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Slavery - 4.Version - Referat
"Slavery… I didn't know about all these forms that existed. I think it's largely because we aren't expecting it. It is hidden.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Hull, United Kingdom, 1999
1. Basic information
What is slavery? Slaves are forced to work most time without pay, under threat of violence, and they’re unable to walk away. You can find them in brothels (a house where men can find prostitutes), factories, mines, farm fields, restaurants, construction sites and private homes.
21-36 million people worldwide are enslaved. According to studies done by anti-slavery groups that are more slaves than ever before.The majority of slaves can be found in India and African countries. Over the half of them are female, about 1/3 are children.
The US government estimates that 14,500 – 17,500 people are brought into the US each year to be used as slaves.Today there are about 60 000 slaves in the United sates and about 10 000 in Germany.
The slaves are cheaper than ever before. The average slave today costs around $90. In the past they cost upwards of $40,000 (in today’s money). (aufwärts)
2. History of slavery
Slavery has existed in almost every culture. Egyptians, Greeks, Britons and many more - they all - had slaves. I focused on the US, because I think it’s the most interesting part of the history of slavery.
Almost from the beginning unfree laborers (bondsmen) were part of the economic life of the colonies, especially in the South. Here labor-intensive crops such as tobacco, cotton and later sugar cane were grown for the European market. However there was not enough labor to satisfy demand, so the colonies started to import slaves from Africa.
From about 1500 to 1800, 11 to 16 millions of Africans were enslaved and transported across the Atlantic as a labour force to work on plantations.
The transatlantic slave trade generally followed a triangular route:
• Europeans bought people in exchange for goods and loaded them into the ships.
• The voyage across the Atlantic, known as the Middle Passage, generally took 6 to 8 weeks. Those Africans who had survived the journey were off-loaded for sale and put to work as slaves.
• The ships then returned to Europe with goods such as sugar, coffee, tobacco, rice and later cotton, which had been produced by slave labour.
The resistance of enslaved Africans and the abolitionist movement brought the slave trade to an end in 1807.
In 1787 the authors of the US constitution were unable to resolve the slave question and they simply sidestepped it. The US was a deeply divided country: some northern states had constitutions declaring slavery illegal, the remaining states tolerated it.
Slaves who succeeded in escaping from their Masters and crossing the border to a free state were generally recognized as free citizens. But of course the southern states were very outraged and they accused the free states of aiding criminal actions by granting legal protection to runaway slaves. That was the reason for the Fugitive Slave Law which was passed by Congress in 1850. This law allowed even free blacks to be arrested and sold into slavery. Furthermore the northern citizens weren’t allowed to hide or help the blacks anymore. The new law led to illegal kidnappings and the aversion of the North to the South grew. The tension led to the Civil War from 1861 to 1865. In 1863 President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring "that all persons held as slaves […] shall be free." In 1865 the Civil War ended, Lincoln was assassinated and the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery throughout the United States.
The ending of slavery in 1865 did not improve the situation of most Black Americans. Whites developed new forms of discrimination, such as segregation, which kept the blacks”in their place” – how they called it - for the following 100 years. The civil rights movements, led by such figures as Martin Luther King, eventually achieved success in establishing legal equality.
3. Status of slaves
They were property  could be sold and hired out by their owners will, families were mot time splitted
they had no right to own property, They had to wear "Negro cloth”.
got cruel treatment, were mutilated, raped and sometimes even killed  no consequences to the murders
They had to become christians/ got religious instructions.
Weren’t allowed to be witnesses (testify against whites). Mariages including a slave were illegal
Slaves were forbidden to leave the owner's property unless they obtained permission or were accompanied by a white person. Any slave who tried to run away and leave the colony was punished with death.
4. Modern forms of slavery
Nowadays slavery doesn't only come in the obvious form in which one person owns another person (which is called chattel slavery or traditional slavery [people are treated as property]).
Debt bondage/Bonded labour
• It occurs when a person needs money and agrees to pledges himself or herself against a loan.
• Most time it’s impossible for the laborer to pay off his dept because of low wages, deductions (Abzüge, if you subtract something) for food and lodging (place to sleep) and high interest rates (Zinssätze).
• Dept bondage can be passed on from generation to generation, so sometimes the children still need pay off their parents' debt.
• It is the most widespread form of slavery today. It affects at least 20 million people around the world.
• Example: Migrant workers often become bonded labour to pay off those who smuggled them to the new country - they dare not to break free because of their fear of being deported
• the cost of medicine for a sick child (India) To repay the debt, many are forced to work long hours, seven days a week, up to 365 days a year.
Forced labour
• Definition: Victims are forced to work against their will, often working very long hours for little or no pay in dire (terrible) conditions under verbal or physical threats of violence to them or their families.
• Includes workers which are 'kept in captivity' as a domestic servant (Hausangestelte)
• Also: exploitation of labourers in development countries (bad conditions)
Trafficking (very similar to forced labour)
Trafficking involves transporting people away from the communities in which they live and forcing them to work against their will using violence, deception (Betrug) or coercion (Zwang). Human trafficking is the second largest international criminal industry in the world and it is the fastest growing. Between 600,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked internationally every year. You can subdivide trafficking also in Cild/Maritual and sexual slavery.
Child slavery
• a young person (under 18)
• transfer of the child to another person so that they can be exploited
• For example if someone adopts a children in order to use them as 'slaves'
• This includes also forcing children to become soldiers, for example by the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda
Marital and sexual slavery
• Forced marriage, selling wives, buying women for marriage (on the internet) (the women are married without choice, their life is often marked by physical violence)
• Sexual Slavery is mostly forced prostitution
5. Why slavery persists
Some of the factors that contribute to the survival of slavery may be:
Poverty in the areas where slavery occurs
• Many children become bonded labour because of family poverty  need money for food
• Lack of financial institutions  poor vulnerable to money-lenders
Lack of alternatives
• If the alternative to slavery is starvation, then slavery will be seen as the better oportunity
• Caste and similar institutions may restrict the labour choices of a person
Barriers to the free movement of labour
• Poverty can make it impossible for the poor to move to an area where they can get employed as free workers  people have to travel long distances
• People may be prevented by law or by force from moving to new areas to find work
Population growth
• This is produced a huge crowd of unemployed people, not enough working places/jobs
Corruption and crime
• Some people are kidnapped  can’t do anything
Global sales of goods using slave labour in
• Increasing public pressure  people want cheap goods  and therefore workers get a less money
Pope Francis and religious leaders from Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and other faiths came together at the Vatican on 2.12.2014. They declared to end slavery by the year 2020. In my opinion it’s hardly possible. What do you think?
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