Five Former Slaves Who Are Changing the World

We've all learned about the courageous acts of former slaves in American history like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman--but while the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 officially put an end to slavery in the United States, human trafficking is still at critical mass and rising in many parts of the world, with more than 27 million people enslaved today. The modern-day human trafficking trade needs new heroes to speak up for themselves to put an end to the abuse and exploitation. Here are five inspiring former slaves who've stepped up to the challenge.

Iqbal Masih was sold into bonded labor at a carpet factory in his native Pakistan at the age of four. For six years, he was forced to work 12-hour days in a dark room, tied in place to the carpet loom he worked on. He was never permitted to go outside, and was fed so little that he looked like a boy half his age.

At ten, he ran away from the carpet factory to hear a speech by the Bonded Labor Liberation Front (BLLF), and realized that he was entitled to the same rights as any other citizen. He refused to return to the factory, and began to travel the world, visiting rallies, meetings, and even elementary school classrooms, to tell the story of the abuses he had suffered as a child slave, imploring others to help fight for an end to human trafficking.

Iqbal was honored with many awards for his bravery, but tragically, he was assassinated at the age of 12. His murderer was never found, but many believe that it was a member of the "Carpet Mafia," attempting to silence his criticism of the industry. Iqbal's short life served as an inspiration to many--including a young boy named Craig Kielberger, who was inspired to start a nonprofit organization called Free the Children to help free child laborers in honor of the brave young boy who'd lost his life.

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Comments

[philosopherkingtomas]

republicans like slavery !

[care4mypeeps]

We must never forget the 27 million slaves around the world. I can't wrap my brain around the incredible cruelty of men enslaving anyone. It is 100 times worse when it is a child.

Somehow we have to lend our voices to this travesty of justice.
With our powerful voices we must chant for the Liberty of those held against their will
and made to work uder the most inhumane circumstances.

27 million is a staggering number and it Must Be Stopped.

[wm1066]

A little known fact about the ending of slavery after the Civil War. Alot of wives were left destitute when their husbands died in the war and they couldn't take care of their kids, so some got sold into a form of slavery, the indentured slave. Alot of rich landowners in the territories bought kids to work their ranches, and mines. Being in the territories they weren't subject to slave laws, And this was before transporting kids across state lines was against the law. A sad tale that a soldier dying to stop slavery might have caused his own kid to be made a slave.
And then there were the orphanages that sold their kids to work on farms during the summer, then took them back in the fall.

[joebiz]

What about the "sixth slave" aka the American tax payer, the middle and lower and under classes, the debt and mortgage slaves that have lost their homes and savings, and pensions and jobs.

[Just4theHalibut]

Does anyone know the name of the Texas "charity" that exploited the 5th slave?
Have they been prosecuted?

[ggfree]

lgg..."why is it that there are "cruelty free" labels and "no GMO" labels while there are no "Child Labor Free"

I think its because its easier for people to love a helpless animal than a human being. I worked for 5 year in a vegan restaurant. Those people were serious animal rights activists, but I could never get them to talk about human rights "I care about animal rights, not human rights". the ignorance in that statement is pretty comical, and they weren't necessarily thoughtful people, just cared about animal rights, which is certainly important.

As far Marx...i need a lot more education and thought on this, but it seems to me that the problem of labor as a commodity (people as a commodity) would change if we, the consumers would expand our consciousness to include the perils of the laborers. I tend to think that capitalism isn't the problem, the limits of human consciousness are the problem. What if there were labels that let us know that something was made by a slave. I believe I read something that discusses the possibility of product tagging that tells us the "story" of the item. I appreciate the benefits of capitalism. Would I have access to the products that I value, like, organic products, biodegradable soaps, non paraben beauty products, etc, if there were not the driving force of the free market? I tend to agree with someone far wiser than me..."all problems are problems of consciousness".

[chaszz]

As an animal rights activist, I care about animals' problems because humans have a lot more people caring about human problems, and because animals are exploited so much worse than any humans are.. Pigs are shipped thousands of miles in winter without food or water, crowded into open trucks, their flesh often frozen to the metal slats so they must be pried off bloodily with crowbars when they arrive at the slaughterhouse. In factory farms, many animals are not accorded the space to turn around or to lie down, and spend their lives standing up 24 hours a day choking in ammonia from their own waste, their legs suffering from painful injuries from continual standing.. It is difficult to find humans subjected to this kind of treatment. Pigs and chickens are often boiled alive for purposes of debristling and defeathering. Steers and cows are often dismembered or skinned while still alive and conscious. Fur animals are electrocuted by rods plunged into their anus, after lives of freezing cold in cages open on two sides to the winter weather. These things are worse than what are done to humans, and are even worse than our usual concepts of hell.. I hope the HuffPost will have the courage to print what I have written so their readers can know the truth. .

[jdmba]

One look around the world, or even in this nation, and you'll see that there are NOT enough people looking out for other people. They divide into tribes, in-groups and out-groups, and they only look out for themselves.

[Palemoon]

I haven't read enough of Marx to know his stances totally on capitalism, i do know some, but in regards to the Free Market, I don't think he had a problem with that. I do know he was in favor of Free Trade over the entire world. But that was for an empowerment of the peasants agenda I suspect. But anyways, the Free market has been around since man first took a step on the planet. Capitalism is actually probably the 2nd or 3rd youngest economic ideology, if you consider socialism and marxism as an economic rather than a societal ideologies. Capitalism first appeared in the 1600's in the Netherlands, city of Amsterdam if I remember right.

Now, what was mankind using prior to the 1600's? The Free Market. ;o) Barter, buy, sell, trade, whatever it took to make a deal. If you could afford to go down to the local market and buy 5,000 beaver pelts, that was your right/ability to do so. Provided someone could meet your demand. If you had to go down there and barter some bear skins for beaver pelts, then you ended up working what deal you could get to meet your demands. That's the free market.

Capitalism is capital, treating everything like a commodity, i.e. money. I suppose I'll get on my ebook reader and download some more of his stuff, been trying to find Das Kapital, Marx's book on Capitalism, to see what all he thought. ;o)

More.....

[ggfree]

ok that makes sense to me. capital is the problem, not free market...off to read some marx. A friend just explained to me fetishistic capitalism which speaks to what disturbs me..I think I have found good reading in Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle. As far as fetishistic capitalism...think cosmetic surgery, g- spot shot. really sick stuff that is completely acceptable. i am more a freak for questioning it than participating.

chaszz...please, I deeply understand the need for animal rights. other than an occasional dosing of organic free range eggs, a nibble of cheese and fish here and there, i am veg. i believe vegan to be the best diet for me. i just had another view while working at a vegan restaurant. there are animal rights people who only focus on that issue and are pathologically ignorant about anything else. they were rabid consumers of anything that wasn't an animal product, didn't even think of who made the product, and didn't want to discuss it. and didn't get that human beings ARE animals. I used to find solace in something I believe to be true....meat eaters eat suffering. don't forget that the workers in the meat industry have pretty horrible existences as well, and they may have little choice in employment options.

[larmarch5]

I don't think we can call it a "free" market if labor rights and human rights are not given equal billing with profits. How is it "free" to think I should get a higher return on investment at the expense of the laborers? In the concept of simple abundance, it is an adjustment of expectations that causes me to appreciate a 3% return on investment from well paid and well treated laborers than to expect a 6% return from slave labor. Use any numbers you want, but think of it as "enough to go around" as opposed to "I deserve more." Of course everyone understands that a company cannont stay in business if it doesn't make a profit. That will take you into a whole other discussion of subsidies, who gets them, who doesn't, and what impact subsidies have on human rights and "free" markets.

[Palemoon]

By the way, I agree with you on the labelling stuff too, that should be a requirement I think. It turns my stomach to think that my jeans were made by some 12 year old in the Philippines or who knows where for pennies a day probably. That's pathetic. You'd think CEO's would have not only a conscious, but a heart.

On a related note, I was shocked about the plans that Lady Lynn Forrester de Rothschild had. Her idea for a business venture to strike a big deal with India to basically become the food providers in Europe. Sure, it would double the average pay of the farmers to like $2 a day. But at the same time, do you realize what is actually being done?

That forces the Indians to "stay down". While everyone else stays rich and lounges around eating this food in their lavish penthouses. Forcing a society to essentially be servants to a larger portion of the world. Don't you think that an Indian might aspire to something better? To be rich, provide for their family, etc. Maybe the Indian Dream is no different than the American Dream. But why should they be denied it simply because their economy dictates that they be the peasant farmers for everyone else?

I could go on and on and on, but I better take a rest and let others speak before I take up 12 pages worth of posts just on my own. :o)

[vietveter]

It brings to mind one of my favorite
ways to reduce people to capital.

Human resources..........

Keep the PERSON out of it
personnel is so

HUMAN !!!!!

You know, live, thinking, breathing people

We are not resources, we are alive

Chief Financial RESOURCE
Cheif Executive RESOURCE

get it?

[lynjs]

It's money and the insensitivity of the haves that keep this going. This is crazy and in the 21st century. We should not be doing business with countries who turn a blind eye to things such as this. This is beyond disgusting.

[Palemoon]

So long as something is considered "capital" to be profitted off of, especially in regards to the human factor via things like labor, then mankind will always enslave one another. Either forcefully through oppression, or coercively through payments made for the task required by the overlord.

[Destin]

More like coercively through minimalist payments which cannot be refused due to the lack of freedom to leave and live off the land if one is unwilling to be a slave.

[Palemoon]

Hmmm, you pose something I didn't fully account for. The land/ownership aspect. You can't just walk away and start life anew somewhere. Cause someone, somewhere, already owns everything. You essentially have no place to go.

I am beginning to see more clearly the enslavement aspect that Marx wrote about. I guess it's no secret I read about all the philosophers, good, bad and controversial. I suppose if I'm to learn anything, I have to see where they have all been right and wrong.

I find it curious, people only see the "abolition of private property" in Marx's writings. Basically, everyone equates that with the State owning everything. Oh how wrong those people are! Marx was very much in favor of personal property, that everyone had a right to own their own home and the land it sat upon. The reason he was against private property, was to prevent a company buying your land out from under you then kicking you off it. Or the use of "imminent domain" to sieze the land for themselves.

While the propagandists have been worrying about the "socialists giving everything to the State", nobody was watching when the capitalist gave everything to the Corps. Now we're all PWNED.

"No sooner is the exploitation of the labourer by the manufacturer, so far, at an end, that he receives his wages in cash, than he is set upon by the other portions of the bourgeoisie, the landlord, the shopkeeper, the pawnbroker, etc." --- Karl Marx

[lgg]

this is a truly repulsive story, i would hate to think that my carpets were made by children tied to looms. why is it that there are "cruelty free" labels and "no GMO" labels while there are no "Child Labor Free" labels? there is something wrong here.

[Vr6]

Just a matter of definition, we're still largely enslaved!

[CAMBEL]

Comparing anything going on in your life to what that child went through is truly the height of self indulgence. Seriously, you should be ashamed.

[vietveter]

It seems to me that they are making it relative

Tryanny begins, sometimes, with "baby steps"

Like the lobster put in a pot of cold water and then

turning on the burner.

If we do not have dramatic change in OUR country
Slavery will be a larger force in the future than it has ever been in the past.

[YBNurmal]

OK I'm a bit confused...
When I was in New Orleans post Katrina there was defacto slavery going on IN THE USA!.
Now I am in Uganda, and I am very aware of people being paid... less than zero.

AND ALL YOU PEOPLE CAN TALK ABOUT IS A PIECE OF PAPER FROM 145 YEARS AGO?

There have been many great women and men in US history that have struggled and still struggle for... well, all of it.
Stash the "who-dee-who" argument and get on with doing what is correct for people TODAY in TODAYS world.

Please?

[Mich429]

Ok....can you please define 'defacto slavery'?

[DS3M]

It's called Capitalist economies circa 1756-2008.

[BlackBuddha]

Deregulate Slavery.

[SouljahBoy]

The cotton gin freed slaves

[IndyReader]

You've got to be kidding. Slavery was dying down until Eli invented the cotton gin and then slavery really took off.

[KSloan]

Wrong....please go do a little research on this issue.

[Mich429]

Who wrote this article?? The Emancipation Proclamation did NOT free ANY slaves! Read some history!

[cocodee]

I've been trying to enlighten people of this fact for years!
Lincoln was said to be unhappy about the compromise, but he was willing to allow slavery if that would be the price of keeping the union whole. The Confederate States did not accept his offer and continued fighting, only to be defeated without guarantees of continued slavery. The abolitionists won by default.
It is a sad chapter in an ugly history.

[AnAmericanWoman]

It DID! Those who FOUGHT for the UNION were given FREEDOM in EXCHANGE - READ YOUR history!

[Mich429]

Given freedom in exchange for fighting for the Union? Even if this is true, IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Next time, read the actual
words written on the page.

[KSloan]

LOL...you've got to be kidding.