21st Century Slavery

21st Century Slavery

It is a widely accepted and preached belief in America that slavery is wrong in many ways. Slavery changed the course of America and is such a powerful topic it caused the only civil war our country has ever seen. Slavery was abolished in America with the 13^th Amendment to the Constitution. After Congress passed this law, and America fought a war over the law, many people figured the topic would be put behind us and would not be a problem again. Yet in the 21^st century it can be argued that slavery is worse today than it has ever been. According to Free the Slaves, there are more current slaves than in the history of the world. The perception of slaves makes this hard to believe for many Americans. Most people think of slaves working on farms where they are bound in chains, or cleaning houses for extremely wealthy people. Truth of the matter is many of the labor slaves are no longer in America, but the other countries worldwide.

The present day slaves are experiencing worse conditions than the slaves of early America. Even those people who work in sweat factories or production factories are living in worse conditions than early American slaves. The slaves of early America received food, shelter, and the ability to raise a family. Those people who work in sweat shops barely make enough money a day to feed themselves, without even thinking about their families. Those working in sweatshops may not seem to fit under the “slave” category, but the circumstances they are in are worse than slavery in some aspects. These people struggle to find a place to live and many cannot afford to have kids and support them. Other “true” slaves of the world barely receive enough food rations for them to live each day. Under no circumstance am I condoning or agreeing with slavery in early America. I am just pointing out that slavery is not always what we perceive it to be, and how it is only getting worse.

There is an estimated 27 million slaves worldwide according to Stephen Lendman. The average slave today costs 90 dollars, compared to the slaves in 1850 costing 40,000 dollars. This shows the care and treatment of slaves is only getting worse. The fact that people are putting a price on human life is sickening and disturbing. There is no worse way to treat living humans than to treat them as objects. One may ask how is this going on or how it has not been stopped yet. The majority of the slaves are in Indian and African countries. The slaves in the United States go undetected because around half of the slaves are used for prostitution or sex services. In a country which prides itself on equality and freedom, it is hard to believe that this problem is still around in the model country of equality itself.