Modern Slavery: Free Resources

SLAVERY STILL EXISTS

Did you know that there are MILLIONS of people still in slavery...TODAY?   Many people think that slavery ended with the civil war, but the Emancipation Proclamation only ended LEGAL slavery in the United States.   Slavery continued in many places legally for long after that, and continues as a criminal activity even today.

"I want to be very clear:  I'm talking about real slavery.  This is not about lousy marriages, this is not about jobs that suck, this is about people who can not walk away, people who are forced to work without pay, people who are operating 24/7 under a threat of violence, and have no pay.  It's real slavery in exactly the same way that slavery would be recognized throughout all of human history."
           - Kevin Bales (from his TED Talk in 2010.)

Slavery today looks a lot like slavery a few hundred years ago (though there are some differences).  Read on...

WARNING:   The chart below contains some information that may not be appropriate for younger children, and may contain triggers for abuse victims.   The printable of this chart contains versions with and without more mature content, so that some of the information about modern slavery can be more easily shared with elementary age children.   You have permission to copy and edit this material even further to make it more appropriate and accessible for you own children or classroom, if necessary.

Past and Present Slavery
A Side by Side Comparison 

Then	Now
For most of history, in most places, slavery was legal. (1b, 1c)	Today, slavery is officially illegal around the world, though laws against slavery are not always enforced, and some countries lack laws covering some forms of slavery.  Still, slavery as a criminal activity exists worldwide. (1c, 2)
The average cost to buy an enslaved person was around $12,000 to $40,000 (adjusted to today's currency), and because of this they tended to be treated as a long term investment (1d, 2)	The average cost for traffickers to obtain an enslaved person, worldwide, today is somewhere between $90 - $400.  In North America, the cost is around $3,000 to $8,000--still a fraction of what it cost when slavery was legal here.  The result of this is that today's slaves are often treated like disposable resources. (2)
Slaves were subject to beatings and other forms of violence and abuse. (1d)	Beatings and other forms of  violence are still tools traffickers use to keep people enslaved today. (2)
Enslaved women were often raped by their masters and subjected to other sexual exploitation. (1d)	Women in slavery today are still subject to rape, even when they are trafficked primarily for labor, not sex. (2)
Tattoos were used to mark people as slaves in ancient China, Greece and Rome, and branding was common during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In both ancient Rome and in the U.S. south, metal collars were sometimes put on slaves who tried to run away. (1d, 1e, 1f, 1g, 4)	Today, sex traffickers sometimes tattoo their victims so that they can mark prostitutes as "theirs" and track them down if they try to leave. These tattoos may be names or designs like logos, and often  incorporate bar codes that can be scanned by smart phones.  In Niger, Wahaya slaves are sometimes made to wear heavy brass ankle bracelets to signify their slave status.  (5,6, 7a, 7b)
In the past, slavery was an important part of world economies, and a large percentage of many nations were slaves.  Here is a sampling of nations who's approximate historical slave prevalence we know (numbers are rounded). Percentage of  Population Enslaved (by Year Recorded) 150 BC - Rome - 30-40% 1086 - England - 10% 1860 - U.S.A - 13% 1910 - Korea - 30% to 50% 1930 - Ethiopia - 12% to 25% (1b,1g)	The percentage of the world population enslaved today is lower than at any time in modern history, and the money generated by slavery today is the "tiniest proportion of the global economy to ever be represented by slave labor." (2)   The exact percentage of slaves in the world today is impossible to  determine as slavery today is  mostly a criminal, underground activity, and no longer publicly recorded as it often was under legal slavery.  But the largest  slave population in the world today is most likely Mauritania, where an estimated 4% of the population is still enslaved.   We are closer to ending slavery than ever before. (2, 8, 9)

Sources listed at the bottom of this page.

"The past, the present, and the future are really one:  They are today"

~Harriet Beecher Stowe, 18th Century Abolitionist

Free Modern Slavery 
Educational Resources 

I believe it is just as important to teach our kids about modern slavery as it is to teach them about historic slavery.   Here are some free resources you can use to teach your children or students about slavery.

Printable Then and Now Comparison Chart
I have two versions of this chart, one simplified for elementary age children (without the information about sex trafficking and rape), and a version for older students similar to the one above.  The version for older students also contains sources, so that they can look up more information on any item if they choose.

Teacher Resource by Free the Slaves
 Several pages of concise info about modern slavery.   There are no graphic details, but sex trafficking and prostitution are mentioned.

Global Slavery Index Infographic
This contains a lot of information about modern slavery in a helpful graphic.

Click here to learn how you 
can help end slavery!

SOURCES:
1.  Wikipedia: 
1b. Slavery
1c. Abolition of Slavery Timeline
1d. Treatment_of_slaves_in_the_United_States
1e. Human Branding
1f. History of Tattooing
1g. Slavery in Ancient Rome
1e. 1860 US Census
2.  How to Combat Modern Slavery, 2010 TED Talk by Kevin Bales (Transcript)
3. Sexual Violence in Labor Trafficking
4.  Object Record:  Slave Collar
5.  Tattood Trafficking Survivors Reclaiming Their Past - The Guardian
6. The Ink 180 Story
7.  Anti Slavery.org
7a. Descent Based Slavery
7b. Wahaya:  Young Girls Sold Into Slavery
8.  Global Slavery Index - 2014 Report
9.  "The Global Markets in Modern Day Slavery" by Gary Craig Criminal Justice Matters, Volume 97, Issue 1, 2014
10 "Twenty First Century Slaves:  Combating Global Sex Trafficking" by Siddharth Kara




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