Modern-day emancipation

Flash back to 1850. You are in Alabama, picking cotton for 15 hours a day and getting paid nothing. At any moment you could be separated from your family and sent to another plantation as part of the national slave trade. Now, flash forward to 2009. You are still working 15-hour days and getting paid nothing; however, instead of working in a field, you are cleaning houses in a suburb of Washington, D.C. This time, instead of being enslaved under a national, legal form of commerce, you were lured into slavery under the false pretenses of money and education.

But isn't slavery illegal?

Pulitzer Prize nominee and president of Free the Slaves Dr. Kevin Bales came to speak at Brandeis about modern-day slavery as part of the Social Justice Leadership Series presented by The Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism on Wednesday, Sept. 2. Free the Slaves is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to "liberat[ing] slaves around the world, help[ing] them rebuild their lives and research[ing] real world solutions to eradicate slavery forever," according to its Web site.

Bales, relaxed and cordial, spoke confidently about what modern slavery is, where it comes from and why it exists in the present day. He also spoke about how slavery can come to an end and the important role investigative journalism could play in helping to expose it.

Bales told the audience in Goldfarb Library's Rapaporte Treasure Hall that today 27 million people are enslaved all over the world, approximately 14,500 of whom are brought into America each year through human trafficking, the modern-day slave trade. Today, most slaves are found in India and African countries and can work in fields, brothels, homes, mines and restaurants, according to the Free the Slaves Web site.

Bales discussed how slavery has has existed ever since humans have existed.

"There has never been a day in America without slavery. From the time Columbus landed right up to the present moment, there has been slavery every single day, ... sometimes to a greater extent, sometimes to a lesser extent, but never [has the country existed] without slavery," Bales said.

Bales talked about how slavery exists today due to extreme poverty and the resulting desperation. People who live in desolate areas torn by internal strife and civil war are rarely protected under the rule of law. As such, people are able to take control of other people's lives using weapons and false promises of education and food.

Bales spoke of a little girl who lived in a destitute village in Ghana. In the village there was no school, and the girl's single mother had trouble supporting their family.

"Someone came along and said [to the mother], 'I've got a job for your daughter in the fishing industry. ... I'll make sure she gets plenty to eat, time to go to school,'" Bales said. "The mom was faced with this horrible devil's choice: Do I let my daughter go to what could be a much better life, or do I keep her where she's under at least my protection?"

In the end, the little girl was enslaved in the fishing industry, where she worked 18 to 20 hours a day.

"Most people who are lured into slavery in the year 2009 are lured because they want what we want; they want food for their children," Bales said.

Bales said that although the nature of capturing slaves has been altered from the past, there is little difference between slavery today and that of the past. "There's a little less slavery today caused by armies marching and capturing whole populations into slavery, but throughout human history people have been lured into slavery either by promises or they've been captured into it," Bales said.

Bales noted another difference between slavery today and slavery of the past: Today, slaves come at a much cheaper price.

"Throughout all of human history, human beings have been commerce purchases ... significant investments. And today they're at the lowest price they've ever been in history," Bales said. He continued, "For most of human history, the price of a slave was around $48,000 in today's dollars. Now, the average price of a slave worldwide is around $90." This, Bales believes, creates the concept of "disposable people," that because the price of humans has become so cheap, slaves are now looked at as replaceable, economic inputs as opposed to significant investments.

"The [world's] population explosion ... has created a pool of potentially enslavable people," Bales said. "That pool [of a] billion people ... lives on a dollar a day and lives in situations where the rule of law doesn't protect them. That pool is so large that it's the law of supply and demand. The potential supply is so large that the process has collapsed and put [humans] at the lowest possible price for all of history."

According to Bales, because slaves are now seen as being "disposable," they tend not to be in slavery for their whole lifetime anymore. People tend to be enslaved for short periods of times.

"If they're injured or ill, [slave owners] don't give them treatment. Simply like a Styrofoam cup, [slave owners] use them hard, crumple them up, throw them away and replace them very cheaply," Bales said.

Bales went on to say that the only way to end illegal slavery is through awareness. He said that, fortunately, the moral battle has already been won and people everywhere agree that slavery is wrong. Now governments have to help enforce the law to end slavery.

Fortunately, Bales also said that although 27 million slaves is huge, ending slavery is not as daunting as one might think.