Slavery has been the scourge of the human race since the beginning of time. Accounts of slavery appear in many ancient texts. If we look in the bible we can see that it talks about the Jews being slaves in Egypt. People in ancient times thought nothing of having slaves. It was as natural to them as breathing. Having slaves was a sign of affluence. In Roman times if you wanted to throw a party, or some gathering and wanted to impress your guests, you could rent slaves, much as we rent cars now. As everyone knows slavery in this country was not uncommon until 1865 when the Civil War ended. If I were to ask you what period in time had the most slaves, what would you answer? Many of you would probably say it was ancient times, others might say that it was a couple of hundred years ago. Guess what, you both would be wrong. The period in history that had the most slaves is right now. Yes you heard me correctly, it is today.

It has been estimated that over 27,000,000 slaves exist in the world. While there may be less countries involved in slave ownership, the population has grown so there are more people in these areas to own slaves. Slavery has been around so long that it is believed that it existed even before there were written records to verify this. The funny thing about slavery today is that almost every country in the world has outlawed the practice and yet look at the numbers of slaves that exist. If we were to trace the roots of the word slave we would find that it goes back to the late 500s AD. The term originally meant Slavic people. The reason for this is that the area that the Slavic people lived in was frequently raided. This area was Eastern and Central Europe. People from there were frequently captured and kept as slaves. This became one of the favorite spots for the Vikings to get their slaves from. The practice was continued by the Holy Roman Emperors, who were anything but holy.

Forced labor is defined by the International Labor Organization as "all work or service which is extracted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily". There are exceptions to this such as military service, convicted criminals, etc. Why does slavery exist? One of the reasons is that in some places in the third world, labor is needed and what cheaper labor to tend farms and such could there be than free labor? Slavery is a despicable practice, one that we can't seem to get rid of. Every year over 17,000 people are smuggled across US borders for the purpose of slavery. In addition to this there are over 30,000 people being transported through the US to be taken to different international locations for the purpose of slavery. Did you ever wonder why so many people disappear in this country and all around the world? Some of them are taken as slaves. The area around New Orleans in this country, is said to be a place where some women disappear. It is said that many of them are forced into the sex trade, especially blonds and red heads, who are at a premium in other parts of the world.

In ancient Rome, everybody wanted a Greek as a slave. They were prized above all others, because of their culture and education and were often used as teachers. Today we hear about people in our own country that are being kept as virtual prisoners in homes and forced to work without pay. Since they were smuggled in illegally, they are threatened with exposure and in many cases this is enough to keep them in line. They were told all sorts of horror stories about what would happen to them if the government found out that they were here. Tragically for them, they are under a misconception. The stories are false and they would be better off if they were found out.

A report was released in 2004. The report was titled, “Hidden Slaves: Forced Labor in the United States” It was put out by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. It contends that forced labor, which is akin to slavery, exists in at least 90 cities in this country. It goes on to state that at any given time, over 10,000 people are forced to work in sweat shops, on farms, clean homes, or even work as strippers and prostitutes. The report goes on to say that slavery still exists and that it has just taken on a new form. The report documented several cases, one of which was a case where a restaurant owner enslaved young girls and women for sex and to be workers in his restaurant. Another case was a Florida man who forced hundreds of Mexican and Guatemalan workers to harvest fruit. To get them to do this, he threatened them with brutal violence. Another case that was documented was where a couple would promise Cameroonian teenagers a better life in the US and when they got them here, they were forced into the life of a domestic servant with no pay and the threat of deportation. It is no surprise that the states with the highest incidence of slavery are the same states that have the largest immigrant populations. These states are New York, Texas, California and Florida. So where did most of these slaves come from? According to the report they were taken from over 38 different countries. The top three countries from where these poor people are taken are China, Mexico and Vietnam. Of the industries they are forced into, 46% go into the sex industry, 27% are forced to become domestics and about 10% are forced into agriculture.

The United Nations was founded on several principles, one of which was to fight bondage, yet it has done little or nothing to stop the slave trade. Since it is an international problem, no one country can do anything about the worldwide problem and will be hard pressed to prevent the smuggling in of slaves. There are some organizations in this country that are trying to fight the slave trade, but because the problem is so covert, it is hard to root it out. From time to time we do find an instance of it and it is dealt with, but the problem is huge and we have only managed to scratch the surface. With all our modern technology and our increased education, one of the most ancient of problems still exists, a problem that has defied any organized effort to eliminate it. The world has to get serious about this blight on the human character and there is no time like the present.