Slavery is a form of human trafficking where people are bought, and sold to unwillingly work for someone or a country. This practice is illegal, but there are still more than 20 million slaves all over the world. For instance, Mauritania is a country that recently outlawed this practice, but still part of its population is still under slavery. This unethical practice was quoted in the bible, as an institution that has gained ground. Therefore, this means that everyone was born a slave. In ancient civilization as well as societies, slavery was a renowned phenomenon. There were various forms of slavery institutions this were; debt slavery, punishment for offences and child abandonment among others (NISHIDA, 2003).
In African countries, it is believed that the white men are never enslaved. This is not the case since history dictates that this practice began in Europe; whereby the minority elites enslaved the population for labor. An example to this is the ancient Greece in that; more than half of its population was slaves. These people were not slaves by choice but by chance, hence this confirms that everyone is born a slave. Another example to this is the ancient Rome whereby; history shows that a quarter of its population were slaves. As per the modern history, slavery existed in Europe; whereby the Russian slaves were used as servants to their masters. After sometime, they were then converted to serfs.
This practice of slavery has made Africa to become a major victim, even up to the present. Many blacks living in the white land face a very hard times there. These people move out of their countries to look for employment in foreign countries, with hope that they will be successful, but they eventually end up in a life full of misery and torture, as a result of slavery (NISHIDA, 2003). Even though, the American slaves were traded expensively and now cheaply. Slave industry still remains a multi-billion firm with estimated annual generated revenue of $35 billion.
Everyone is supposed to be treated in a fair and just manner since all of us are equal. For instance; Martin Luther King in his speech said that, both the blacks as well as the whites should enjoy unalienable rights. He also quoted the bible where it says that, every flesh shall see the glory of God. With this, it is evident that there should be no discrimination among human beings because the bible which is used as a guide to Christianity stresses on equality (POE, 2000). Also, in the constitution of various countries such as South Africa, under their bill of rights; it states that all people, whether black or white have a right to freedom, dignity as well as democracy. Having this in mind is very important since, a person will not allow his or her rights and freedom be violated by anyone. Chapter 2 subsection 7 of its bill of rights also emphasizes that; no person should be engaged in slavery, forced labor or any form of servitude. This statement shows that all people are equal.
Various quotes by leaders in the American ideals also show that everyone is equal. America is one the countries that was experiencing racial, as well as, regional discrimination. This is why its leaders decided to put things clear whereby; even the current president Obama emphasized on the need for a united state that would not discriminate one on the basis of skin color or race. Liberia; a country found in sub Sahara Africa was found, as a result, of freed slaves. The church in Liberia, together with America, played an important role in bringing such trade to a halt (SCHULTZ, 2012). This is because, such humanitarians believed that slavery was a crime, and was also not allowed before God. For this reason, there was an influx of slaves from America to Liberia, with Liberia serving as a temporary shelter to the recaptives.
America, on the other hand was one of the countries that freed slaves and brought them back to their countries. This happened after they had realized that this slaves could utilize their potential well while at home, thereby the issue of equality among human beings, come in. Also, after realizing that enslaving the blacks was unjust, the Americans wanted to correct this through releasing the slaves so that; they may be able to get market for their goods. If it were not America’s realization that people are equal, there would not have been market for the goods of the Americans, both at home and in Africa (POE, 2000). Later after sometime, the Americo Liberians fought for independence of the capital city and Liberia, and later named it after their president.
Spain; is another country that was made out of Indian slaves. At first, the Indians were sourced by the Asians to offer free labour.Then it reached a time when the population of these slaves declined. This decline affected Spain in that it had to come up with some policies that will attract more Indians. A system dubbed encomedia was the introduced (BERMAN, 2008). According to this system, the Indians were prohibited from doing hard jobs in mines and plantations. They were favored in that they were only responsible for performing some work to the Spanish landowners, where they were residents. The hard jobs that were abandoned by the Indian slaves were then assigned to slaves from Africa.
Bibliography
BERMAN, J. (2008). Created equal how the Bible broke with ancient political thought. Oxford, Oxford University Press. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10454717.
NISHIDA, M. (2003). Slavery and identity: ethnicity, gender, and race in Salvador, Brazil, 1808 - 1888. Bloomington [u.a.], Indiana Univ. Press.
POE, M. (2000). A people born to slavery: Russia in early modern European ethnography, 1476 1748. Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University Press.
SCHULTZ, D. P., & SCHULTZ, S. E. (2012). A history of modern psychology. Australia, Thomson/Wadsworth.
