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Weekly Blog - 23 August 2024 - Slavery Past, Present and Future?

Marking the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade, and considering what actions need to be taken today.

 

Slavery past

This Friday 23 August is the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition, when the world remembers the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade.  Tragically slavery has been present in virtually all human civilizations for thousands of years.  However, the transatlantic slave trade is particularly notorious for its absolute brutality, deeply racist nature, and for elevating slavery to an industrial scale.  From the early 1500s until the 1860s more than 12 million people were captured in West Africa and shipped across the Atlantic by Europeans to the Americas.  Over a million died on the journey in horrific conditions.  Throughout that time many churches and Christian businessmen and investors were financially involved in the trade, as indeed were virtually all investors and financial institutions across Western Europe, given how deeply the slave trade was embedded into European finances and economies at the time.

More encouragingly, in Britain in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Christian activists famously campaigned for the end of slavery.  Leading abolitionists like Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp fought tirelessly for the end of slavery, as did parliamentarians like William Wilberforce.  Former slaves such as Olaudah Equiano, Ottobah Cugoano and Phillis Wheatley were also fundamental in the struggle.  As a result of their efforts over many decades, Britain finally passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 1807.  This banned the trade, but not slavery itself, which remained in the British empire until the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act.  Christian activists also drove progress towards abolition in the US, which finally came in 1865 at the end of the Civil War, and in nations across Central and South America, where slavery was abolished at various times from the 1810s – 1880s.  In other parts of the world the slave trade lasted even longer.  The abolition of slavery of course did not end deep racism, segregation and inequality, and the struggle against that continued for many years afterwards, and in many ways still continues today.

 

Slavery present

And slavery too continues today in new and different forms.  More than 50 million people around the world are currently trapped in modern slavery.  They might be victims of human trafficking, debt bondage, forced marriage, or forced labourers in farms, factories, construction and domestic work.  In each case they have little or no pay, and endure appalling conditions, widespread abuse and few rights.  Modern slavery might look different, but it is still deeply iniquitous.  It affects people like Chantin, a friend of Arise from a rural and poor community in Nepal.  Chantin was discriminated against because she gave birth to two daughters, but no sons.  Her own husband and family decided to send her overseas to earn money.  Chantin was trafficked to a Middle Eastern country as a domestic worker.  When she got there she found she had no proper contract, and had to work long hours for very low wages.  The family she was working for kept her passport, she had no phone, she was not allowed outside the home, or even to talk to the family she was serving.  She wanted to go home but decided to stay for several years to save what she could for her daughters.  When she eventually returned home, she faced widespread stigma from her family and community.  Chantin now educates and trains other women in her community.  She is helping to raise awareness of the dangers of trafficking, challenge social stigma and provide alternatives.  Many millions of other women, men and children who have been trafficked remain trapped in modern slavery.

 

Slavery future?

So what will the future of slavery be?  That is largely in our hands.  The root cause of modern slavery is poverty and the lack of good laws, based on human rights, properly enforced to protect people from exploitation.  Millions of people living in poor communities in low-income countries with few prospects for good well-paid jobs, find themselves trapped in debt bondage or forced labour, millions of others are driven into the hands of ruthless traffickers.  The Bible is full of condemnation for those like forced labour bosses or human traffickers who exploit and abuse the vulnerable, as the book of Proverbs says, “Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court, for the LORD will take up their case” (Prov 22: 22 – 23).  As Christians, we are called to do all we can to stand against such injustice, like the prophet Isaiah says, Learn to do right; seek justice.  Defend the oppressed.  Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow” (Isa 1: 16 – 17).  To end modern slavery we must tackle the root cause and do all we can to help nations rapidly develop and end extreme poverty, and improve the enforcement of human rights, so people have much better prospects and protections and are not driven into modern slavery. 

Two of the three major campaigns that Arise runs focus on precisely these root cause issues.  Arise’s 4 Shifts Campaign looks at what the Bible tells us, and all the lessons from history indicate, works best to reduce and end the poverty that lies behind modern slavery.  It finds that nations need 4 Shifts to create strong and fair economies that provide the jobs and wealth that lift people out of poverty, and can be taxed to provide essential services like education and healthcare.  All nations that have developed successfully and lifted themselves permanently out of poverty have followed this route.  Meanwhile our Reform Movements campaign supports mass peaceful protest movements of ordinary people demanding democracy and improved human rights in countries all around the world.  Where dramatic improvements in democracy and human rights have occurred, they have overwhelmingly been driven by just such movements. 

The world should re-double its efforts to bring an end to modern slavery and make sure it has no future.  Christians should be at the forefront of those efforts, just like they were in the campaigns to end the transatlantic slave trade in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  Christian campaigns like 4 Shifts and Reform Movements have a crucial role to play in those efforts.  Let’s get involved today.

 

Find out more

Arise Manifesto – Find out more about slavery, poverty and human rights in the Arise Manifesto, Arise’s big picture, researched, Biblical, holistic and practical vision for a better world. 

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