Published on 4th April, 2003

Slavery in Modern America

By Steven Malik Shelton 

"It is not possible that a man, to whom is given the Book and Wisdom, 
and the Prophetic office, should say to people: 
''You be my slaves other than Allah's; 
but rather {he would say}'' You be worshippers of Him Who is truly the Cherisher of all: 
for you have taught the Book and you have studied it earnestly.''  
Quran 3: 79

The nefarious institution of slavery has existed since earliest times and has cast its shadow across the vast landscape of human history.

Even today, we are told by media outlets and periodicals, of the horrific practices of slavery in the Sudan, where it is reported that Arab Muslims in the North are enslaving multitudes of African Christians and animists in the South. These are of course, troubling allegations and a source of embarrassment and shame to many-pious and devout Muslims world wide. But are these allegations of slavery in the Sudan really true? Or are they yet another thrust in a propaganda assault aimed at disturbing confidence in Islam and frightening people away from the path of Light and Justice?

According to the McNair report on allegations of slavery in the Sudan, investigators could find no evidence of Muslims enslaving Africans (or anyone else) in the Sudan. There was evidence, however, of The Sudan's People Liberation Army (S.P.L.A.) led by John Garang and predominately Christian was abducting and enslaving African youngsters for the purposes of military duty and labour.

The dismal and often fatal plight of these children has been verified and documented by organizations such as Human Rights Watch/Africa and The Children's Rights Project. In fact, Christian Solitary International, an organization which is largely responsible for reporting on ''Muslim enslavers in the Sudan'' would do better to use its resources and close connection to S.P.L.A. to persuade them to release the tens of thousands of African children that they have abducted and forced to fight, work, and live in squalid life threatening conditions.

The mainstream media seems ever anxious to flash Christian Solitary International film footage and photographs depicting what appears to be Muslims selling Africans to benevolent Christians who have taken it upon themselves to facilitate the release of these ''enslaved'' people. However, a closer look will reveal that this is not the case at all.

The evidence shows that these were hostages taken in battles and local skirmishes fought over land and water rights disputes. And the abductions invariably took place in areas that were not controlled by Muslims, but controlled at the time by the S.P.L.A. Alex de Waul, the co-director for African Rights, has reported: ''It is most probable that they were in fact paying a ransom to a go-between in a scheme whereby families pay, through a middleman, for their hostage children to be redeemed. They were not in a slave market.'' 

Anti-Slavery International has also reported on the allegations of Sudanese government involvement in slavery, revealing that: ''The charge that Muslim government troops engage in raids for the purpose of seizing slaves is not backed by the evidence.'' 

Let us now turn our attention to a land which has a verifiable tradition of imprisonment and slavery both historically and in contemporary times.

Slavery in the American Prison System 

Although most people believe that slavery is not only illegal in the United States but non-existent, in fact the institutions and the practices of human bondage in America are very much alive and well. The same amendment to the United States constitution that appears to abolish slavery in America, also legalizes it.

The thirteenth amendment to the U.S. constitution clearly states that: 

''Neither slavery nor involuntary solitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.'' 

This amendment is skilfully written to leave a window open for the continuation of legal slavery, thus the words ''except as a punishment for a crime''. 

Imprisoning and enslaving a huge segment of the non-white, the poor and the disenfranchised has a long history in America. It was a routine practice during the Reconstruction period into the 1950's and 1960's for poor people to be arrested on trumped up charges, ''duly convicted'' and remanded to to prison labour camps, chain gangs and sweathouses to work off their sentences. Common charges used for this purpose were vagrancy, loitering, and drunk and disorderly. Poor women, walking home from their jobs or waiting for the bus, were habitually waylaid by police and sheriff's authorities and charged with ''solicitation for prostitution.'' 

Since the mid-1970's this trend of incarceration and the resulting enslavement, has reached epic proportions.

In 1975, local state, and federal government agencies spent 4 billion dollars on their prison infrastructure. By 1994 that figure had skyrocketed to $36 billion. The federal government devotes a huge chunk of its budget to prison construction and maintenance and many states spend more money on its prison networks than it does on social programs and education combined. 

Within the last ten to fifteen years, there is a concerted effort to harmonize and in some instances, merge prison labour with the desires of business and the needs of production. Currently prisoners turn out $10 billion worth of products, replacing over 500,000 workers from the main work force. In some states, such as Oregon and California, prisoners are paid the minimum wage, but this is unusual, and even then, after taxes are taken and money for ''room and board'' deducted, they end up with less than 20% of their ''wages''. Most prisoners in America, however, are paid a mere pittance, averaging only enough to buy a few toiletries and personal items from the prison canteen at the end of the month. While the fruits of their labour is sold in the open market , reaping huge profits for corporations and lucrative cutbacks for prison and government officials. 

Captive Consumers Inmates in American prisons and jails are also exploited as captive consumers. By existing within the fishbowl of confinement, they have little choice but to purchase the items selected for them at the prison store for the price designated. A startling example of this is pay phones. It is reported that a prison pay phone can net 10 thousand dollars a year in profit. If you multiply that by 100 [i.e. one million in profit] we begin to get the picture.

The Media 

The corporate controlled media does its part in facilitating the prison-industrial complex by sensationalising crime and criminals, yet tactfully passing over both the causes and solutions. Thus the cry resounds through out the land of ''lock them up and throw away the key.'' And once locked away they can conveniently and legally become a source of slave labour to boost the manufacturing quotas and to increase profits.

Yearly in the United States, as many as 50,000 people are brought to the country and enslaved in the slave import business.  Most are forced to work as prostitutes in private homes or public clubs, labourers in sweat shops and on farms, or as servants in the homes of the affluent and the influential.

International organizations report that over two million women and children are ensnared in a world wide slave trade, with many of the victims being imported to North America. So vile and insidious is this practice, that young women and adolescent girls and boys are in constant danger particularly in so-called third world countries, of being snatched up and shipped overseas to serve as sex toys for the rich and decadent in a litany of U.S. cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. In fact, these unfortunate enslaved people are smuggled into the U.S. at every point. Asians through the West Coast, mainly through Seattle and Los Angeles, those that are abducted in Mexico and South America come through Florida, Texas, and California and Africans are smuggled via major cities on the eastern seaboard.

Jennifer Stango is co-founder of the Los Angeles based Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, an organization which helps victims of the modern day slave trade. She mentions that slave traders prey on those who are considered most vulnerable. People who are young and poor, with little or no formal education and who find themselves disoriented once they reach the United States. Authorities predict that the trafficking in human beings, whether for sale in the labour market or to be utilized in the sex industry, will soon exceed the illicit drug trade as the world's most lucrative illegal enterprise.

According to Micheal Gennaco, who heads the civil rights section of the U.S. Attorney's Office: What we are experiencing in this country is a modern form of slavery. In many ways it parallels the same experience that victims felt in the antebellum days of the south. The people that are brought here are essentially not brought in chains, but they're brought accompanied by traffickers. They're made sure that as soon as they arrive at the point of destination, that they're whisked away to an unfamiliar situation in the same way that the slaves in the South were whisked away to the slave master or the slave trader to an unfamiliar location. And then, once the slaves are acculturated and the master starts feeling comfortable about their ability to be trusted and not to run away, they were then released from their chains.

Notes and References 

The McNair Report on Allegations of Slavery and Slavery-like Practice in The Sudan. 

Slavery in America; accessible online at: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june01/slavery_3-8.html 

Slavery Reinstituted in America; accessible online at: http://thewinds.arcsnet.net/archive/racial/a011297a.html