Susan Pitchford

This autumn, I included a unit on slavery in both of my sociology courses. After the presentation in my Intro Soc course, a student made an appointment with me. She sat across my desk from me and demanded to know what could be done – what could she do? I suggested that she consider doing an independent study with me this winter to find some answers to that question, and she signed up. And so have nine others so far including, as of yesterday, a student I taught two years ago. These young people want to learn more, and they want to act. Winter quarter is three weeks away, but they are already planning their part of the antislavery movement, and I’m in awe of them, honored to be included.

What do we know so far? Again, I have Kevin Bales and Free the Slaves to thank for this information, and the first thing for any of us to do, as I suggested to my student, is learn more. You can get a start on that at: http://www.freetheslaves.net
But here’s a little introduction to the new abolitionist movement:

First, people have to get free. Carefully planned and executed raids work, but only free one or several slaves at a time. With 27 million slaves in the world, this is obviously not the whole answer. People often think of raising funds to buy people out of slavery, but this is definitely not the answer. To buy people from slavers is just adding anther crime to the original, and would create a whole new demand for slaves that the unscrupulous would eagerly supply. Beyond raids, we need high-level policy commitments: for example, the Millennium Development Goals aim to reduce the vulnerability of the poorest people. Additionally, we need well trained and committed law enforcement, from international to local levels.

Once people are freed, however, they don’t just rejoin society as if nothing happened. When the U.S. abolished slavery in the 19th century, we acted as if that would work, and it didn’t. Ex-slaves are traumatized, and they need healing. They’re also still vulnerable, and need to be protected against re-enslavement. Shelter, food, medical care, counseling and education all cost money. How much varies from one place to another: in India, an entire family can be rehabilitated for under $150, while in the U.S. the same rehabilitation could cost from $50-100,000 per person. The good news is that the largest number of slaves are in the least costly parts of the world. Free the Slaves estimates that if all 27 million slaves in the world were freed and rehabilitated at the average cost, the total would be about $11 billion. That’s a lot of money; on the other hand, we spent something like $130-160 billion in 2009 alone on military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. And as of July 2008, ABC News was estimating that costs for Boston’s “big dig” were up to $22 billion.

Beyond voting, ordinary people don’t have much control over city or national budgets, law enforcement, or development priorities. But there are three things you can do right now to fight slavery:

• Educate yourself more (see above) -- about slavery, and how ordinary people can fight it
• Educate the people you know – tell them slavery is still around
• Give money to support those who conduct raids, rehabilitate ex-slaves, and raise awareness about the problem

These three simple steps make you part of the antislavery movement. Welcome aboard!