Modern Day Slavery In The 1800s

As Abraham Lincoln once said, “Those who deny freedom from others, deserve it not for themselves.” However, his statement was directed to the slavery that took place in the 1800s. That slavery involved African Americans that did not have any say in whether they would work or not. They were born into slavery, and they were sold from slave owner to slave owner. This is referred to as olden-day slavery. People today seem oblivious to the fact that slavery still exists today just because the way slavery used to be is not common anymore, just in racial or religious parts of Africa (Meyer, page 8). Modern-day slavery, however, is considered to be so secretive and so “under the radar” that most first-world countries have no idea what is going on

in other developing countries. “According to the CNN Freedom Project, modern slavery is defined as ‘when one person completely controls another person, using violence or the threat of violence to maintain that control, exploits them economically, and they cannot walk away.” (Fashion, paragraph 2). More than 27 million people are enslaved today around the world (Fashion, paragraph 1), and modern-day slavery isn’t just prevalent in developing countries. According to the Global Slavery Index, the United States was ranked 134th out of 162 countries for prevalence in slavery. (Meyer, page 6). In order to stop the slavery of today, people need to know how it happens, why it’s happening, who is affected, what are the consequences, and where it takes place.
Slavery today does not come close to correlate with the slavery of the 1800s in America.

Today, Americans seem to believe that olden-day slavery is the only possible form of slavery, but they do not see the horrors that go behind all the different types of modern-day slavery around the world. The most common form of slavery today is called debt-bondage, or bonded labor (Meyer, pg. 9). People who are in desperate need of money look for people who can help pay off their debt. Workers receive the pay in the advance, and then do not know how much work they will have to do in order to pay off their debt; therefore, they can never get free of their debt (Meyer, pg

9).
The second most common form of slavery today takes the form of contract slavery (Meyer, pg. 9). Contract slavery and debt-bondage include the same context; however contract slavery relates more to a job. The workers sign contracts saying they will work for certain people for a certain amount of time at a certain wage. The wages are very low and the contracts trap them under slave-like conditions. Usually, these slaves work in sweatshops (Meyer, pg. 9).
The third-most common form of slavery today is referred to as forced labor. This type of slavery relates more to olden-day slavery. Forced labor is usually seen in war-torn areas because the government will use the war prisoners as laborers (Meyer, pg. 11). These prisoners have almost no consent of what they work on, how long they work, or when they will stop or get a break. They are completely controlled without contract. Forced labor also shows in the younger age group: children. Children are seen as easy targets because they are young and inexperienced and cannot escape adults. They are seen as vulnerable to greedy adults (Meyer, pg. 11). In the times of war, children, which most are orphaned, are forced to become children soldiers, sexual slaves, or weapon and ammunition manufacturers (Meyer, pg. 11).
Modern-day slavery occurs today for a wide variety of reasons. “Currently, modern-day slavery is linked to the hazy supply of many industries including electronics, fashion, and agriculture.” (Fashion, paragraph 3). Profit from products is how industries make money. In the month of May in 2014, the International Labour Organization (ILO) reported the illegal profits made from the use of forced labor worldwide amounted to an extreme number of $150.2 billion (Meyer, page 15). The National Labor Committee also claimed that women making NBA jerseys that sell for $140 will only receive 24 cents (Clothing). A principle called “need and greed” also falls into place here. “Need and Greed” refers to the idea that the supply is produced slower than the demand is met. This means that hungry consumers should have to wait for their products to made legally and under the right working conditions, but companies want to sell more and more of their; therefore, third-world countries see this an opportunity to make more money, and they hire thousands of workers to sit in small, vermin-ridden workplaces and make products that will sell for way less than they actually should be. This goes along with profit. The company buys the product, and then sells it way higher than what they bought it for. However, most companies do not own their supply chains. This gets companies out of the “hot-water”. They just buy their products, but they do not actually own them; therefore, it is legal on their side of the stick (Fashion, paragraph 4).
Companies today see cheap labor as more money.

They can have the workers make their product for way less than what it is actually worth. Sweatshops also make products much faster than a regular factory. “In a Mexican sweatshop, workers have a quota of 1,000 products a day, but in order to produce this, they’d have to make one item every minute.” (Clothing). Another factor into this is the fact that America doesn’t produce enough laborers to make the products for them. Where it would take America months to find enough employees, it only takes China 15 days (Social, slide 7-8). In 2011, the US department of Labor reported that 130 typed of goods in 71 different countries were produced by forced labor, child labor, or both (Meinert, 24). This means that consumers are subconsciously endorsing forced labor. The consumers then buy the products that are made by forced laborers; however, most consumers do not realize the history of the clothing that they wear

everyday.
More than an estimated 27 million human beings are enslaved today, whether it is in sweatshops, for wars, or for sexual purposes. On an everyday basis, workers are treated like animals.In sweatshops, workers can be fined for not arriving to work on time, going to the restroom for too long, or making a mistake on what they’re working on. The punishment starts at two months of pay, docked (Clothing). If workers in sweatshops try to quit, they can be legally enslaved because they would be violating a contract (Clothing).
Not only do laborers endure disgraceful working conditions, they also endure a great amount of assault and abuse. Women, children, and even men workers are given physical, verbal, and sexual abuse (Clothing); however, women are given the blunt of the abuse. Employers force 85-90% of all women workers to take the contraceptive pill and take routine pregnancy tests so they cannot be liable to take maternity leave. (Clothing).
The consequences behind modern-day slavery will forever be considered horrendous and disgusting; however, most people that live in first-world countries do not see the horrors. Workers have to be crammed into dorms and apartments and it is so overcrowded to the point where factories will actually hire foot traffic guards to keep people from getting crushed in the doorway (Social, slide 11). Factories have their employees working in the most hazardous conditions. The factories are usually under construction while workers are working inside of them, they have no overhead sprinklers, and to top all of that, the chemical dust that is used to produce fabric flies around, and that dust catches fire easily. (Social, slide 13). The Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh on April 24, 2014 killed 1,124 workers (Clothing). The crash was due to improper construction. Each one of those workers belonged to someone outside of the factory. They were loved and cherished by family members. The Rana Plaza collapse marks the worst garment factory crash in history (Clothing).