New Abolitionists

In the past few years, people have become more aware of modern day slavery. Fair trade products are becoming more popular and organizations are being formed to end slavery around the world.

I first became aware of this issue when I came across the movie, Amazing Grace, which was set to come out that year. Amazing Grace tells the story of William Wilberforce who ended the slave trade through parliament in the United Kingdom.

Today, 30 million are enslaved. That is more than twice the amount of people who were living as slaves during Wilberforce’s time.

A slave is any person who is property of and subject to another. According to Not For Sale, slavery means that an individual is held against will through force, fraud or coercion to perform an act for another person’s economic gain. Some examples listed by NFS include people who are forced to fight in Africa, forced prostitution, and people who are forced to make bricks in India. It “happens in a variety of forms across the globe and is unique to each region and area where it takes place.”

The British slave trade  was abolished in 1807 and slavery was abolished in the United States in 1862 but slavery still exists in the U.S. and other parts of the world. According to Free the Slaves, “slavery is not legal anywhere but happens everywhere.”

Sex trafficking occurs when a commercial a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act is under the age of 18 years, according to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Sex Trafficking Fact Sheet.

According to Anti-Slavery International, forced labor is “any work or services which people are forced to do against their will under the threat of some form punishment.”

An abolitionist is someone who is committed to ending slavery. The following organizations are working to end slavery:

Not For Sale empowers communities to find employment in order to prevent human trafficking

The Love Alliance educates about several social justice issues including slavery. TLA also encourages people to buy fair trade in order to not create a demand for products which require forced labor.

International Justice Mission focuses on victim relief, perpetrator accountability, survivor aftercare, and structural transformation.

Shared Hope International works to prevent and end sex trafficking of women and children through community awareness and trainings.

It was not impossible to abolish slavery in the U.S. and Britain hundreds of years ago and it is not impossible to abolish it today. We are a generation of justice seekers and heroes.

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