. Clearly we can see that slavery had its toll on the slaves back in the colonial period but are they still presented in modern day society although slavery is a crime? As you can guess, the answer is yes but how is that possible? The next paragraph will explain it all.
      The term globalization is used to explain the exchange of ideas, people and culture internationally and due to the types of technology plus labor demands of nowadays, slavery had evolved into human trafficking where some people were lied to or even abducted to work for their so called "employers" or more traditionally known as "masters". Women and children are the ones most susceptible to these type of crimes because there are a significant amount of people living in poverty in the cities or even countries in the world which gives these employers many opportunities to spread the lie that they can help these people live a better life in another place. Due to these conditions, the women or even children will be lured into the trap and only finds out the truth when they were already sold to other employers who would threaten them with violence if they don't perform their duties. Women are often sold as prostitutes while children are abducted at early age to be used as labor in dangerous workplaces. In order for that to happen, the employers usually bride government officials in order to them to turn a blind eye to the crimes while also using threats against the victim or his/her family members in order to keep them from escaping. Often times these "slaves" are left on their own to survive because nobody notices that they're being kept against their wills and situations like these are similar to the colonial slaves who were promised land in the Americas after the completion of their service but were often not given any. As the world progresses toward a new future, so had slavery but how often do we notice it happening? I know some of you had seen this advertisement about how human trafficking is modern day slavery on public transportation but have you really notice it happening? Some people might not even know about this issue because the victims are just like normal people so if ever you see an instance of human trafficking, you should absolutely report it to the proper authority in order to free these victims.

2 comments:

  1. This was long. The end made it sound like something you would hear on tv. I agree most people who go through it are normal people, and then they are afraid of telling others because they find it shameful.

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  2. This is really long,but that's good because it's really informative about what slavery was like back then and now.

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