Modern Day Slavery In The Lion And The Slave

Aesop fables “The lion and the slave” illustrates the beginning of a friendship between two adversaries. A slave, is mistreated by his master, so he attempts to escape by running away into a forest. After a while, he stops to rest, but encounters a fiercely roaring lion. The slave fears that he will be eaten, but in fact the lion is roaring from the pain of a thorn in its paw. He helps the lion by pulling out the thorn and washing the wound. Soon afterwards, The Slave is recaptured by his master, and imprisoned. His punishment will be to be fed to a lion in the big arena, watched by the Emperor and a large crowd. However, the lion turns out to be the same one that the slave had helped, and therefore he greets the slave in a friendly way.
The Emperor, impressed by the power of their friendship, and frees the slave and the lion. This fable shows how it necessary regardless of race, gender, age, sex, or national origin to treat everyone you encounter in life justly. The strangers you encounter at the gas station, your employees, co-workers, employer, friends and family members.
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery, whether formal or informal. As I explore the history of abolitionism in America and Western Europe, many historical movements were born in the early 1500’s to end the African and Indian slave trade and set slaves free. In 1542, the Swedish monarch passed one of the first laws to abolish colonial slavery, but it was not recognized and enforced by colonial states until the 18th century. American Quakers began to question the virtue and morality of slavery during the Enlightenment movement in the late 17th and 18th centuries. This movement consist of European intellectuals, humanists, and philosophers that emphasized reason and individualism instead of tradition. The first abolition of slavery movements occurred in France, Haiti, and the United States in the early 1800’s. In 1848 France abolishes slavery. Ten years later, Portugal abolishes slavery, but slaves are subject to a 20 year apprenticeship before they are free. Four years later in 1862 Abraham Lincoln proclaims emancipation of slaves but it is not effective until January 1, 1863; 13th Amendment of U.S. Constitution follows in 1865 banning slavery.
It took 83 years (1865-1948) for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to be drafted and adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations. In article 4, it states that no one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. Though outlawed in most countries, slavery is still practiced in many parts of the world. Enslavement takes place in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, as well as parts of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. There are an estimated 27 million victims of slavery worldwide. There are many examples in world history that illustrates abolitionism. Missouri’s appeal for statehood brought a confrontation between free and slave states in Congress in 1820; each feared the other would gain the upper hand. The National Fugitive Slave Law required all Americans to return runaway slaves to their owners. During this period of time, slaves were seen as property and showed levels of wealth and social status. Dred Scott was a slave and social activist who served several masters in Southampton County, Virginia. He made history by legally fighting to gain his freedom. After his first owner died, He spent time in two free states working for other owners. Shortly after he married, he tried to buy freedom for himself and his family but failed. He took his case to the Missouri courts where he won, but the decision was overturned by the Supreme Court. Harriet Tubman was a former slave known for leading slaves to freedom. After escaping from bondage, she made repeated trips into “Dixie”, southern United States consisting of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee to help others. She helped more than 300 slaves escape and was noted for warning those she was assisting that she would shoot any of them who turned back, because their actions would endanger her and others she was assisting. Harriet was an agent of the Underground Railroad that was made up of a system of "safe houses" and way stations that secretly helped runaways. The typical trip might begin by hiding in someone’s home or barn that is owned by an abolitionist, and journey would continue from place to place until reaching a free state or Canada. Those who reached Canada did not have to fear being returned under the Fugitive Slave Act. Frederick Douglass, a former slave and one of the most famous black men among the abolitionists when he joined William Lloyd Garrison’s newspaper, The Liberator. After returning from a visit to Great Britain, Frederick Douglas founded a black abolitionist paper, The North Star. The title was a reference to the directions given to runaway slaves trying to reach the Northern states and Canada: Follow the North Star. Garrison had earlier convinced the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society to hire Douglass as an agent, touring with Garrison and telling audiences about his experiences in slavery. While in England, Douglass experienced a level of independence he’d never known in America. In 1850, Frederick Douglas was one of three black men accepted into Harvard Medical School, but white students successfully petitioned to have the black students removed. No longer believing that merit and reason could allow members of his race to have an equal opportunity in white society, he became a devoted black nationalist. In 1859, he traveled to Africa and negotiated with tribal chiefs for land which he planned to establish a colony for skilled and educated African Americans. The agreement fell apart, and he returned to America where he became the first black officer on a U.S. Army general’s staff near the end of the Civil War.
Modern Day Abolitionism
Slavery did not end with abolition in the 19th century.
The practice still continues today in one form or another in every country in the world. From women forced into prostitution, children and adults forced to work in agriculture, domestic work, or factories and sweatshops producing goods for global supply chains, entire families forced to work for nothing to pay off generational debts; or girls forced to marry older men, these illegal practices still infect the contemporary world.
Human Trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery where human beings are controlled and exploited for profit. Perpetrators use force, fraud or coercion to control and profit from victims through sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, or the removal of organs. Although human trafficking violates international and national laws, it is a rapidly growing criminal industry. According to the International Labor Organization, human trafficking generates $150 billion in illegal profits each year. October 9, 2015 a smuggler was caught transporting 40 illegal immigrants crammed inside a semi tractor-trailer parked outside a convenience store near San Antonio, Texas. Hands were spotted hanging out of the rear door of the truck, where the temperature was said to be more than 100 degrees. A 33 year old man was arrested for smuggling 28 men, seven women and four
children.

Child Labor refers to work that poorly affects children, including depriving them of a childhood and their future potential. This work may be mentally or physically dangerous and harmful to children interfering with their schooling. More extreme forms of child labor include enslavement and trafficking.
Sex Trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, or harboring of persons through threat, use of force, or other coercion for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime of detected trafficking victims 53% are subjected to sexual exploitation. This includes movement across borders, as well as within the victim’s own country. On October 11, 2015 three men from New Jersey and one from South Carolina face human trafficking charges involving a 14 year old girl who was forced into prostitution.
Debt Bondage is a type of forced labor, involving a debt that cannot be paid off in a reasonable time. The employer or enforcer artificially inflates the amount of debt, adds exorbitant interest, and/or charges for living expenses, deducting little or nothing from the debt and increasing the amount of time the individual must work. It is a cycle of debt where there is no hope for freedom. Debt bondage is also known as debt slavery or bonded labor. History has proven that it takes a war to make great social change. Many have debated issues using rhetoric and social movements of a particular period of time, but major changes that affected people on a global scale happened after major events in our history. Even today we continue to treat human beings of various social, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds as personal property or enslave them for our own personal
gain.