Slavery has not become a thing of the past, but instead has become a big and profitable business. We may not notice it, but today there are several tens of millions of people in the world who work against their will. It is possible that every day we buy goods in stores that are made by their hands - new shoes or even smartphones. Apparat studied the report of the human rights organization Walk Free and compiled several maps that explain the phenomenon of modern slavery.

What is labor slavery? The world has changed somewhat, although there are still examples of classical slavery in the manner of ancient rome. But the authors of the Walk Free report understand modern slavery as any control over people, because of which they are deprived of their basic freedoms - the freedom to change jobs, the freedom to move from one place to another, the freedom to independently dispose of their bodies. Obviously, this is usually done in order to make a profit. The number of labor slaves includes children extracting "blood diamonds" in the mines of the Congo, prostitutes from Eastern Europe who have lost their passports, or guest workers from Central Asia held in inhuman conditions.

How much is a big problem: Huge. Nearly 36 million people around the world are now working against their will, according to a Walk Free report. Slavery has become a large and profitable, albeit hidden in the shadows, business. It is possible that every day you use things that were created with the help of slaves - it can be your last smartphone or frozen shrimp bought at the supermarket. The International Labor Organization estimates annual income from illegal forced labor at 150 billion dollars.

How much can you trust these data: It is impossible to accurately determine the number of labor slaves on the planet - criminals who traffic in women and businessmen who use children in factories do not keep statistics, which are accurately transferred to the tax office every quarter. Therefore, researchers rely on anonymous sociological surveys and extrapolation of the data obtained. But the reports of other international organizations also estimate the scale of modern slavery at several tens of millions of people. Walk Free is a recently launched fund backed by many high-profile businessmen such as Virgin founder Richard Branson and Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest.

Russia, Ukraine and Central Asia

The situation in the region: About 2.5 million modern slaves live here - less than 10% of their total number on the planet. Russia, as the richest country in the region, is called by the report's compilers a "hub of forced labor" in Eurasia - imagine a huge airport where illegal workers from all nearby countries gather. The problem of modern slavery is best solved by the Georgian authorities, according to Walk Free.

Uzbekistan. In the autumn of each year, cotton is harvested in Uzbekistan - the country's main export. Thousands of people - students, officials and farmers - take to the fields under pressure from the state: they are threatened with expulsion from the university or fired from their jobs. Every year people die while picking cotton. Recently, under pressure from international partners, Tashkent began to gradually abandon the use of child labor in the fields. But this has led to an increase in the burden on adults.

North Africa and the Middle East

The situation in the region: abundance natural resources brings a large number of people from Africa and Asia to the Middle East. Many of them are engaged in low-paid hard work - working on construction sites or serving local residents. Often, the employer deprives them of their documents and forbids them to leave the country. The situation has been exacerbated by the civil war in Syria and the Islamic State campaign in Iraq, with hundreds of thousands of refugees flocking to neighboring states in search of safety.

Country to watch out for: Qatar. Eight years later, in a small but very rich in oil and gas state on the coast of the Persian Gulf, the next World Cup is to be held. For this event, the authorities of the absolute monarchy are erecting spectacular futuristic stadiums and entire cities in the desert. This is done by the hands of hundreds of thousands of immigrant builders from India, Nepal and others. developing countries. The Guardian newspaper in its investigation describes the conditions in which visitors are forced to work: their passports are taken away from them, they are kept in unacceptable conditions and they are poorly fed. As a result, more than a thousand people have died since the beginning of construction. Partly to blame for this is the so-called Kafala system, a Middle Eastern variation on serfdom whereby a guest worker is not allowed to leave the country without permission from their employer. The authors of the Walk Free report note that, given the almost limitless economic opportunities, Qatar could do more to combat labor slavery.

Tropical Africa

The situation in the region: Poverty and hunger civil wars, climatic disasters, political instability - all this contributes to the constant migration of the population of "Black Africa" ​​from the countryside to the cities. Often set out in search a better life people are in bondage.

Country to watch out for: Mauritania. This state in West Africa the last in the world to ban slavery - only in 1980. However, more than a hundred thousand people are still deprived of free will: slavery is too much intertwined with local culture and built into the mechanisms of Mauritanian society. The slave owners are usually white Berbers and the slaves are usually black Berbers. The country's government is trying to change the situation that has developed for centuries, but not too actively. And earlier this month, Biram Dah Abeid, one of Mauritania's most notorious anti-slavery fighters and a candidate in the country's previous presidential elections, was arrested under mysterious circumstances. You can read more about Abeid in an article in The New Yorker magazine.

Southeast Asia and Oceania

The situation in the region: Asia is the Mecca of forced labor. Almost two-thirds of all people on the planet, who can be considered modern slaves, live here. A large number of slaves is due to the fact that the region is the main production base of the world economy, providing factories from all over the world with cheap labor.

Country to watch out for: India. Here, a person opens up vast opportunities to fall into slavery. Forced marriages, sexual exploitation, child labor, illegal human trafficking - every form of modern slavery that comes to mind is available. Women and members of the lower castes are especially susceptible to them, and in total the number of bonded people exceeds fourteen million. In the past few years, the Indian government has been trying to fight what is happening, but given the scale of the problem and the relative poverty of the country, this could take a very long time.

South and North America

The situation in the region: Relatively prosperous region: a little more than one million people are in labor slavery. The United States, Canada and other developed American countries are making great efforts to combat the problem.

Country to watch out for: Haiti. In one of America's poorest countries, the restavek custom is still popular, when parents give their children to rich families in order to provide them with food and a minimal education. In practice, such children often do dirty housework (the Russian Reporter has a huge cycle of photo reports on this topic). The situation worsened noticeably after the 2010 earthquake and the humanitarian catastrophe that followed: Haitians gave the children of dead relatives into labor slavery because they could not support them. More than 200,000 slaves now live in Haiti, according to Walk Free. Most of them are children.

Western Europe

The situation in the region: Europe in the context of forced labor is the most prosperous region on the planet, according to the authors of the report. Although hundreds of thousands of people are in modern slavery, the countries of the European Union are fighting its manifestations most actively. The most effective policies are Sweden and Holland.

Country to watch out for: Turkey. The country with the maximum number of modern works in Europe - almost two hundred thousand people. One of the main problems is forced child marriage and sexual exploitation.

Cover art: Fred Wilson

Six illustrative examples of slavery in modern world

Human rights activists distinguish the following characteristics of slave labor: they are engaged in against their will, under the threat of the use of force and with negligible wages or without it at all.

December 2nd- International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. The use of slave labor in any form is prohibited by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Nevertheless, in today's world, slavery is more widespread than ever before.

Very profitable business

International organization experts Free the Slaves argue that if during the 400 years of the existence of the transatlantic slave trade about 12 million slaves were taken from the Black Continent, then in the modern world more than 27 million people live as slaves(1 million in Europe). According to experts, the underground slave trade is the third most profitable criminal business in the world, second only to the arms and drug trade. Its profit is 32 billion dollars, and the annual income brought by forced laborers to their owners is equal to half of this amount. "Quite possible, – writes sociologist Kevin Bales, author of The New Slavery in the Global Economy, – that slave labor was used to make your shoes or the sugar you add to your coffee. Slaves laid the bricks that make up the wall of the factory that makes your TV ... Slavery allows you to reduce the cost of goods around the world, which is why slave ownership is so attractive today.

Asia

V India exist to this day entire castes, supplying gratuitous workers, especially children working in hazardous industries.

in the northern provinces Thailand sale into slavery of daughters has been the main source of livelihood for centuries.

« Here, – writes Kevin Bales, – a special form of Buddhism is cultivated, which sees in a woman a being incapable of achieving bliss as the highest goal of the believer. Being born as a woman indicates a sinful life in the past. This is a kind of punishment. Sex is not a sin, it is only a part of the material natural world of illusions and suffering. Thai Buddhism preaches humility and humility before suffering, because everything that happens is karma, from which a person cannot escape anyway. Such traditional ideas greatly facilitate the functioning of slavery..

Patriarchal slavery

Today there are two forms of slavery - patriarchal and labor. Classical, patriarchal, forms of slavery, when a slave is considered the property of the owner, are preserved in a number of countries in Asia and Africa - Sudan, Mauritania, Somalia, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Nepal, Myanmar and Angola. Officially, forced labor has been abolished here, but it remains in the form of archaic customs that the authorities turn a blind eye to.

New world

A more modern form of slavery is labor slavery, which appeared already in the 20th century. Unlike patriarchal slavery, here the worker is not the property of the owner, although he is subject to his will. " This new slave system, - says Kevin Bales, - assigns economic value to individuals without any responsibility for their basic survival. The economic efficiency of the new slavery is extremely high: economically unprofitable children, the elderly, the sick or the crippled are simply culled(In patriarchal slavery, they are usually at the very least kept in lighter jobs. - Note. "Around the world"). V new system slavery - a replaceable part added to the production process as needed and has lost its former high cost».

Africa

V Mauritania slavery special - "family". Here the power belongs to the so-called. white moors – Hassan Arabs. Each Arab family owns several Afro-Mauritanian families – kharatins. The charatin families have been passed down in the families of the Moorish nobility for centuries. Slaves are assigned a variety of jobs - from caring for livestock to construction. But the most profitable type of slave business in these parts is the sale of water. From morning to evening, water carriers carry carts with large flasks around the cities, earning 5 hours a day. – $10 is a lot of money for these places.

Countries of victorious democracy

Labor slavery is spread all over the world, including the countries of victorious democracy. It usually includes those who have been abducted or illegally immigrated. In 2006, the UN Commission published a report entitled "Trafficking in Human Beings: Global Patterns". It says that people are sold into slavery in 127 countries of the world, and in 137 states the victims of traffickers are exploited (as for Russia, according to some data, more than 7 million people live here in the position of slaves). In 11 states, a “very high” level of activity of kidnappers was noted (more than 50 thousand people annually), among them - New Guinea, Zimbabwe, China, Congo, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania and Sudan.

Men, women and children

For those workers who themselves want to leave their homeland, some firms usually first promise a highly paid job abroad, but then (upon arrival in a foreign country) they take away their documents and sell simpletons to criminal business holders who deprive them of their freedom and force them to work. According to experts from the US Congress, annually 2 million people are transported abroad for resale. Most of them are women and children. Girls are often promised a career in the modeling business, but in fact they are forced to engage in prostitution(sexual slavery) or work in clandestine garment factories.

into labor slavery men also get. Most famous example- Brazilian charcoal burners. They are recruited from local beggars. Recruits who were first promised high wages, and then their passports were taken away and work book, are taken to the deep forests of the Amazon, from where there is nowhere to run. There, only for food, not knowing rest, they burn huge eucalyptus trees into charcoal, on which they work. Brazilian steel industry. Few of the coal burners (and their number exceeds 10,000) manage to work for more than two or three years: the sick and injured are ruthlessly kicked out ...

The UN and other organizations are making a lot of efforts in the fight against modern slavery, but the result so far is rather modest. The fact is that the punishment for the slave trade is many times lower compared to other serious crimes such as rape. On the other hand, local authorities are often so interested in shadow business that they openly patronize modern slaveholders, receiving a portion of their excess profits.

Photo: AJP/Shutterstock, Attila JANDI/Shutterstock, Paul Prescott/Shutterstock, Shutterstock (x4)

Position: 2nd year student
Educational institution: Vladimir State University named after A.G. and N.G. Stoletovs
Locality: Vladimir region, city of Vladimir
Material name: essay
Topic:"Does slavery exist in the modern world? What are its features?"
Publication date: 28.11.2017
Chapter: higher education

considered

existence

modern society, about its forms and methods of influence on a person. Her

the main idea is that no matter how we try to fight it,

in a capitalist society its existence is inevitable.

Key words: slavery, capitalism.

In this article, the question of the existence of slavery in modern society, its

forms and methods of influencing a person. Its main idea is that no matter how we

try to fight it, in capitalist society its existence is inevitable. Key words: slavery,

Does slavery exist in modern society? What are its

peculiarities?

At present, we feel the impact of some

social

factors

life by doing

Society

neglects

spiritual

prefers

material, which, in their opinion, will bring much more benefit. So,

some start working in a hated company, take loans, becoming

chronic debtors. Others spend decent sums on clothes from

boutiques, gadgets and hangouts in nightclubs. Therefore, such a dependence

people can be equated with slavery. But the slave system appeared in

ancient world.

Slavery existed in the world long before there was a state

called "Ancient Rome". Here is what we read about the history of slavery in

famous

encyclopedic

dictionaries:

“Slavery appears with the development Agriculture approximately 10,000

use

captivity

agricultural work and forced them to work for themselves. In early

civilizations

remained

source

source

were

criminals

pay your debts. The growth of industry and commerce further contributed to

increased spread of slavery. There is a demand for labor

power that could produce goods for export. And that's why slavery

reached its peak in the Greek states and the Roman Empire.

Slaves performed the main work here. Most of them worked in

mines,

handicraft

production

agriculture.

used in household as servants, and sometimes doctors or

poets. In the ancient world, slavery was seen as a natural law

existed

few

writers,

influential people saw evil and injustice in him.”

contemporary

exists,

taking

forms: economic,

social,

spiritual

kinds. In addition, some state structures protect the forms

modern slavery and define them as "good".

relevance

is

contemporary

feels

free

personal

self-determination,

existing

called

"debt

economy",

imposed

ideological

cultural and moral traditions. Therefore, it is important to understand what depends on us in

this situation and give it an adequate assessment.

Today, slavery has completely different characteristics. It's gone

underground, i.e. became illegal, or acquired forms that allow it

coexist with modern laws.

R a b s t v o

System

public

relationship,

it is allowed for a person (slave) to be owned by another person

(Mr.

slave owner

states.

physical,

exist

"Oxygen", 2014. - 166p.

"economic"

"social"

"hired",

"capitalist"

"indirect", "spiritual", "debt", etc.

For example, "social" slavery in the modern world has divided society

into the rich and poor classes. Since it is very difficult to get into the rich class, in

it can only be born, then many people become hostages

his position, throwing all his strength to achieve the level of this class.

"Spiritual slavery" in the modern world is characterized by the fact that people

often face depression, psychological disorders, which

makes them withdraw into themselves, that is, become a slave of their consciousness.

most

detail

consider

"economic

slavery". This

man's dependence on economic factors as forms of the slave system.

Causes

development

economic

capitalist

Modern capitalism and various forms of slavery represent

increase

capital

appropriation

product,

produced

worker.

No one questions that we live under capitalism today

(our authorities, however, do not like the word "capitalism", replacing it completely

meaningless phrase "market economy")

and therefore

the modern economy rests on the fact that everyone does his own

work: someone manages, and someone does the dirty work - is it not

an example of a slaveholding relationship?

A modern person working under an employment contract sometimes has no time

think about analogies and compare yourself with a slave of Ancient Rome. More

hint

similar

analogy

take offense.

Especially if a person occupies some kind of leadership position, if

automobile,

apartment

attributes

contemporary

Katasonov V.Yu. Capitalism. History and ideology of "monetary civilization" / Scientific editor

O.A.Platonov. - M .: Institute of Russian Civilization, 2013. - 1072 p.

"civilization".

differences

classic

ancient

modern

worker.

For instance,

received a bowl of food, and the second receives money to buy this bowl.

stop

last

has

the "privilege" to stop being a slave: that is, to be fired.

Even though the work people do is paid and,

it would seem that they cease to depend on anyone, in fact it is

a myth because most funds received for their work

spend on various payments and taxes, which then go to the budget

states.

We should not forget the fact that we live in a modern society.

"civilization"

Beautiful",

meet all the standards of the modern "elite", regardless of whether

what is his income. But the rest of the funds are sometimes not enough for

satisfaction

needs.

turns on

mechanism

economy

compulsion

start

sinking deeper into debt.

Such a phenomenon as inflation is not uncommon and, it would seem, it is explainable, but

rising prices in the absence of an increase in the wages of the worker provides a hidden

imperceptible robbery. All this makes the average person

lower and lower to kneel, bowing before the modern

bourgeoisie, making him a real slave.

Thus, we can conclude that no matter what times come, in

conditions

capitalist

civilization

Society

free

fully.

limited in his abilities, there will always be someone who subjugates, and who

obeys. Whether it is problems in his mind or the policy of the state, in

Katasonov V.Yu. From slavery to slavery. From Ancient Rome to Modern Capitalism, Publishing House

"Oxygen", 2014. - 166p.

where he lives, problems at work or in social life, in all these

spheres man is subjected to hidden slavery.

Bibliography

Katasonov

ancient

modern capitalism,

Oxygen Publishing House, 2014. - 166p.

ISBN: 978-5-901635-40-7

Katasonov

Capitalism.

ideology

"monetary

civilization"

editor

O.A.Platonov.

Institute

Russian civilization, 2013. - 1072p. ISBN 978-5-4261-0054-1

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution

higher professional education

"Vladimirsky State University name

Alexander Grigorievich and Nikolai Grigorievich Stoletov

Department of "Philosophy and Religious Studies"

Essay on the topic of:

Does slavery exist in modern society? What are

its features?

Performed by a student of the TSB-116 group

Sakhanina Ekaterina Alexandrovna

Checked:

Associate Professor of the Department of FIR

Aleksandrova Olga Stepanovna

Introduced into international circulation the following definitions slave and slave trade:

1. Slavery means the position or condition of a person over whom some or all of the powers inherent in the right of ownership are exercised. 2. The slave trade is understood to mean all acts connected with the capture, acquisition of any person or with the disposal of him for the purpose of converting him into slavery; all actions connected with the acquisition of a slave for the purpose of its sale or exchange; all acts of selling or exchanging a person acquired for that purpose, and in general any act of trading or transporting slaves.

Slavery is condemned by a treaty of the League of Nations in 1926 and in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights dated , as well as in all other major documents relating to human rights.

For the past 5,000 years, slavery has existed almost everywhere. Among the most famous slave states are Ancient Greece and Rome, in ancient China the concept of xi, equivalent to slavery, has been known since the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. There was a tradition in Russian literature to identify serfs with slaves, however, despite a number of similarities, slavery and serfdom had some differences. In a more recent period, slavery existed in the United States and Brazil. Slavery in the Ancient East had many distinctive features. Modern concept slave does not take into account these differences, the concept serf in human rights is absent and completely coincides with the definition of a slave. In totalitarian states, the largest slave owners were not individual owners, but these states themselves, thus covering up the real situation of slaves by the fact that they are allegedly forced to work in accordance with the established totalitarian state laws. Also during World War II, slave labor was widely used in Nazi Germany.

The essence of slavery and the position of a slave

An unresolved problem in the study of the essence of slavery to this day is the lack of development of its popular scientific classification. A direct consequence of this gap is that most people think of slavery as some kind of special component of history. ancient world. At best, people perceive slavery as belonging exclusively to the slave system.

One of the most important criteria for classifying slavery is the factor of the formative subject.

Modern slavery has a significant spread (and, accordingly, a special threat to society) in cases where it acquires a systemic character, when the main formative subject of enslavement is not an individual criminal individual, but the state.

The emergence of slavery

Division of labor is vital to achieving production efficiency. When organizing such a division, hard (primarily physical) labor is the least attractive. At a certain stage in the development of society (when the development of technology ensured that the worker produced a larger volume of products than he himself needed to sustain life), prisoners of war who had previously been killed began to be deprived of their liberty and forced to do hard work for the owner. People deprived of their freedom and turned into the property of the master became slaves.

The position of a slave

The living conditions of a slave are determined only by humanity or the benefit of the slave owner. The first was and remains a rarity; the second makes them act differently depending on how difficult it is to get new slaves. The process of raising slaves from childhood is slow, expensive, requiring a fairly large contingent of “producer” slaves, so even an absolutely inhumane slave owner is forced to provide the slaves with a standard of living sufficient to maintain working capacity and general health; but in places where it is easy to get adult and healthy slaves, their lives are not valued and exhausted with work.

Sources of slaves

1. At the first stages of development, the only, and later on, a very significant source of slaves for all peoples was war, accompanied by the capture of enemy soldiers and the abduction of people living on its territory.
2. When the institution of slavery became firmly established and became the foundation of the economic system, other sources were added to this source, above all the natural growth of the slave population.
3. In addition, laws appeared according to which the debtor, unable to pay his debt, became the slave of the creditor, for some crimes they were punished by slavery, and finally, broad paternal power allowed selling their children and wife into slavery. One of the ways to turn into a slave-serf in Russia was the opportunity to sell oneself in the presence of witnesses.
4. There was (and continues to be) the practice of converting free people into slavery through direct unreasonable coercion. Whatever, however, the source of slavery, the basic idea that a slave is a captive was always and everywhere preserved - and this view was reflected not only in the fate of individual slaves, but also in the entire history of the development of slavery.

History of slavery

Primitive society

Slaves were often tortured

Slavery is not originally reflected in human culture. The first sources are found during the period of the capture of Sumer by the Semitic tribes. Here we meet the subjugation of the captured people and their submission to the master. The oldest indications of the existence of slave-owning states in Mesopotamia date back to the beginning of the third millennium BC. e. Judging by the documents of this era, these were very small primary public entities led by kings. In the principalities that lost their independence, the highest representatives of the slave-owning aristocracy ruled, bearing the ancient semi-priestly title "ensi". The economic basis of these ancient slave-owning states was the land fund of the country centralized in the hands of the state. Communal lands cultivated by free peasants were considered the property of the state, and their population was obliged to bear all kinds of duties in favor of the latter.

In biblical sources, slavery was described before the flood (Gen.). The ancient patriarchs had many slaves (Gen.,). Slaves were made: people taken into military captivity (Deut.,), or debtors unable to pay their debts (2 Kings, Is., Matt.), just as a thief is not able to pay for the stolen (Ex.) and married with the face of a slave state (Gen., etc.). Sometimes a person sold himself into slavery due to extreme circumstances (Lev.). Slaves passed from one master to another through sale, and purchase was the most common way to get slaves for oneself.

By modern ideas, in the era of primitive society, slave ownership was completely absent at first, then it appeared, but did not have a mass character. The reason for this was low level organization of production, and initially - obtaining food and items necessary for life, in which a person could not produce more than is necessary to maintain his life. Under such conditions, the conversion of someone into slavery was meaningless, since the slave did not benefit the owner. During this period, in fact, there were no slaves as such, but only prisoners taken in the war. Since ancient times, the captive was considered the property of the one who captured him. This practice, which developed in primitive society, was the foundation for the emergence of slavery, since it consolidated the idea of ​​​​the possibility of owning another person.

In intertribal wars, male captives, as a rule, were either not taken at all, or killed (in places where cannibalism was widespread, they were eaten), or accepted into the winning tribe. Of course, there were exceptions when captive men were left alive and forced to work, or used as barter, but this was not a common practice. Few exceptions were male slaves, especially valuable because of some of their personal qualities, abilities, skills. In the mass, captured women were of greater interest, both for childbirth and sexual exploitation, and for household work; especially since it was much easier to guarantee the subordination of women as physically weaker.

Rise of slavery

Slavery appeared and spread in societies that had shifted to agricultural production. On the one hand, this production, especially with primitive technology, requires very significant labor costs, on the other hand, a worker can produce significantly more than is necessary to maintain his life. The use of slave labor became economically justified and, naturally, spread widely. It was then that the slaveholding system was formed, which existed for many centuries - at least from ancient times to the 18th century, and in some places even longer.

In this system, slaves constituted a special class, from which the category of personal or domestic slaves was usually distinguished. Domestic slaves were always at the house, while others worked outside it: in the field, on construction, went for cattle, and so on. The situation of domestic slaves was noticeably better: they were personally known to the master, lived with him more or less common life, to a certain extent, were part of his family. The situation of other slaves, little personally known to the master, often did not differ much from that of domestic animals, and sometimes it was even worse. The need to keep large masses of slaves in subjection led to the emergence of appropriate legal support for the right to own slaves. In addition to the fact that the master himself usually had workers whose task it was to supervise the slaves, the laws severely persecuted slaves who tried to flee from the master or rebel. To pacify such slaves, the most cruel measures were widely used. Despite this, escapes and slave uprisings were not uncommon.

Slave labor and the slave trade were an important part of the extensive economies of the medieval Asian states created by nomads, such as the Golden Horde, the Crimean Khanate, and early Ottoman Turkey (see also Raid economy). The Mongol-Tatars, who turned huge masses of the conquered population into slavery, sold slaves to both Muslim merchants and Italian traders who owned colonies in the northern Black Sea region from the middle of the 13th century (Kaffa s, Chembalo, Soldaya, Tana, etc.). One of the busiest labor trade routes led from the Azov Tana to Damietta, located at the mouth of the Nile. At the expense of the slaves taken out from the Black Sea region, the Mamluk guard of the Abbasid and Ayubid dynasties was replenished. The Crimean Khanate, which replaced the Mongol-Tatars in the northern Black Sea region, was also actively involved in the slave trade. The main slave market was located in the city of Kef (Kaffa). The slaves captured by the Crimean detachments in the Polish-Lithuanian state and in the North Caucasus were sold mainly to the countries of Western Asia. For example, as a result of major raids on Central Europe, up to a thousand captives were sold into slavery. Total number slaves who passed through the Crimean markets are estimated at three million people. In the Christian regions conquered by Turkey, every fourth boy was taken from the family, forced to convert to Islam and, in theory, became the slave of the Sultan, although in practice the Janissaries soon became elite troops claiming political influence. From the slaves, the Janissary guard and the Sultan's administration were replenished. The harems of the Sultan and Turkish dignitaries consisted of slaves.

Slavery in modern times

Slavery, almost everywhere in Europe replaced by serfdom, was restored in a new light in the 17th century, after the beginning of the Age of Discovery. In the territories colonized by Europeans, agricultural production was developed everywhere, on a large scale, which required a large number of workers. At the same time, the conditions of life and production in the colonies were extremely close to those that existed in ancient times: large expanses of uncultivated land, low population density, the possibility of farming by extensive methods, using the simplest tools and elementary technologies. In many places, especially in America, there was simply nowhere to take workers: the local population had no desire to work for newcomers, and free settlers were also not going to work on plantations. At the same time, in the course of the development of Africa by white Europeans, it became possible to easily get an almost unlimited number of workers by capturing and enslaving native Africans. The African peoples were mostly at the stage of the tribal system or the initial stages of state building, their technological level did not make it possible to resist the Europeans, who had equipment and firearms. On the other hand, they were familiar with slavery even before the arrival of Europeans and considered slaves as one of the commodities for profitable trade.

In Europe, the use of slave labor resumed and a massive slave trade began, which flourished until the 19th century. Africans were captured in their native lands (as a rule, Africans themselves), loaded onto ships and sent to their destination. Some of the slaves ended up in the metropolis, while the majority went to the colonies, mostly American. There they were used for agricultural work, mainly on plantations. At the same time in Europe, criminals sentenced to hard labor were sent to colonies and sold into slavery. Among the "white slaves" dominated the Irish captured by the British during the conquest of Ireland 1649-1651. An intermediate position between exiled and free colonists was occupied by "sold into service" (Eng. indenture) - when people sold their freedom for the right to move to the colonies and "work out" it again there.

In Asia, African slaves were used little, since in this region it was much more profitable to use the large local population for work.

The last to be freed were Negro slaves in Brazil, where the Negroes mixed most with the Portuguese and Indians. According to the census, there were 3,787 thousand whites, 1,954 thousand blacks, 3,802 thousand mestizos and 387 thousand Indians; there were about 1.5 million slaves from blacks. The first step towards the abolition of slavery was to ban the importation of slaves. The slaves of the monasteries and some institutions were freed; in all children born in Brazil were declared free, all state and imperial slaves were freed, and a special fund was established for the redemption of a certain number of slaves annually. All slaves over 60 are freed. Only in followed the complete emancipation of the remaining slaves. This measure served as one of the reasons for the revolution that overthrew the Emperor Don Pedro II.

Ending the slave trade and abolishing slavery

Current state

The prevalence of slavery at the beginning of the XXI century

Currently, slavery is officially prohibited in all states of the world. The most recent ban on slave ownership and the use of slave labor was introduced in Mauritania.

Insofar as legal law does not currently exist, then there is no classical slave ownership as a form of ownership and a method of social production, except, probably, for a number of underdeveloped countries mentioned below in the text, where the ban exists only on paper, and the real regulator public life stands unwritten law - custom. In relation to “civilized” states, the term “forced, unfree labor” is more correct here. (unfree labor).

Some researchers even note that after the transition of the slave trade to an illegal position, the income from it not only did not decrease, but even increased. The value of a slave, in comparison with the prices of the 19th century, has fallen, and the income that he can bring has increased.

In classical form

In forms typical of a classical slave society, slavery continues to exist in the states of Africa and Asia, where its formal ban took place relatively recently. In such states, slaves are engaged, as they were many centuries ago, in agricultural work, construction, mining, and handicrafts. According to the UN and human rights organizations, the most difficult situation remains in countries such as Sudan, Mauritania, Somalia, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Angola. The official ban on slave ownership in these states either exists only on paper at all, or is not supported by any serious punitive measures against slave owners.

modern slavery

Labor, sexual and domestic "slavery" in modern states

In states often considered to be quite civilized and democratic, there are forms of forced labor that journalists [ who?] dubbed the stamp "labor slavery".

Its main victims are illegal immigrants or persons forcibly removed from their country of permanent residence. It is not uncommon for people to become slaves who have turned to recruiting firms in their home countries that promise high-paying jobs abroad. It is believed that documents are confiscated from such persons under various pretexts after arriving in the country of destination, after which they are deprived of their liberty and forced to work. In Russia, examples of the use of slave labor by the homeless are known (for example, the gang of Alexander Kungurtsev).

Government and public organizations involved in human rights issues [ who?], constantly monitor the development of the situation with slavery in the world. But their activity is limited to stating facts. The real fight against the slave trade and the use of forced labor is held back by the fact that the use of slave labor has again become economically profitable.

Slave trade in Chechnya

During the period of control of the territory of the region by separatists, slave markets operated in Chechnya: in Grozny and Urus-Martan, where people were sold, including those abducted from other Russian regions. V documentary“Slave Market” of the TV company “VID”, based on the testimonies of the hostages, tells about the circumstances of the abduction and life in captivity. The hostages were kidnapped from North Caucasus, Rostov, Volgograd, Moscow. In particular, the film mentions a case when an order was placed in Urus-Martan for "a 17-year-old blonde, 172 centimeters tall, with a third breast size, a virgin." A week later, the girl was kidnapped in Novorossiysk and brought to Chechnya. Places (“zindans”) where slaves were kept were equipped with bars, chains, bunks, and windows for serving food. According to the authors of the film, more than 6 thousand people were kept in the zindans of Grozny and Urus-Martan. The reason for filming the film was the kidnapping of journalists Ilyas Bogatyrev and Vladislav Chernyaev in Chechnya.

The impact of slavery on the culture of society

From a modern point of view, in the moral life of mankind, slavery had and is having extremely harmful consequences. On the one hand, it leads to the moral degradation of slaves, destroying their sense of human dignity and the desire to work for the benefit of themselves and society, on the other hand, it has an unfavorable effect on slave owners. It has long been known that dependence on people subject to his whims and desires is extremely harmful for the human psyche; the master inevitably gets used to fulfill all his whims and ceases to control his passions. Debauchery becomes an essential feature of his character.

In times of widespread, widespread slavery, slavery had a corrupting effect on the family: quite often, slaves, barely out of childhood, were forced to satisfy the sexual needs of the master, which destroyed the family. The children of the master, being in constant contact with the slaves, easily adopted the vices of both parents and slaves; cruelty and neglect of slaves, the habit of lying and irresponsibility were instilled from childhood. Of course, there were individual exceptions, but they were too rare and did not soften the general tone in the least. From family life, depravity easily passes into public life, as the ancient world shows with particular relief.

The displacement of free labor by slave labor leads to the fact that society is divided into two groups: on the one side - slaves, "rabble", largely consisting of ignorant, corrupt people, imbued with petty, selfish ambition and constantly ready to stir up civil unrest; on the other - " know" - a bunch of rich people, perhaps educated, but at the same time idle and depraved. There is a whole abyss between these classes, which is another reason for the decay of society.

Another harmful effect of slavery is the dishonoring of labor. The occupations given to slaves are considered shameful for a free man. With the increase in the scale of the use of slaves, the number of such occupations increases, in the end, any work is recognized as shameful and dishonorable, and the most essential feature a free man is considered idleness and contempt for any kind of work. This view, being a product of slavery, in turn supports the institution of slavery, and even after the abolition of slavery remains in the public mind. It takes considerable time to rehabilitate labor in people's minds; Until now, this view has been preserved in the aversion of some sections of society to any economic activity.

Slavery in culture

in the bible

In cinema

see also

forms transitional to serfdom

• columns

Slave Warriors (Battle Slaves)

• Athenian police (the police in ancient Athens consisted of government slaves)

professions

• Lanista
• Slaver
• Fugitive slave hunter

slavery laws other

Notes

Links

• Henri Vallon, The history of slavery in the ancient world. Greece. Rome"
• Howard Zinn. Creating Interracial Barriers (History of Slavery in America) // Zinn Howard. A People's History of the United States: From 1492 to the Present. - M., 2006, p. 37-55
• This unsweetened life - Migrants from Uzbekistan were turned into slaves and forced to bake Novye Izvestiya cookies 06.08.2008. This savory life Migrants from Uzbekistan were turned into slaves and forced to bake cookies)