The Oppression Of Slavery In America

All around the world, slavery is still an existing problem. When we think of slavery, people tend to refer back to events like the Atlantic Slave Trade. At this point in history, it would have been very scary to be an African. Many of the slaves in the United States came from this continent. Slaves were treated very poorly, and many of them died in the process. Even though slavery was abolished in 1865 by Abraham Lincoln, it still found a way to be present in 2017 in the United States as well as many other countries.
In the article, “Slavery persists for millions in India, despite improvements” by Biswajeet Banerjee and Ashok Sharma, it talks about how India has the highest number of bonded and child laborers. The children are forced to work
many hours a day earning a very little amount of money. A survey was done by the South Asian democracy, and they found that they had 18.35 million modern day slaves. This is a big issues because just like during the Atlantic Slave Trade, many Indian people are being forced to work in terrible conditions, and they don’t receive much food or money in reward for their hard work.
In the second article titled, “In U.S. Restaurants, Bars And Food Trucks, 'Modern Slavery' Persists” by Maria Godoy, it explains how a more modified version of slavery still exists in the United States. Even though traditional slavery does not exist, something called human trafficking does. When this occurs, someone is taken away from their home and is forced to work for that person. In America today, people are being taken away to work as waiters/waitresses and cooks. They are treated very poorly and they live in cramped living quarters. Although a restaurant job may seem okay, it it torture for these people.
In India, children are forced into intensive labor that is damaging to their health. They live in poor conditions just like the slaves in the Atlantic Slave Trade. In the movie “Roots”, Kunta Kinte and his family and friends are treated like property, and they are given no respect. Just like the families in India, they don’t receive the proper food, water, and shelter that is necessary for them to live. Many people die as a result of their needs being neglected.
The “slaves” in America are also treated very badly.
They live in small houses and are forced to pay fees. Even though slavery ended such a long time ago, people have still found loopholes in the system. Human trafficking isn’t called slavery, but it still deals with taking someone away from their home and forcing them to work. It puts much strain of the people’s families, and their health is definitely affected.
Overall, the slaves living in India probably have worse of a life than slaves in America. People’s lives in India are pretty bad, even if you aren’t a slave. At least in America, we have a stable government and economy that could possibly help these people out of their situation. The slaves and laborers in India don’t have anyone to call to in a time of need. These articles definitely show how hard and difficult life can be, especially when you are forced to do heavy labor.
I think slavery, no matter where you are in the world, is bad. Many of the people that are dragged into slavery don’t deserve a life like this. They are innocent people who are just trying to live a normal life. In the articles, there were pictures of people sitting on the ground wearing masks to protect their lungs from harmful chemicals. It just isn’t right that people have to deal with this everyday. Once you hear about these tragic stories, you can never forget it. It makes people realize how lucky they are to be living a good life surrounded by people who love and support them. The people that are trapped in slavery don’t get a chance to experience that and it makes me very sad to think
about.
Since slavery has been such a big issue for so many years, it’s hard to tackle the problem all at once. There are so many people living in slavery that it would be impossible to end the situation. Maybe the government could spend part of their time working to help people who have been taken away to do labor. If we worked together to stop the human traffickers, many there were would be less people in slavery. It is definitely hard to resolve this situation, but we can start taking steps in the right direction.