The American humorist Will Rogers once said, “It ain’t that we’re so dumb; it’s just that what we know ain’t so.”
Certain
things we know to be true. We know that the South kept slaves, and the
North fought a righteous war of liberation. We know that the slave
trade was legal right up to the Civil War. We know that the
Emancipation Proclamation freed all the slaves, and that the United
States has been slavery-free ever since. These things we know – and
none of it is true.
On the other hand,
most of us do not know that slavery not only exists throughout the
world today; it flourishes. Slavery is legal nowhere, yet it is
practiced everywhere. With an estimated 27 million people in bondage
worldwide, it is the second or third most lucrative criminal enterprise
of our time, after drugs, and maybe guns. More than twice as many
people are in bondage in the world today as were taken in chains during
the entire 350 years of the African Slave Trade. In seeking to place
blame, we’re tempted to point to the “emerging nations” as the
culprits, whereas in fact slavery exists in such “civilized” countries
as England, France, Spain, Italy, Israel, Ireland, Greece, Sweden,
Denmark, Japan, China…and the United States. Most Americans are
clueless that slavery is alive and more than well right here, thriving
in the dark, and practiced in many forms in places you’d least expect.
As a student of history, I’d always
assumed that slavery ended with Thirteenth Amendment. Some years back,
I had written nearly an entire book on the pre-Civil War slave trade
when I stumbled on an account of slavery – in present-day America! My
first response - a common one, as it turns out - was denial: “No way.
Slavery has had no place here since the time of Lincoln.”
Only
after extensive research did I discover that slavery has always existed
on this continent, from the days of its European discovery right up to
the present day. Christopher Columbus enslaved the Taino Indians,
setting a precedent that was followed by every European power to claim
land in the New World. Slavery became the social and economic order.
After the Civil War, and for decades right up to the Civil Rights era
of the 1960s, planters practiced a form of debt bondage known as
peonage, binding workers and their families to the land in an unending
cycle of slavery. For over sixty years, our own government has enabled
worker abuse and slavery through the mismanagement of its “guest
worker” program. And now, with the global population more than tripled
since World War II, and with national borders collapsing around the
world, people - in their desperate quest for a way to survive – have
become easy targets for human traffickers. And once again, America is a
prime destination.
So how many slaves
are we talking about? According to a U.S. State Department study, some
14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United
States from at least 35 countries and enslaved each year. Some victims
are smuggled into the United States across the Mexican and Canadian
borders; others arrive at our major airports daily, carrying either
real or forged papers. The old slave ship of the 1800s has been
replaced by the 747. Victims come here from Africa, Asia, India, Latin
America, and the former Soviet Republic. Overwhelmingly, they come on
the promise of a better life, with the opportunity to work and prosper
in America. Many come in the hope of earning enough money to support or
send for their families. In order to afford the journey, they fork over
their life savings, and go into debt to people who make promises they
have no intention of keeping, and instead of opportunity, when they
arrive they find bondage. They can be found – or more accurately, not
found – in all 50 states, working as farmhands, domestics, sweatshop
and factory laborers, gardeners, restaurant and construction workers,
and victims of sexual exploitation. These people do not represent a
class of poorly paid employees, working at jobs they might not like.
They exist specifically to work, they are unable to leave, and are
forced to live under the constant threat and reality of violence. By
definition, they are slaves. Today, we call it human trafficking, but
make no mistake: It is the slave trade.
Nor
are native-born Americans immune from slavers; many are stolen or
enticed from the streets of their own cities and towns. Some sources,
including the federal government, estimate in the hundreds of thousands
the number of U.S. citizens – primarily children – at risk of being
caught in slavery annually. Although these figures may be inflated, the
precise number of slaves in the United States, whether trafficked in
from other countries or enslaved from our own population, is simply not
known. The simple truth is, we’re looking at a crime that lives in the
shadows; it’s hard to count what you can’t find.
What is particularly infuriating is the fact that this is a crime that,
as a rule, goes unpunished. For the moment, let’s accept the
government’s estimate of about 17,000 foreign nationals trafficked into
slavery in the United States per year; coincidentally there are also
about 17,000 people murdered in the US each year. The national success
rate in solving murder cases is about 70%; around 11,000 murders are
“cleared” annually. But according to the US government’s own numbers,
the annual percentage of trafficking and slavery cases solved is less
than 1%. In 2007, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division obtained 103
convictions for human trafficking, with an average sentence of 9 years.
And
to further complicate matters, when they are rescued, survivors often
deny their situation. There are several reasons for this: the language
barrier, a deep sense of shame, fear for their lives and those of their
families in their country of origin, and a sense of obligation to pay
their debt. In addition, the traffickers program them to fear the
police and immigration officials. And in some instances, they come to
identify with their keepers.
We don’t yet know how President Obama
will respond to the human trafficking crisis; it’s too soon to tell.
But we do know that the response under the Bush Administration was
inadequate on any number of levels. In a speech on trafficking, Bush
once stated, “We're beginning to make good, substantial progress. The
message is getting out: We’re serious. And when we catch you, you’ll
find out we’re serious. We’re staying on the hunt.” Strong words. But
the unvarnished truth is, with less than 1% of the bad guys
apprehended, and less than 1% of the victims freed, it sounds a lot
more like spin than fact; meanwhile, the flow of human “product” into
America continues practically unchecked.
This
is the kind of knowledge you can’t “unlearn”; the only question is,
what do you do with the information once you have it? It’s a question
we must all address for ourselves. We tend to think of our America as
the country where slavery has no place; the dire truth is, we are
pretty far from freedom, and it will take a lot of work and dedication
– by the government, and by us - to make it so.
by Ron Soodalter, co-author (w/ Kevin Bales) of
The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Today
Websites: www.RonSoodalter.com | www.freetheslaves.net