Читать книгу Twelve Years a Slave - Solomon Northup - Страница 20

It would be wonderful if slavery was an entirely historical phenomenon. This is not the case. Definitions of modern slavery vary, but encompass debt bondage, involuntary servitude, and sexual exploitation. The International Labour Organization puts the number of modern slaves at 40 million people. That includes 25 million in forced labor, 5 million in forced sexual exploitation, 4 million in state-run labor programs (such as in China and North Korea), and 15 million in forced marriages. (14) The U.S. State Department publishes an annual Trafficking in Persons Report, which highlights kidnapping incidents around the globe.

Of course, unlike in Northup's time, slavery is officially illegal everywhere, ironically making it more hidden and harder to identify. “Human Trafficking Is Illegal,” a brochure issued by a New York State agency, observes: “Trafficking victims are often lured with false promises of good jobs and better lives, and then forced to work under brutal and illegal conditions. Men, women, and children of all ages and races are vulnerable to human trafficking – it does not discriminate.” This is remarkably similar to what was experienced by Northup and numerous other victims a century and a half ago.

In Chapter XVIII, Northup describes the 10-year-old son of his master Edwin Epps. The boy, apparently, viewed enslaved blacks as mere work animals “to be whipped and kicked and scourged through life – to address the white man with hat in hand, and eyes bent servilely on the earth …” Northup then notes: “Brought up with such ideas … no wonder the oppressors of my people are a pitiless and unrelenting race.”

Let us keep in mind today's Solomon Northups, and the fact that slavery brutalizes the oppressors as it ruins the lives and chances of the enslaved.