Modern Slavery

Slavery was like an addiction that the south could not break. Although it provided economic benefits to both the north and the south, the addiction or “curse” bound the people to the downfalls of slavery as well. Slavery created an oligarchy of which a small aristocracy of slave-owners would dominate political, economic, and social affairs of both blacks and whites. The institutions negative impact on the South, and even the entire nation would eventually lead to a great tragedy: the civil war.

During the pinnacle of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln’s influential Emancipation Proclamation declared that “By virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free” (Miller). The Emancipation Proclamation was a necessary war measure that deemed slaves residing in areas of rebellion free, however, complete freedom was not promised to the enslaved. This document signified an important turning point during the ongoing Civil War, for it left the Confederacy at a severe disadvantage. Lincoln knew that the creation of the Emancipation Proclamation would be a morally and tactically correct path in the United States’ exhaustive battle against the Confederacy. Union leaders needed something to help revive their campaign of preserving the Union, the main purpose of the Civil War, in addition to eventually eradicating the controversial practice of slavery (Trefousse).

When the Confederacy did not stop, Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. The proclamation declared, "That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.” (Lincoln, 1863)

After the Civil War the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln. The first paragraph of the Emancipation Proclamation states, "That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom. ”

The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 issued by President Lincoln was set up to free blacks from slavery. Soon after Congress enacted and the states ratified the

"That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then

On January 1, 1963, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared all slaves in Confederate controlled areas liberated. The document contained specific details regarding freedom for slaves. Lincoln was quoted saying to the Secretary of State, “If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some slaves, I would also do that.” The latter is what was attained. While it declared slaves free in most Southern states, some select areas were exempted whilst others were not mentioned at all. Lincoln feared that these “border states”, where slavery was legal, would likewise join the Confederacy if they were included in the proclamation. The “border states” had decided to stay in the Union when other southern states seceded in 1861.

That on the 1st day of January, 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then, be in rebellion against the United States shall be thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the

Although Lincoln opposed slavery, deeming it morally wrong, he wasn’t an abolitionist, as slavery was established under the constitution and so Lincoln was unsure as to how it would affect the current political system. However, due to the impact the Civil War was having on the separated American States, on January 1st 1863 the Emancipation Proclamation officially took effect. It could be strongly argued that the Proclamation was only introduced so that the African American’s could join the Union’s armed forces, thus securing a victory for The Union. Moreover, Lincoln believed that if the slaves were to be freed it meant that the Confederates could no longer use them as labourers thus weakening them on the field. This may then illustrate that the pushing for Civil Rights and the freedom of the Slaves was only introduced as a means of political gain, and was not due to Lincoln’s beliefs. Moreover, in a letter Lincoln wrote to Hon. Horace Greeley on August 22, 1862, he stated that, “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.” This excerpt from his letter may highlight the fact that Lincoln’s priority lay with preserving the union, and not emancipating the

Slavery has evolved from what we used to know as African American’s being tortured and abused to now being transformed into a modern type of slavery existing currently in the United States of America, human sex trafficking. Human sex trafficking is a form of slavery that violates human’s rights, individuals benefiting in forms of profit by exploiting humans. Which then results in physical and psychological consequences. In today’s society, Latina women are trafficked into the United States from third-world countries and forced against their will to have sex with men to later then suffer from this emotionally and physically. In addition, they are battered, exposed, and drained from their dignity and freedom as women and human beings. At a young

In “Tobacco and Slaves: The Development of Southern Cultures in the Chesapeake 1680- 1800” the main theme is the outcome of a long-term economic, demographic, and political transformation that replaced the farmsteads of the first Chesapeake settler with the kind of slave society described by modern historians. After a brief study of the social structure of the region in the seventeenth century, this work analyzed the economic and demographic change between 1680 and 1750. The change that took place described how men and women, and blacks and whites bogus new social relations in the

“Yes Lawd! I have been here so long I ain't forgot nothin'. I can remember things way back”

The majority of human trafficking that occurs in the world today is in the form of forced labor (Types of Human Trafficking). Men, women, and children alike are subject to this particular form of human trafficking. Depending on the situation, victims can be prone to different forms of forced labor ranging from bonded labor to domestic servitude. Men are generally affected by bonded labor on a greater scale; nevertheless, it is not exclusively restricted to males. Bonded labor most commonly occurs when a worker falls into debt and fails to repay it. It is not uncommon for the captive’s successors to enter bonded labor as well, being that the wages are often too low for them to make a quick assent from their debt. Involuntary servitude is yet another form of forced labor. It often times occurs when a person has entered into a position where they are an unpaid servant to another. Although there is usually no contract or official working agreement in place, the worker feels intimidated by their employer and therefore feels as if there is no option of escape. Domestic servitude is one of the most commonly seen forms of human trafficking and is found almost exclusively in women (Trafficking in Forced Labor). “In the main, women leave on tourist visas, with the promise of jobs as nannies or domestic workers or in the hotel, catering, and entertainment sectors. A minority, as in other contexts, know that they will engage in prostitution” (Quirk 229). Educated women from

“The twentieth century has been a century of progress in almost every area of human rights. This makes the persistence of slavery in today’s world even more egregious. Even as laws banning slavery and its prohibition are enshrined in international instruments, notably the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is still practiced in many forms: traditional chattel slavery, bonded labour, serfdom, child labour, migrant labour, domestic labour, forced labour and slavery for ritual or religious purposes” (Aronowitz, 3). The enslaving of humans has a history that date back to the Roman Empire and ancient Greece. In the 15th century the Europeans traded African Slaves. African slaves were the first slaves bought to the United States, even leading other Africans to sell their own race. Slavery has taken on various forms of the span of 6,000 years. Slavery is now referred to as “human trafficking” or “modern day slavery”. Forced labor is defined 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” (Aronowitz, 11). Not all persons in forced labor are trafficked and not all trafficked persons are enslaved. Humans are taken from their homes and stripped of their morals.

The Emancipation Proclamation (January 1, 1863) was issued by President Lincoln as a strategic maneuver to help end the Civil War. It proclaimed slaves in any state that was “in rebellion against the United States” to be free. The Emancipation Proclamation was arguably the most controversial document in Lincoln's presidency. However, he would later remark, "I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper." The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery in 1865. It was passed just months before Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.