Talk of slavery in this country will call to mind names like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman and Abraham Lincoln. There is the idea that slavery was a terrible crime of the past that was ended with the Emancipation Proclamation.
However, the reality is much different. The truth is that slavery is a terrible institution that millions of people still live in everyday.
A recent book brings light to modern slavery. \Slave: My True Story,"" recounts the life of Mende Nazer, who was taken into slavery in Sudan at the age of 12 and who recently escaped when her master sent her to work for relatives in England. The book describes the abuses that she suffered.
The book reads, ""Houseguests groped her freely, and her mistress beat her regularly and even burned her with a hot ladle for serving eggs fried instead of poached... Nazer's owners showed her off like a new Sub-Zero refrigerator. 'Let me tell you,' her mistress chattered to visitors, 'if you have an abda [a slave] in your home, like her, it's like a blessing.'""
In Sudan alone, there are thousands of slaves that experience lives like Nazer's. However, this is not the only form of modern slavery. Another example is debt bondage. This happens when someone is forced to take out a small loan, for food or medicine, and is then made to work long hours to pay it off. However, they are often never able to pay the loan and the debt is then put upon their children.
Other types of modern slavery include child labor, human trafficking, forced prostitution and domestic labor. There is work being done to end modern-slavery. The U.S. State Department recently pledged $100 million to end human trafficking. John Miller, the director of the U.S. State Department's anti-people trafficking office, said countries that qualify will receive money for law enforcement training, education and assistance to victims.
Brazil's current president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is trying to shut down the farms in Brazil, a country that ""abolished"" slavery in 1888, where an estimated 25,000 slaves work, according to Bristish Broadcasting Coportation. Lula wants to make it legal to confiscate the land of slave owners and believes that more laws will be necessary to end slavery in Brazil.
There are also groups, like the London-based Anti-Slavery International, which work to end modern slavery. Its Web site is www.antislavery.org. When talking of slavery, it should be remembered that it more than a topic in a history book. It is a modern reality.
