Slavery Past, Present and Future [1 ed.] 9781848883994, 9789004374638

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Slavery Past, Present and Future

Inter-Disciplinary Press Publishing Advisory Board Ana Maria Borlescu Peter Bray Ann-Marie Cook Robert Fisher Lisa Howard Peter Mario Kreuter Stephen Morris John Parry Karl Spracklen Peter Twohig Inter-Disciplinary Press is a part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net A Global Network for Dynamic Research and Publishing

2016

Slavery Past, Present and Future

Edited by

Catherine Armstrong and Jaya Priyadarshini

Inter-Disciplinary Press Oxford, United Kingdom

© Inter-Disciplinary Press 2016 http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/publishing

The Inter-Disciplinary Press is part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net – a global network for research and publishing. The Inter-Disciplinary Press aims to promote and encourage the kind of work which is collaborative, innovative, imaginative, and which provides an exemplar for inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary publishing.

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ISBN: 978-1-84888-399-4 First published in the United Kingdom in eBook format in 2016. First Edition.

Table of Contents Introduction Catherine Armstrong and Jaya Priyadarshini Part I

Historical Variants of Slavery Gandhi and the Indian Indentured Servants in South Africa David W. Bulla

Part II

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3

Napoleon, the British Public Opinion, and the Abolition of the Slave Trade Lubomir Krastev

13

Between the Devil and the Deep Sea: Menial Caste Women and Slavery in Eighteenth-Century Jodhpur Jaya Priyadarshini

21

Modern Day Slavery Legacies of Slavery in a Former Slave-Reservoir: The Case of the Guéra Region Valerio Colosio

33

Workers/Slaves of the State: Prisoner Ozde Nalan Koseoglu

43

The Efficacy of a Youth Initiative Clare McLeod

51

Male Victims of Human Trafficking Polina Smiragina

59

Part III Dissecting the place of African Slavery Teaching ‘Slavery in a Global Context’: Some Pedagogical Themes and Problems Catherine Armstrong

73

Canada and the Legend of the Underground Railroad Eleanor Lucy Bird

83

Making ‘Slavery’ Work Karen E. Bravo

95

The Slave Narrative that Freed Me Regina E. Mason

109

Misunderstanding Slavery of the Past, Misunderstanding Slavery Today David Wilkins

117

Introduction Catherine Armstrong and Jaya Priyadarshini There are seven ways that slaves came into being: taken under a flag (of war), becoming a slave in order to eat food, born in the house, bought, given, inherited from ancestors, or enslaved as a punishment.1 This chapters in this volume emerge from papers delivered at a conference held at the University of Oxford under the auspices of Inter-Disciplinary.Net entitled ‘Slavery: Past Present and Future’. The goals of this book are ambitious: to bring together scholars working in a wide variety of chronological periods and geographical locations to discuss the causes, experiences and legacies of historic and contemporary slavery. This work is ideally done in an interdisciplinary context and contributions appear from authors working in the fields of history, literature, law, sociology, political theory and anthropology. Even more exciting, the e-book contributors include not only academics and independent scholars, but also enthusiasts and young people, ensuring that dialogues started here might continue outside the university environment. This e-book asks challenging questions about the nature of our understanding of slavery and human trafficking. For example, when discussing modern day slavery, authors confront the neglect of the experience of men and boys. The perception of ‘victims’ determining whether a situation constitutes slavery is another area in which this e-book breaks new ground. Historical Variants of Slavery The authors’ working definitions of the term ‘slavery’ are flexible. What counts as slavery has changed across different times and places. Slavery in one form or another has existed in almost every documented society across the world. In the Ancient World, Hammurabi’s law codes alert us to the existence of a class of slaves in Babylon, while simultaneously in India and China, chattel and debt slavery was codified. Very little is known about the personal experience of the enslaved at this early period, but through the study of laws and the records of the elite, a picture of a flexible type of slavery emerges, in which it was possible for a slave to reach a respected professional status. However, some of the characteristics of slavery familiar to us were in place in the Ancient World: the vulnerability of the enslaved to corporal punishment, and justification by Aristotle of natural slavery, the idea that certain people were destined by birth and personality to be nothing but slaves. The feudal systems of medieval Europe and Russia saw many millions of poor tied to the land in systems of bonded labour known as serfdom, which offered both protection from economic fluctuation and lack of freedom and abuse to the serfs.

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__________________________________________________________________ During this Crusading period, western Europeans observed in the Eastern Mediterranean the practice of planting, harvesting and refining sugar on plantations, undertaken by mixed groups of forced labourers including Africans. The extremely high demand for this crop helped to drive the development of the system of plantation slavery, first practised by the Portuguese in the Eastern Atlantic, and then by European settlers around the globe in both the Americas and in the Indian Ocean. Trafficking West African slaves across the Atlantic is only part of the story. Another long distance trade in slaves existed around the Indian Ocean, as slaves from Europe and East Africa were taken to Central Asia and the Far East along the ‘silk road’ trade routes, with the settlements of Khiva, Samarkand and Bukhara being important slaving hubs. Many of the slaves traded along this route were women, destined not for agricultural labour, but rather for use as domestic servants or concubines. Other slaves in the region were employed for military purposes and through this might achieve autonomy and freedom. The Ottomans employed elite slave troops, young boys taken from local Christian populations and raised as Muslims, trained to be fighters known as the Janisseries. Enslavement of the ethnic or religious other has been a constant throughout history, but saw its apogee in the transatlantic slave trade, operating from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries and involving the transportation of an estimated 12 million Africans to the Americas. The resultant racialised discourse, first justifying slavery and then justifying the inferior treatment of freed slaves later had far-reaching consequences for minority groups. The first organised abolition movement began in the eighteenth century to bring to an end this particular form of trafficking, and then to end the system of slavery itself. The lauding of free labour in certain parts of the world became linked with the imperialist ideal, as a handful of nations in Western Europe attempted to impose their religious, moral and economic views on the rest of the world. This was hypocritical as slavery was only abolished where it was economically expedient to do so, and forced labour was permitted where it was profitable: the notorious case of King Leopold’s Belgian Congo at the turn of the twentieth century being a prominent example. Other coercive labour practices were common, such as convict labour used in the white settlement of Australia and convict leasing system in the southern United States in the decades following the end of slavery. Despite local, national and international efforts to bring slavery and human trafficking to an end, the systems still exists in many parts of the world in 2015. The chapters discuss a wide range forced or bonded labour including indentured servitude and convict labour, both of which have a contested status: do these abusive labour forms ‘count’ as slavery? What is the significance of using such a powerful and emotive word as ‘slavery’ in such contexts? While establishing that a definition of slavery able to fit all times and places is impossible, this e-book acknowledges slavery and its attendant power relations

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__________________________________________________________________ almost always involved the intersection of class, gender, race or caste and almost always involved a process of ‘othering’ of the enslaved person. The complexities of abolition and anti-slavery across time and place, specifically the ways that engagement with these campaigns constructed and challenged national identities, and continue to do so, are also discussed by authors in this e-book. Modern-Day Slavery The book is framed around two key premises. First, that in the twenty-first century contemporary slavery, or so-called modern day slavery, is an increasingly important although contested phenomenon. Globally, those in slavery and forced or coerced labour situations are numbered in the many millions, while child labour, child soldiery and forced marriage represent equally important and related coercive situations. The connections between modern day slavery and the voluntary movement of people around the globe looking for work and economic advancement are complex. Legal frameworks, local initiatives and national and multi-national charitable initiatives all form part of the anti-slavery movement of the twenty-first century. The work of organisations such as Free the Slaves, headed by Professor Kevin Bales, and awareness-raising reports such as the Global Slavery Index (last completed in 2014, suggesting that a total of 35.8 million people live in slavery today) is crucial in constructing our understanding of what slavery is in the contemporary world.2 However, the efforts of abolitionists such as Bales have been criticised by others who believe that he does not acknowledge the political and economic global context which causes the slavery that he abhors. Others criticise his tendency to call every coercive situation ‘slavery’, thus diluting the meaning of this powerful term.3 Dissecting the Place of African Slavery The second premise addressed is the assumption that African slavery, especially the transatlantic slave trade and its operation from roughly 1500 to the 1860s, was an archetypal slavery and that to discuss slavery and the slave trade must inevitably mean discussing black African experience and identity. We often found ourselves comparing other types of slavery in other places or other times to the transatlantic system, as though all slaveries must be understood through the prism of this slavery. Although controversial perhaps, this type of slavery seems to be taken implicitly as the ‘benchmark’ by which others’ experiences should be judged. When asking ‘is this slavery?’ we tend to reach to the African-American experience for comparison, despite historically, slavery much earlier (Indian, Chinese, Greek, Roman) and other slave trades operated on an equally large scale (Indian Ocean slavery). Sociologists such as Orlando Patterson have come up with a definition of slavery that transcends time and place (‘slavery as social death’).4 This volume avoids a sole focus on transatlantic slavery and authors bring topics to the discussion that encourage us to make connections among forms of exploitation

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__________________________________________________________________ across time and place. Scholars working on historical types of forced labour in India and in Africa problematise the common assumption that transatlantic slavery must take precedence. Chapters on historical slavery also highlight the aftermath of slavery. The global legacy of historical slavery, of economic inequalities, of societal attitudes such as residual racism and of the ways that we choose to remember, teach and memorialise slavery are important topics. However, this book does contain chapters by experts in antebellum slavery of the United States and their enlightening contributions shows that there is still a long way to go to develop a full understanding of this complex and harrowing type of slavery, mainly in understanding the agency and experience of the enslaved in their own terms, rather than through the voices of their white owners or white abolitionist supporters. This process, begun nearly half a century ago with the groundbreaking work of John Blassingame, is challenging because of the nature of the sources available to us. But Blassingame’s work cautioning us against the unthinking use of slave narratives, is vital whatever era of slavery we focus on. The gathering of the slave narrative and the permitting of the enslaved (or ‘slavery survivors’ as some abolitionist groups call them) to have a voice is a crucial part of twenty-first century abolitionist activity. But scholars gathering oral testimony from the enslaved must be cautious of allowing their own hegemonic position to cloud the voice of the victim, just as Blassingame argued when describing the WPA narratives gathered in the United States in the 1930s.5 As well as slave experience and the legacy of slavery, a key focus of slavery studies today is an examination of legal frameworks and their failures to prevent coercive labour practices. Since 1981 slavery has been outlawed in every country in the world when Mauritania became the last country to ban it. Global efforts to deal with slavery have a long history, dating back to 1807 with Britain’s attempt to police the transatlantic trade, and the 1926 Slavery Convention. The Universal Declaration on Human Rights of 1948 reinforced this, decreeing that no one should be held in slavery. Despite these legal efforts, slavery still persists, with Mauritania having the largest proportion of people enslaved in chattel bondage, at 5% and India with the largest total number in slave labour at 14 million.6 Such failures of international law can leave abolitionists feeling powerless, but the importance of local initiatives in the developed and developing world is highlighted by some of the authors, many of whom were advocates and campaigners. Their contibution demonstrates the importance of work in this field: we must engage not only in sharing knowledge about Slavery: Past, Present and Future, but we must also mobilise to bring about social justice and ensure no one is enslaved in the future.

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Notes 1

The Laws of Manu, trans. Wendy Doniger and Brian Smith (London: Penguin, 1991), 196. This quotation illustrates the various ways individuals might be enslaved and also shows how the institution was embedded in ancient societies such as India. 2 Kevin Bales has written many books on contemporary global slavery. His most famous is Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012). 3 O. Patterson ‘A Rejoinder: Professor Orlando Patterson’s response to Professor Kevin Bales, The Legal Understanding of Slavery, ed. Jean Allain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012); Julia O’Connell Davidson, Modern Slavery: The Margins of Freedom (London: Palgrave, 2015) 4 O. Patterson, Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982). 5 J. Blassingame, ‘Using the Testimony of Ex-Slaves: Approaches and Problems,’ Journal of Southern History 41 (1975): 490. 6 Global Slavery Index Report, Born Free Foundation, Viewed on 29 June 2016, http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/

Bibliography Bales, Kevin. Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012. ———. The Legal Understanding of Slavery, edited by Jean Allain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Blassingame, J. ‘Using the Testimony of Ex-Slaves: Approaches and Problems.’ Journal of Southern History 41 (1975): 490-500. Global Slavery Index Report. Born Free Foundation, Viewed on 29 June 2016, http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/. O’Connell Davidson, Julia. Modern Slavery: The Margins of Freedom. London: Palgrave, 2015. Patterson, O. Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982.

Part I Historical Variants of Slavery

Gandhi and the Indian Indentured Servants in South Africa David W. Bulla Abstract Mohandas K. Gandhi practiced journalism for more than four decades. He began his journalism career in South Africa. He frequently wrote about the Indian indentured servants in South Africa during his 21-years stay in that country. One of his first public mentions of the indentured servants came in the 1896 document titled The Grievances of the British Indians in South Africa, also known as the Green Pamphlet. It was published in India during a visit home, and widely distributed in the subcontinent. Its first edition came to 10,000 copies. Those sold out, and Gandhi printed several thousand more before he returned to Durban in January 1897—when he was nearly lynched by a mob of angry Europeans. The pamphlet is an extended grievance letter that prefigures his South African newspaper, Indian Opinion. The pamphlet’s main aim was to set down in a systematic fashion an argument against oppression of the Indian work force in South Africa. The Green Pamphlet mentions indentured servants eighteen times in its text, which runs to 15,000 words. Gandhi noted that the biggest grievance by indentured Indians was that when their contracts ran out after five years, they had to return to India—or each had to pay a tax of £3, a sum that would bankrupt most of them. While Gandhi was taking up the general grievances of Indians living and working in South Africa at the turn of the century, he would make equality a key theme in his political activism, first in South Africa and then in India (where eventually he would advocate better treatment for the untouchables). Seven years after publication of the pamphlet, Gandhi began publishing Indian Opinion at the International Printing Press in Durban. A major theme would be the living and working conditions of the Indian indentured servants. Key Words: Mohandas K. Gandhi, satyagraha in South Africa, indentured labourers, slavery, journalism, Green Pamphlet, Indian Opinion. ***** 1. Introduction When the denizens of the twenty-first century think of Mohandas K. Gandhi, we usually first associate him with the Indian independence movement. That is, the thin man, wearing almost nothing, succeeded in getting Great Britain, the great empire in all her pomp and glory, to quit India. There is no doubt that he will almost always be remembered for India’s separation from Great Britain first and foremost, but such a perception does not do justice to Gandhi—and it fails to contextualize his political life. Gandhi was indeed a political activist, but he was not a one-cause advocate. Rather, over the course of nearly half-a-century of

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Gandhi and the Indian Indentured Servants in South Africa

__________________________________________________________________ activism, he supported several causes, including vegetarianism, Hindu-Muslim rapprochement, and equality. The topic of this study is the latter, particularly the treatment of the indentured Indian servants he came across during his twenty-one years in South Africa. These labourers worked in mines and on plantations while earning ‘a nominal pittance’ for survival.1 In 1896, he mentioned the Indian indentured servants for the first time in a document known as the Green Pamphlet, although its formal title was The Grievances of the British Indians in South Africa: An Appeal to the Indian Public. This political broadside was published in India during his trip there in 1896. In this, he tried to explain the Indian experience in South Africa. Practicing advocacy journalism, Gandhi also was warning his fellow citizens back home about the lack of what today would be called basic human rights for the South African Indians. Gandhi was particularly incensed at recruiting agents in India who ‘deluded’ Indian workers into making the voyage across the Indian Ocean to their new world.2 Gandhi’s pamphlet tried to establish Indian support for the attempt by the Natal Indian Congress (he was a co-founder) to counter repressive laws and to argue that Indians, as British subjects, should have the same rights and privileges as British all over the empire. Very early in the pamphlet, he lays out the fact that about sixty per cent of the Indians living in Natal near the turn of the century were indentured servants, most of them brought to South Africa to work on the sugar plantations. In all, Gandhi mentions indentured servants eighteen times in the Green Pamphlet. Later, in his 1928 book Satyagraha in South Africa, the author wrote that the Indian labourers received room and board, but little beyond that. He noted: Adequate consideration was not given to the question as to how these illiterate labourers who had gone to a distant land were to seek redress if they had any grievances. No thought was given to their religious needs or to the preservation of their morality.3 Gandhi went on to call the indentured Indians in South Africa ‘temporary slaves.’ Yet he also said that the ‘seed of the great Satyagraha movement’ came with those Indians who rode the steamships from Bombay to southern Africa.4 In the Green Pamphlet, Gandhi noted how the indentured servants were vital to the economy of South Africa, including that of the Indian businessmen. These thousands of indentured servants bought the merchants’ goods, thus stimulating the economy. The businessmen were mainly Muslims coming from north-western India, many of whom had become wealthy, including Dada Abdulla, the man who brought Gandhi to Durban to serve as his legal advisor. Gandhi described as to how those Indian workers were treated, including the name-calling they faced on the streets and in the columns of European newspapers. The Indians heard and read ‘Coolies,’ ‘Samys,’ and ‘semi-barbarous Asiatics,’ among other names, on a daily basis. Gandhi also noted a pass law, which was enacted to keep the indentured

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__________________________________________________________________ servants from quitting. While Gandhi conceded that the law was actually valid, he believed its enforcement was unjust. Gandhi also quoted the Natal Advertiser newspaper, which reported abuse of the indentured servants by policemen for using alleged violations of the pass law to force Indians into jail for a night or two to clean out the facilities.5 Gandhi also observed that the authorities would treat non-indentured Indians better than their indentured countrymen; however, the police could not tell the difference between the two. The fact that the authorities could not distinguish between professionals and labourers rankled Gandhi, as did the overwhelming sense that Indians did not belong to South Africa. In this regard, he wrote in the Green Pamphlet: There is no more reason to presume a man to be a thief than to presume an Indian to be a deserter. Even if an Indian did desert and made preparations to look decent, it will be difficult for him to remain undetected for a long time. But, then, the Indian in South Africa is not credited with any feelings. He is a beast, “a thing black and lean”, the “Asian dirt to be heartily cursed”.’6 Still, Gandhi, who grew up in a caste system, stated that professionals, at least, should be above the undignified treatment of the anti-immigrant laws of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century South Africa. Later in the pamphlet, Gandhi wrote that the free Indian was treated just as an indentured servant was, and that the whites wanted the ‘total extermination’ of the Indians in South Africa.7 2. Example of Mistreatment A major passage in the Green Pamphlet is when Gandhi details the case of an indentured Indian servant named Balasundaram, who was physically abused by his master. A semiliterate gardener, Balasundaram lost two teeth with a great loss of blood from one beating. His case ended up in front of a magistrate, who was shown the worker’s blood-soaked turban. The judge ordered Balasundaram to the hospital for treatment. When he was released, Balasundaram sought out Gandhi, then a practicing attorney in Durban. He asked Gandhi to get him freedom from his indenture contract, but Gandhi thought it would be easier simply to get him transferred to a benign master. However, a legal intermediary called a protector worked to have Balasundaram returned to his master. Indeed, Balasundaram signed a statement saying he did not want a new master. Gandhi got word of this and hustled to the protector’s office. Eventually, Gandhi had the matter returned to the lap of the magistrate, who overruled the protector and sternly told the master to accept the attorney’s request for allowing the worker to change masters. Balasundaram, then, was turned over to a

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__________________________________________________________________ Methodist minister. Gandhi concluded his anecdote thusly: ‘This is only a typical instance showing how hard it is for the indentured men to get justice.’8 The obstacles indentured servants faced were many. During the Second Boer War (1899-1902), Gandhi raised an ambulance corps of Indians that included indentured servants. Despite serving the British Empire during the campaign, these workers afterwards received no real reward for their war effort. Instead, they faced even more oppression, as the Europeans tightened up enforcement of old laws and created new obstacles. For example, the government enforced the Indentured Act Law No. 25 of 1891, which made it illegal for indentured workers to go a mile beyond their employer’s residence without written permission. Anyone arrested under this law was sent back to his master, and had his wages deducted to pay the fine.9 In 1901, the government made filing grievances against employers or handlers very difficult. An indentured labourer would only be allowed to complain if he first received permission from a magistrate (local judge). If a worker went to get such permission from a magistrate and was denied, then the worker was written down for being absent without leave. This resulted in a new set of penalties or punishment. Facing such stonewalls when it came to filing a complaint for ill treatment on the job, Indians sometimes chose to commit suicide. Indeed, the Indian suicide rate ‘shocked the authorities and roused the indignation even of a section of the Europeans,’ according to Gandhi’s biographer, Pyarelal Nayyar.10 In 1903, Gandhi started his first newspaper, a weekly titled Indian Opinion, in Durban. By the autumn of 1903, he began covering the indentured workers in South Africa. In its first eleven years, Indian Opinion would have 196 separate articles with the word ‘Indentured’ in the headline.11 In September 1903, the advocacy journalist described these labourers in this way: ‘The indentured Indian is practically helpless. He comes from India in order to avoid starvation.’12 The first full article devoted to the indentured workers came in October of that year in an article entitled ‘Indentured Labour from India,’ which appeared on the page two of the English section of the weekly newspaper (a second part was in Gujarati). The article details how many Indians had come to South Africa in the previous year (more than three thousand) and that they were attractive to the European employers because they were cheaper and more reliable than black African labour. While the Indian workers were much in demand, Gandhi reminded his readers that journalists of European descent often expressed popular resentment of the increasing Indian population of Natal. He went on to point out that more than two thousand free Indians had stayed in Natal after their indentured stints had ended and paid the regressive £3 poll tax (which when first proposed in 1894 would have been £25, but the Indian viceroy reduced it to £3).13 Because these indentured servants—who signed contracts for five years—were so poorly paid, Gandhi called their status ‘a form of slavery.’14 Their deciding to stay on after their indentures ended gave alarm to the white citizens, who hoped they would return to India instead of staying in South Africa. To discourage staying, the government required

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__________________________________________________________________ the children of the freed Indians to also pay a £3 tax. A family of six would be paying £18 tax per year for the right to remain in South Africa. However, there was a catch because the Indian Immigration Act required the government to pay for an Indian child’s journey home after the parents ended their indenture. Thus, the child had to either stay and pay the £3 tax (which also required the procurement of a license to remain), become indentured servants themselves, or return home to India at the expense of the colonial government (which was not popular with the white Europeans).15 At the conclusion of the article, Gandhi rails against Natal’s Indian Marriage Law, which required Indians to register their marriages with the state. Gandhi argued that marriage was a religious issue for Indians, not a government matter. ‘With many sects,’ he wrote, ‘the tie once bound is inviolable, and divorce is not recognized at all. Registration, to such people, is practically a farce.’16 In 1908, Gandhi also remarked on the plight of other indentured workers in South Africa. This time he publicized the ordeal of Chinese indentures. He said dozens of Chinese workers were flogged every day in the Johannesburg mines. These floggings had the attorney-journalist describing slave-like conditions there. He then observed: ‘Slavery was at first a substitute for cattle, and indentured labour was a substitute for slavery. Indenture must be prohibited by law and the main duty of Natal Indians in this matter is to start an agitation on a big scale.’17 Gandhi went on to praise the Natal Advertiser for calling the indenture scheme an ‘abominable system.’18 3. Final Satyagraha Campaign in South Africa Towards the end of Gandhi’s stay in South Africa, he took up the indentured servants’ cause again. In June 1913, the editor informed his friend Herman Kallenbach that he planned on ‘doing something for the indentured man.’19 In his two decades in South Africa, Gandhi had relatively little personal experience with indentured workers. Most were from the south of India, mainly Tamils (one of the reasons Gandhi began to study Tamil on board his ship from South Africa to India in 1896 when he was going to publish the Green Pamphlet was that, he wanted to be able to communicate with those Indian indentured servants who spoke that south Indian language); Gandhi was from the small city of Porbandar, Gujarat, and the Muslim merchants he represented were generally from Bombay or Ahmedabad. When he had led the pro-British ambulance corps during the Boer War, he had worked next to indentured workers. Still, even if he was not conversant with indentured workers on an everyday basis, he knew well their plight, and also the £3 tax they had to pay after their indentures were up proved to be prohibitive, forcing many to sign up for three more years of near slave status. In 1911, after considerable pressure from Gandhi in the pages of his newspaper and in the courts, India (the British government there) ended the indentured system in Natal. Gandhi’s newspaper led with the story on 7 January 1911. It had a bold

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__________________________________________________________________ headline proclaiming, ‘THANK GOD.’20 Gandhi then added his own commentary about the news: ‘South Africa can never be the birth-place of a free and enlightened nation if it harbours slave labour, which indentured labour surely is … The Indians of South Africa have achieved a notable victory.’21 But the £3 tax was still in place. Free Indians had to pay. Therefore, working to repeal that tax, as well as striving to overcome a court ruling that made it illegal to be members of any religion that recognized polygamy, would become the last major challenge for Gandhi in South Africa. Indeed, when the Supreme Court of the Cape Colony declared all Hindu and Muslim marriages null and void, making all Indian children bastards, the Indians of South Africa felt embarrassed—and they feared their children would lose their inheritances.22 A key part of the Indian social system had been made invalid. The political activist used these two causes to make Satyagraha into a mass movement.23 In October 1913, Gandhi urged a strike against the £3 tax, and the Indian coalmine workers took it to heart. The government decided to leave the strikers alone to prevent Gandhi from filling the jails and gaining the upper hand in public opinion. Eventually, the South African government arrested Gandhi (his wife) was already in jail, serving a three-month sentence at hard labour Kasturba Gandhi that left her very ill), set him free, and arrested him again. All that the government did to the strikers was to send them back to the mines. However, the Indian workers refused to work, and the strike spread to the sugar cane fields and even affected the railroads. Approximately 50,000 workers walked off the job, and the Indian and British press praised their courage. In the end, Gandhi called off the strike, and at the urging of the Indian government, the South African government empowered a commission to look into the workers’ grievances.24 The commission decided that the £3 tax should be abolished. It also said that the hindus and muslims should not be discriminated against because of their marriage practices. By the summer of 1914, Gandhi was off to England and eventually was on his way to India for the final phase of his political career. He never returned to South Africa. After he left South Africa, Gandhi was gratified to see that the British government would pass the Indian Relief Act, making the indentured servant system illegal; the Indian government, of course, had already outlawed the indenture system in Natal in 1911.25 No longer could Indians be contracted to other nations, including South Africa, to serve as nearly unpaid labourers abroad. In Satyagraha in South Africa, Gandhi wrote that ‘the stopping of indentured labour’ was ‘important’, and that his political campaigns in South Africa had had some effect on the repeal of indentured labour.26 4. Conclusion In the end, it may not be entirely clear as to why a middle-class, professional Indian, brought up in the world of caste, took up the cause of indentured servants.

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__________________________________________________________________ Perhaps his reading in South Africa of the works of literary men like Leo Tolstoy and John Ruskin, which shaped his thinking about modernity, also affected his attitude toward those Indians less fortunate than himself—which when he returned to India would include backing the cause of the untouchables. Perhaps it was because he recognized that the Europeans running the nation mistreated all Indians in South Africa, and none more so than the indentured workers. In his first mention of the indentured servants in Indian Opinion, Gandhi noted that a Natal government official praised Indians for being law-abiding. The editor countered: ‘The pity of it is that the law-abiding instinct is very much wasted in a place like South Africa.’27 Here was sarcastically referring to the lack of respect for a human being as a dignified soul who deserved a universal set of rights and fair treatment, irrespective of one’s nationality, religion, race, or caste. For Gandhi, passive resistance based on a thorough evaluation of a society’s economic and social systems, became the means for bringing an end to slavery. In his book Hind Swaraj, a dialogue crafted while he was in South Africa, he wrote: ‘So long as the superstition that men should obey unjust laws exists, so long will their slavery exist.’28 Because Gandhi took up their cause as an advocacy journalist, the indentured Indians came to adore Gandhi.29 Indeed, supporting their cause was shrewd politics. He knew that writing about their plight so often would keep them in the public eye. He was shaping public opinion, setting the agenda in the South African press.30 Meanwhile, the indentured workers gave the Satyagraha movement the mass numbers it needed to be a formidable political force. When Gandhi took the Satyagraha movement to India, the indentured cause shifted to that of the untouchables. In the end, Gandhi should be remembered not only for the Quit India campaign, but he should also be remembered for his championing the underdogs of South Africa and India.

Notes 1

Yesmin Khan, ‘Gandhi’s World,’ in Judith M. Brown and Anthony Parel, The Cambridge Companion to Gandhi (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 18. 2 Mohandas K. Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa (Ahmedabad, India: Navajivan Publishing House, 1928), 20. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. 5 Mohandas K. Gandhi, The Grievances of the British Indians in South Africa: An Appeal to the Indian Public, Pamphlet, Second Edition (Madras, IN: Price Current Press, 1896), 7. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid., 9.

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Gandhi and the Indian Indentured Servants in South Africa

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Ibid., 11. Pyarelal Nayyar, Mahatma Gandhi, Volume II: The Discovery of Satyagraha - On the Threshold (Ahmedabad, IN: Navajivan Publishing House, 1980), 342. 10 Pyarelal Nayyar, Gandhi, Volume II, 351. 11 Indian Opinion: 1903-1914, 3 volumes, National Gandhi Museum, New Delhi, India, DVD-R. 12 ‘Compulsory Repatriation,’ Indian Opinion, 17 September 1903, 2. 13 Rajmohan Gandhi, Mohandas: A True Story of a Man, His People and an Empire (Haryana, IN: Penguin Books, 2006), 81. 14 ‘Indentured Labour from India,’ Indian Opinion, 29 October 1903, 2. 15 Pyarelal Nayyar, Gandhi, Volume II, 412-413. 16 ‘Indentured Labour from India,’ Indian Opinion, 2. 17 Gopalkrishna Gandhi, The Oxford India Gandhi: Essential Writings (New Delhi, IN: Oxford University Press, 2008), 95. 18 ‘The Natal Indenture System,’ Indian Opinion, 3 October 1908, 2. 19 Arthur Herman, Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age (London, UK: Arrow Books, 2008), 190. 20 ‘THANK GOD,’ Indian Opinion, 7 January 1911, 1. 21 ‘From the Editor’s Chair: A Momentous Decision,’ Indian Opinion, 7 January 1911, 3. 22 Nagindas Sanghavi, The Agony of Arrival: Gandhi, the South African Years (New Delhi, IN: Rupa, 2006), 371. 23 Herman, Gandhi & Churchill, 191. 24 Kathryn Tidrick, Gandhi: A Political and Spiritual Life (London, UK: Verso, 2006), 100. 25 Joseph Lelyveld, Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India (New York: Vintage Books, 2011), 129. 26 M.K. Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa, xi. 27 ‘Indentured Labour from India,’ Indian Opinion, 29 October 1903, 2. 28 Mohandas K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj, or Indian Home Rule (Ahmedabad, IN: Navajivan Publishing House, 1938), 70. 29 Rajmohan Gandhi, Gandhi: The Man, His People and the Empire (London, UK: Haus Books, 2007), 170. 30 Maxwell E. McCombs and Donald L. Shaw, ‘The Agenda-Setting Function of the Mass Media,’ Public Opinion Quarterly 36.2 (Summer 1972): 177. 9

Bibliography Gandhi, Gopalkrishna. The Oxford India Gandhi: Essential Writings. New Delhi, IN: Oxford University Press, 2008.

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__________________________________________________________________ Gandhi, Mohandas K. The Grievances of the British Indians in South Africa: An Appeal to the Indian Public. Pamphlet. Second Edition. Madras, IN: Price Current Press. 1896. Gandhi, Mohandas K. Hind Swaraj, or Indian Home Rule. Ahmedabad, IN: Navijivan Publishing House, 1938. Gandhi, Mohandas K. Satyagraha in South Africa. Ahmedabad, IN: Navijivan Publishing House, 1928. Gandhi, Rajmohan. Gandhi: The Man, His People and the Empire. London, UK: Haus Books, 2007. Herman, Arthur. Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age. London, UK: Arrow Books, 2008. Indian Opinion. 3 volumes. New Delhi, IN: National Gandhi Museum, DVD-R. Khan, Yesmin. ‘Gandhi’s World.’ The Cambridge Companion to Gandhi, edited by Judith M. Brown and Anthony Parel, 11-29. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Lelyveld, Joseph. Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India. New York: Vintage Books, 2011. McCombs, Maxwell E. and Donald L. Shaw. ‘The Agenda-Setting Function of the Mass Media.’ Public Opinion Quarterly 36.2 (Summer 1972): 176-187. Nayyar, Pyarelal. Mahatma Gandhi, Volume II: The Discovery of Satyagraha. Ahmedabad, IN: Navijivan Publishing House, 1980. Sanghavi, Nagindas. The Agony of Arrival: Gandhi, the South African Years. New Delhi, IN: Rupa, 2006. Tedrick, Kathryn. Gandhi: A Political and Spiritual Life. London, UK: Verso, 2006. David W. Bulla. Dr. Bulla is assistant dean for research in the College of Communication and Media Sciences at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates. He is the author of four books. His latest, co-authored with Gregory A. Borchard, is titled Lincoln Mediated from Transaction Publishers. He received his Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Florida in 2004.

Napoleon, the British Public Opinion, and the Abolition of the Slave Trade Lubomir Krastev Abstract British public opinion in the early nineteenth century was influenced by two major tendencies. The first tendency had its roots abroad and was related to the French Revolution and the figure of Napoleon. The second one had to do with the public debate on the abolition of slave trade that was also dividing British society. The revolutionary ideas spreading throughout Europe had their impact on the banishment of slave trade and on identifying slavery with all the repulsive practices of the old regimes. Although many British considered Napoleon to be nothing more than a Corsican usurper of the French throne, there were quite a few who viewed him as a liberator of nations, and a Prometheus of his times. Strong supporters of Bonaparte’s positive image in Britain were the radicals and the republicans. To this group belonged also the politicians centred round the Whig Party and especially those close to Charles James Fox. During the short time of the only cabinet the Whig held in the course of the Napoleonic era, the so-called ‘Ministry of All the Talents’, Charles James Fox managed to achieve his most desired political goal, the passing of the Slave Trade Act of 1807. But the British public did not take a unanimous stand on slaveryrelated issues. As shown by publications in the press of the period, and by sources such as memoirs and diaries, public opinion on the matter was rather ambiguous. Hence there is a difficulty for the researcher to define correctly the line between the supporters of the abolition and the people leaning towards preserving the institution and instruments of slavery. These are the questions the answers to which are still being sought, and the chapter suggested is an attempt to shed some light to them. Key Words: Slavery, abolition, slave trade, Charles James Fox, Napoleon Bonaparte, British public opinion, British press, public debate on slave trade, Whig Party, British radicals. ***** During the age of the French Revolution, Western Europe experienced a great shift in the perception of the institution of slavery. This was particularly distinctive in the British public debate on the matter, which started even before 1789. The events following the storming of the Bastille, however, were the ones that contributed most significantly to the strengthening of the liberal movement in England. This paved the way for a boost for the supporters of the abolition of the slave trade. It was not until Napoleon Bonaparte took power in 1799, that the abolitionists started really pressing the issue in Parliament. In the British public opinion, Napoleon represented many of the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment. His initial success on the battlefields of

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Napoleon, the British Public Opinion, and the Abolition of the Slave Trade

_____________________________________________________________________ Europe as well as his pioneering reforms made for a short period of time ‘the request for a Great Nation a valid claim.’1 Although many British people considered Napoleon to be nothing more than a Corsican usurper of the French throne, there was a small number who viewed him as a liberator of nations, and a Promethaeus of his times. Strong supporters of Bonaparte’s positive image in Britain were the radicals and the republicans. To this group belonged also the politicians centred round the Whig Party and especially those close to Charles James Fox. These social circles strongly influenced the abolitionist movement. Although few Tories felt empathy for the abolition movement, these ideas were mostly supported by the Liberals. In 1794 the revolutionary government of France implemented the ideals of liberté, égalité, and fraternité in Haiti with the abolition of slavery, but this did not last. In fact, Bonaparte did not finally forbid the slave trade until 1815, during the Hundred Days empire restoration attempt.2 It cannot be said that people in Britain were adequately informed about this manifestation of contradictory standards. And there was a good reason for this. Although slavery itself was the true problem for the English abolitionists, the only possible solution seen at the time was not discarding the institution of slavery itself, but first destroying one of its most repellent pillars - the slave trade. As shown by James Walvin, the abolition of slave trade in 1807 was not popular, and, two centuries later, it can be said that this act has left a relatively small impression on British public memory.3 This understates the significance of Abolition of the Slave Trade bill, which was essential for the full emancipation of the slaves in the British Empire in 1838.4 It should be noted that certain aspects of the historical context central to this chapter have been revealed by researchers.5 A perfect example of this is A. D. Harvey’s work published in the Historical Journal in 1972. Among other things, Harvey expresses the view that the 1807 Act of Abolition was a ‘Charity’ that ‘covereth a multitude of sins.’6 A key contribution has also been made by Ann Burton, who in her survey analyzes in depth the link between the abolition of the slave trade and the British Evangelicals.7 More than two centuries after the passing of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, certain questions remain: How did the British public react to the news of the enforcement of the new law? Did the war with Napoleonic France help the abolitionists’ cause? Who took the credit and whose efforts were forgotten by the historians? These are the questions the answers to which are still being sought, and the present chapter will shed some light on them. The British public did not take a unanimous stand on slavery-related issues. Several of King George’s subjects were making their living by sharing the benefits of the Atlantic slave trade. Despite the immorality of the cause, the huge financial rewards made it worth fighting for.8 The encampment of the French army at Boulogne that had been preparing for an invasion since 1803, made certain that neither France, nor Britain would cut their economic advantages in this struggle of life and death.9 Nevertheless, the second Ministry of William Pitt made the first step toward abolition.

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_____________________________________________________________________ In 1804, a Royal Proclamation restricted the import of slaves into newly conquered colonies. This was a rather small step, but it assured William Wilberforce, the main leader of the Abolition movement in Britain, that things were going in the right direction. His influence on William Pitt, his personal friend, had a great impact on the Prime Minister’s views on slavery. But it was only after the battle of Trafalgar (1805) that it became possible for the British to take a breath and concentrate on solving their domestic issues. As Simon Schama notes, the 1801 union with Ireland had brought into the House of Commons new members, a number of whom made known they opposed the slave trade. Thus, the movement for abolition was picking up speed.10 The other great supporter of abolition was one of Pitt’s greatest political adversaries, both in Parliament and in public. Charles James Fox had little tolerance of Pitt’s policies regarding the war in Europe or the matters of public finance and economy. As for the abolitionist movement, Fox was in full collaboration with the Tories, who had similar views on the subject of slave trade. The initiatives of the abolitionists were focused on the presentation of the immorality of the slave trade in both Houses of Parliament, though their petitions were usually ignored by the representatives in the House of Lords. The latter used all of their instruments to maintain the current position, showing empathy with the West India lobby and with MPs related to influential planter families. Some politicians had other issues in mind when opposing abolition. Lord Sidmouth, for instance, expected that rival countries’ slave traders would take control of the business with slaves in the Atlantic Ocean. It is evident also that William Widham, Secretary for War and the Colonies (1806-7) in the Ministry of All the Talents, had objections to the motion regarding abolition on principle, motivated more by emotions and less by reason, most apparently led by hatred for all reforms which had been his attitude since the outbreak of the French Revolution.11 Napoleon’s successes at Austerlitz and Jena meant that England had to focus on her domestic problems for a while. Pitt’s policy of financing Anti-French Coalitions had failed, and the public demanded an explanation about so much gold having been spent by the government, without the achievement of positive results. After the Continental Blockade began in late 1806 Britain had to rely on long-distance shipping for her survival. There was an objective reason that British slave traders protested very little when the Slave Trade Act of 1807 was passed. Many of them were engaged in the more profitable smuggling of raw goods, food supplies, and other merchandize that was hard to acquire in Britain during the Blockade. One of the immediate effects of the abolition of slave trade was the rise in the price of sugar, which was badly accepted by the public.12 But there were many voices against the jobbers, like Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who publicly denounced slave trade and even suggested a boycott on sugar and rum.13 After the rise of Napoleon, campaigning in favour of the abolition of slave trade in Britain was vague, to say the least.14 The only large community that sent a notable petition concerning the issue was Manchester, where in 1806 more than two thousand people took part in this enterprise by giving their signatures.15 The citizens of

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_____________________________________________________________________ Liverpool were rather against Wilberforce’s ideas, and in London members of high society did not support the abolitionists. Apparently, the latter’s views in the eyes of the privileged classes had too close an association with radicalism. Many others felt threatened by the possibility of a termination of the slave trade, believing that it would hurt immensely British industrial development.16 As Clive Emsley points out, ‘Many began to see any reform, even the abolition of the political bars against religious dissenters and the abolition of the slave trade, as the thin end of a wedge which would eventually open the door to the anarchy which they perceived in France.’17 Exception was made by people in religious circles, who believed that abolition was the only way to redeem the sins that weighed on Britain. As Boyd Hilton puts it, ‘Why else had God awarded Bonaparte so many victories?’ Hilton notes the mutual misconception of many of the strict followers of the Anglican and Evangelical Churches, that England’s sufferings during the war were mostly a kind of payment for her deeds as a developing empire. The only decisive step that could be taken was to abolish the slave trade for, in Hilton’s words, what better way was there ‘to atone for national sins than by moving against slavery.’18 Some non-conformists shared the idea that Britain might be among the nations that deserved ‘punishment by the divine scourge.’19 James Bichero, a Baptist minister from Berkshire, preached that Britain should be judged not only for individuals’ sins such as drunkenness, swearing, adultery and Sabbath-breaking, but that also redemption was needed for Britain’s national sins. Among those sins were colonialism, a perverse passion for commerce, public corruption and most notably, the slave trade.20 Bichero warned that if an effort was not made to compensate for these crimes, God would be against the British, their ‘endeared constitution and liberties’ would be lost, and the country ruined.21 Although it is often said that the Anglican and Evangelical communities were rather ignorant about the fate of the slaves after they received rights as free people, it should be noted that the role of the Church was crucial for the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act of 1807. From the point of view of the development of the British economy, the abolition of the slave trade played a negative role. Only the spread of the Industrial Revolution and its economic gains helped Britain to overcome the losses. Seymour Drescher even calls abolition ‘econocide’, and adds that some contemporaries looked upon it as the ‘most altruistic act since Christ’s crucifixion.’22 It is not only due to religion, however, that both colonial oppression and slave trade were renounced by Parliament. Britain needed a new image in the eyes of the public in a time when many considered her old mercantile policies a bad habit that needed to be terminated. A very important aspect of the conducting of international relations, especially in the triangle of capital cities: Paris - London - Washington, was that the abolition of slave trade would immensely damage Anglo-American relations, since the United States would be, in the words of French historian Georges Lefebvre, ‘cut off the supply of Negroes.’23 This was one of the reasons why for example the Leader of the House of Commons and later Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Lord Castlereagh was against the Abolition Act, as he spoke about ‘the impolicy of the Bill’ in a

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_____________________________________________________________________ parliamentary debate.24 Many considerations were voiced among diplomatic circles that such an act would lead to stagnation in Anglo-American relations. This is the reason why it was not introduced before the Whigs took office in 1806. The ‘Ministry of All the Talents’ was the main contributor to the passing of the Act, although many historians do not give it the necessary credit for this vital political and social reform. And despite the fact that Charles James Fox died in 1806, shortly before the passage of the bill, we can consider the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act as his most important legacy and the cabinet’s biggest success. British public opinion in the early nineteenth century was influenced by two major tendencies. The first tendency had its roots abroad and was related to the French Revolution and the figure of Napoleon. The second one had to do with the public debate on the abolition of slave trade that divided British society in the same way as the events taking place across the Channel. The revolutionary ideas spreading throughout Europe made an impact on the end of slave trade and encouraged the identification of slavery with all the repulsive practices of the old regimes.

Notes 1

A memorable expression used by the famous British diarist Henry Robinson in regard to the development of France under Napoleon. Henry Robinson, Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence. I. (London, 1869). 81. 2 Andrew Roberts, Napoleon the Great (London: Penguin Books, 2015). 745. 3 James Walvin, ‘The Slave Trade, Abolition and Public Memory’, Transactions of the RHS 6.19 (2009): 139-149. 4 Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie, ‘Reflections on the Bicentennial of the Abolition of the British Slave Trade’, The Journal of African American History 93.4 (2008): 532-542. 5 For the evolution of all the Abolition initiatives in Parliament see: Thomas Clarkson, The History of the Rise, Progress, and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the Slave Trade by the British Paraliament (London, 1808). 6 Arnold D. Harvey, ‘The Ministry of All the Talents: The Whigs in Office, February 1806 to March 1807’, The Historical Journal 15.4 (1972): 629. 7 Ann M. Burton, ‘British Evangelicals, Economic Warfare and the Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1794-1810’, Anglican and Episcopal History 65. No. 2 (June 1996): 197-225. 8 The parliamentary debates showed that many politicians were mindful of the fact that many British subjects were engaged in the slave trade. In 1805, for instance, the representative from Liverpool, Banastre Tarleton, stated that ten thousand people alone in Liverpool were ‘completely engaged in this trade.’ See: Hansard, Commons. Debate, 15 February 1805. Vol. 3. p. 522. 9 Simon Schama, Rough Crossings (London: BBC Books, 2005). 401. 10 Ibid.

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On the other hand it was these exact ideas that ignited the slave revolution in Haiti in 1791, and this example was considered as an alarm for the ones that tolerated radicalism or participated in its development. 12 The Times, March 17, 1807. 2. For the effects of the Continental Blockade on Britain see: Евгений Тарле, Континентальная блокада. (Москва, Издательство Академии Наук СССР, 1958). 13 Stuart Andrews, The British Periodical Press and the French Revolution, 1789-99 (New York: Palgrave, 2000). 60. 14 The public debate on slave trade in the British press was intensive mainly in the first half of the 1790s. 15 Boyd Hilton, A Mad, Bad, & Dangerous People? England, 1783-1846 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 186. 16 Niall Ferguson, Civilization (London: Penguin Books, 2012). 97. 17 Clive Emsley, British Society and the French Wars, 1793-1815 (London and Basingstoke: The Macmillan Press LTD, 1979), 13. 18 Ibid., 187. 19 Stuart Semmel, Napoleon and the British (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004), 93. 20 Ibid. 21 Ibid. 22 Ibid., 186. See also: Seymour Drescher, Econocide: British Slavery in the Era of Abolition (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1977). 23 Georges Lefebvre, Napoleon (London: Routledge, 2010), 492. 24 The Times, March 17, 1807. 2.

Bibliography Тарле, Евгений. Континентальная блокада. Москва, Издательство Академии Наук СССР, 1958. Andrews, Stuart. The British Periodical Press and the French Revolution, 1789–99. New York: Palgrave, 2000. Burton, Ann C. ‘British Evangelicals, Economic Warfare and the Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1794-1810’. Anglican and Episcopal History 65.2 (June 1996): 197-225. Clarkson, Thomas. The History of the Rise, Progress, and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the Slave Trade by the British Paraliament. London, 1808.

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_____________________________________________________________________ Emsley, Clive. British Society and the French Wars, 1793-1815. London and Basingstoke: The Macmillan Press LTD. 1979 Ferguson, Niall. Civilization. London: Penguin Books, 2012. Harvey, Arnold D. ‘The Ministry of All the Talents: The Whigs in Office, February 1806 to March 1807’. The Historical Journal 15.4 (1972): 619-648. Hilton, Boyd. A Mad, Bad, & Dangerous People? England, 1783-1846. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Kerr-Ritchie, Jeffrey R. ‘Reflections on the Bicentennial of the Abolition of the British Slave Trade’. The Journal of African American History 93.4 (2008): 532-542. Lefebvre, Georges. Napoleon. London: Routledge, 2010. Roberts, Andrew. Napoleon the Great. (London: Penguin Books, 2015). Robinson, Henry. Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence. London, 1869. Schama, Simon. Rough Crossings. London: BBC Books, 2005. Semmel, Stuart. Napoleon and the British. Yale: Yale University Press, 2004. Seymour, Drescher. Econocide: British Slavery in the Era of Abolition. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1977. Walvin, James. ‘The Slave Trade, Abolition and Public Memory’. Transactions of the RHS 6.19 (2009): 139-149. Lubomir Krastev teaches Modern European History at Sofia University ‘St. Kliment Ohridski’. His interests include the First French Empire, International relations in the beginning of the 19th century and public opinion and propaganda in Britain during the time of Napoleon.

Between the Devil and the Deep Sea: Menial Caste Women and Slavery in Eighteenth-Century Jodhpur Jaya Priyadarshini Abstract Pre-modern state and society in the Indian subcontinent, such as the ones of eighteenth-century Jodhpur (or Marwar) were unfailingly characterised by caste, gender and political/economic status-based inequalities and discrimination. The adverse land-man ratio and feudal mindset had given rise to exploitative practices of begar or forced labour and bassipana or slavery. The labouring community comprising the neech or low caste groups was invariably under the constant duress of the high caste society and state for want of varied ‘menial’ and ‘dirty’ services. The contemporary official records abound in cases of unpaid, coercive labour which wreaked havoc in the lives of these groups. Due to the depressed caste status on one hand and the ‘inferior sex’ status on the other, the low caste women were found to be doubly oppressed. They were readily abducted, bought and sold by own family members, let alone the abductors and strangers. Even though the abduction of low caste women was considered to be an offence, sale or slavery as its sequel was a legitimate practice. Therefore, these women were readily bought by both high and low caste/class groups for providing useful domestic and outdoor services without any remuneration. Even though their freedom from bondage was socially acceptable, they were to pay back the masters for their upkeep till then. A study of the terms and conditions of slave transactions finds the treatment of low caste women as nothing more than chattels, with little or no state actions or measures to bring them justice. Along with the study of the varied dimensions and complexities of slavery as an institution, this chapter attempts to understand the direct or indirect roles played by the eighteenth-century Jodhpur state and society in keeping or forcing the low caste women into slavery. Key Words: Women, low caste, abduction, slavery, pre-modern state, caste society, inequality, exploitation, poverty, justice. ***** 1. A Snapshot of the Divide A petition record of C.E. 1765 from Pargana1 Merta in Jodhpur state reads: Nai Raja from Kaekeeda village complained that in 1822 (C.E. 1765) when musraf Maoodas was posted in a village in southern region, he had bought Nai Raja’s niece with the help of the village chaudhary. She was sold for Re. 1 and the transaction documents

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__________________________________________________________________ were officially signed by her brothers. However, the payment was never made. When Raja came back from Malwa, he wanted to get the girl married. The musraf agreed to return the girl, but only in exchange for rupees five. Despite the mutual agreement, the girl was never returned. The state ordered Raja to compensate the musraf for the expenditure incurred on the upkeep of the girl, and get her back.2 This document gives a snapshot of the various types of inequalities characterising the pre-modern Jodhpur state and society. While analysing caste and gender-based discriminations, this chapter examines the deplorable state of the menial or low jati3 women in the context of slavery. Due to their depressed caste status on one hand and the ‘inferior sex’ status on the other, they were doubly oppressed. This chapter closely gazes at the role of the Jodhpur society and state in legitimising enslavement of menial jati women. 2. Placing Nai Raja in Jodhpur society Jodhpur was a principality of Rajputana,4 ruled by the Rathor Rajput kings.5 Being located in the drought-prone, arid zone of the Thar Desert, its difficult geographical conditions had earned it the name of ‘Marwar’ or the ‘land of death’. Notwithstanding the harsh climatic conditions, it was inhabited by people of various religions, castes and tribes, engaged in numerous occupations like seasonal agriculture, animal husbandry, trade and commerce, handicraft making, menial and other services.6 The dominant jatis in most regions were the Brahmins,7 Rajputs,8 Mahajans,9 and Jats10. This dominance was mainly in terms of numerical strength, economic position, ritual status and political power. Most lands, state offices and trade networks were held by them. The census data of 1891 shows that around forty per cent of the population was from these four jatis alone.11 On the other hand, the mass of the population consisted of various artisanal and menial service jatis which were mostly involved in serving the high class groups. Nai12 Raja represented such neech or low service caste communities, which were traditionally involved in ‘impure’ occupations of cleaning bodily dirt/excretion. There were many other jatis involved in more ‘polluting’ works, and therefore were rated even lower than nais in the brahmanical caste hierarchy. This category included the achhep or ‘untouchable’ jatis, like the dhedh or carcass removers/leather workers, bhangi or scavengers, and so on. This chapter has been written in the context of these service jatis that provided several ‘dirty’ yet significant services to the higher castes/classes of Jodhpur. Mostly, such communities had to struggle with high caste/class oppression in their day-to-day life, and this struggle was a necessary function of their menial caste rank. As a community, their everyday life showed the etchings of their caste status. Alternatively, their food, access to water, clothing, residential pattern and

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__________________________________________________________________ occupation, were determined by the dominant brahmanical caste hierarchy13 and ideology, which had placed them at the lowest rungs of the caste ladder. Based on such indices, differentiating one caste/sub-caste from the other was easy.14 These indices had formed an imaginary diving line between the different castes/subcastes, which was diligently preserved by way of caste/sub-caste endogamy by the society and state as a whole. The larger overarching intent behind such differentiations was the maintenance of a socio-economic order where the high castes/classes or institutions had a regular and permanent access to the labour of the labouring population.15 Jodhpur was a proper case of a caste society, where every caste group participated in the caste system by internalizing and practising the caste-based cultural traditions. Unfortunately, depressed caste status mostly restricted the occupational practices of menial jatis to their ‘traditional’ low-paying menial jobs. Therefore, extreme inequality in the distribution of resources had become a natural outcome of this system. In Marwar, practices like begar16 or forced labour and bassipana or slavery were inextricably intertwined with caste system.17 In a feudal set-up, where physical labour was looked down upon, the high caste landowners were in constant need of the varied services from the menial communities. Therefore, very often they were embroiled in disputes while laying unreasonable claims on the labour of the labouring groups. This trend was all the more pronounced in drought years when either high mortality rates or labour migration to the neighbouring states tremendously decreased the population of menial castes.18 While under the system of begar, different services were extracted by the state and society without any payment, the practice of slavery saw the complete loss of the right over own labour by the menial jatis. Mostly, slavery was seen to be a consequence of poverty in the Marwari society. Abduction, sale by family and debt payment often landed the low jati incumbents into slavery. The enslaved menials were to provide lifelong free services to the masters. The latter engaged them in all desired jobs and gave minimum subsistence, comprising food and residence. They had full rights over the private lives of the slaves, and the latter married only with the masters’ permission. The masters had perpetual rights over the families of the slaves. However, manumission was allowed, but only after payment of the amount spent on slaves’ maintenance by the masters.19 3. Menial Women: A Case of Double Jeopardy Slavery, in the case of menial women is especially significant because they were readily forced into it by own families, let alone the abductors/strangers. The sale of female relatives was a question of subsistence for extremely poor families.20 Since the low caste society was not as obsessed with female chastity as its high caste counterpart, selling women during economic adversities and buying them

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__________________________________________________________________ back in easier times was seen as legitimate. This obsession with chastity was uncommon as menial women were treated as economic assets in their society. Scholars like Uma Chakravarti and Prem Chowdhury have seen low caste traditions as a different variant of patriarchy, under which women’s productive/reproductive potentials were utilised for the maximisation of family/community assets.21 Therefore, as a matter of a traditional practice, women were readily bought and sold as chattels. For the same reason, they were readily abducted to eventually sell them off as slaves for a few pennies. Interestingly, while the state/society treated abduction of women as an offence, slavery as its sequel was treated as legitimate. Under slavery, women were sold off to both high22 and low jatis.23 Their destiny ranged from being sexually exploited,24 kept as wife/mistress25 by kidnappers/buyers or sold off as domestic servant26. In all cases, the slave women could free themselves by paying back the expenditure incurred by their masters. If women happened to be abducted and sold, or sold by family, the guardians of the women held the right to get them back by paying this amount. This was seen in the aforementioned case of Nai Raja’s enslaved niece. On their part, the Marwari state and society gave more importance to economic transactions between buyers and sellers than to the security of menial women. By asking the abducted girl and her family to pay back for her upkeep to the master, the aggrieved party was doubly penalized. While the state never penalized the buyers, it ensured the payments from the poor menial castes to get back their women. When such transactions of women were between high and low castes, the inequalities were all the more profound. As seen in Nai Raja’s case, even when his niece was bought, her brothers were never paid by the high caste musraf. On the contrary in order to get her back, Raja was asked to pay back much more than the original amount. As a bottom-line, it could be suggested that the legitimacy given by the state to slavery was behind this double jeopardy for the menial caste women. The official legitimacy to slavery could solely be attributed to its importance in the late medieval societies of the Indian subcontinent.27 The need for cheap labour by the caste society and pre-modern state legitimized it. This thesis is reiterated by Hiroshi Fukazawa’s finding in the eighteenth-century Maratha state. He shows that slavery was not confined to private use alone, but was ‘also recognized and used by government’. In fact, several female slaves (or kunbina) called ‘female slaves of government’ were employed both in state offices and aristocratic households for various indoor and outdoor services. Their varied usage was one of the significant reasons behind them outnumbering their male counterparts (or gulam) as slaves. This observation is significant because the gulams were more capable of doing heavier labour, especially in agriculture. Another reason is that while male slaves were mostly owned by high castes, female counterparts were kept by both high and intermediate

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__________________________________________________________________ castes. The cost played a big role here. Historically, female slaves had always been cheaper than male slaves in medieval India.28 Therefore, they were more numerous in usage even in the late medieval states/societies, like the eighteenth century Maharashtra. The legitimacy accorded to slavery by the Peshwa state could be understood in this light. While exact parallels cannot be drawn between the late medieval Maratha and Jodhpur states in terms of the nature and functioning of the institution of slavery,29 the reason for providing legal sanction to it was necessarily the same. The striking contrast between calling abduction illegal and giving legitimacy to sale of women, as its sequel can likewise be understood. The need for labour made the eighteenthcentury Jodhpur state and society legitimize slavery. Being women, and also members of the menial castes, the menial caste women were the most vulnerable to enslavement. The low and high caste patriarchal societies and the feudal state were behind this vulnerability.

Notes 1

It means a district of administration. Jodhpur Sanad Parwana Bahi no. 3, V.S.1822/C.E.1765, folio no. 39A; JSPBs constituted the state documentation of judicial cases, state orders, intelligence reports, news reporters reports, etc. The judicial cases of the common populace of the pre-modern Jodhpur state were seen to be the most significant official accounts for studying the social conditions of a diverse group of people. These records comprised of petitions from a disparate section of people, both high and low, regarding a wide range of social and economic issues. The arzees or lodged complaints/ petitions were always followed by the state’s order of enquiry of the cases for the restitution of wajabi or the customarily legitimate and ‘appropriate’ order. The cited document is a translation of a state document in Marwari dialect and devanagari script. The terms musraf and chaudhary refer to state functionaries. While the former was a high ranked revenue agent, the latter was incharge of the administration of a village. Both were state offices. 3 Jati is an indigenous term for caste and both these terms have been used interchangeably in this chapter. 4 Or present-day Rajasthan state in western India. 5 These Rajput rulers were especially important for their matrimonial alliances and long term friendships with the Mughals in the medieval period. 6 This has been discussed at length in Mardumshumari, the 1891 Census Report of Raj Marwar. See Report Mardum Shumari Raj Marwar, (Jodhpur, 1891). 7 A priestly class, as understood by the British ethnographers 8 Seen as a warrior caste by colonial administrators 9 Named as a trading caste by colonial surveyors 2

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__________________________________________________________________ 10

An agricultural community having high population in Marwar. The population of Marwar in 1891 was 2,528,178. See Rajputana Gazetteers: The Western Rajputana States Residency and Bikaner Agency (Statistical Tables), compiled by K.D. Erskine, 1. These four jatis numbered 211396, 244563, 232351 and 315443 respectively. See Report Mardum Shumari Raj Marwar, 1891, 2 vols. (Marwar Census Report 1891); Jodhpur, pp. 137, 2, 420, and 47 respectively. Also see, Manorama Upadhyaya, ‘Caste Demography in 17th and 18th Century Marwar (An Economic Study with Special Reference to the Pargana Sojhat)’, Rajasthan History Congress Proceedings 12 (2008): 29-40. 12 A barber. 13 It is the dominant caste hierarchy in a brahmanical society, which is mostly followed by the high castes. This hierarchy is led by the Brahmins and Kshatriyas, and the Vaishyas and Shudras follow them in ritual status. 14 For details, see Jaya Priyadarshini, ‘Redefining Social Worlds: The “Menials” and Service Jatis in 18th Century Marwar’ (PhD diss., Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2014), 24-46. 15 For details, see R.S. Sharma, ‘Class Formation and Its Material Basis in the Upper Gangetic Basin (c. 1000-500 B.C.)’, Indian Historical Review (1975): 1-13; Interestingly, the service jatis were as much a participant in caste system as their high caste counterparts. This section which was treated differently by the higher jatis, behaved in the same way with those they considered ritually inferior to them. The basis of such discrimination or purity-pollution quotients was the differences in cultural practices of the jatis. See Declan Quigley, The Interpretation of Caste (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1993), 30. 16 Begar or forced labour was a traditionally recognized, unremunerated labour provided by the artisanal and menial services jatis to the state and urban and rural societies in excess of the taxes, for details, see Harbans Mukhia, ‘Illegal Extortions from Peasants, Artisans and Menials in Eighteenth Century Eastern Rajasthan’, Indian Economic and Social History Review 2 (1997): 231-245. G.K. Rai has argued that the institution of unpaid forced labour had traversed the different phases of Indian history with slow but definite modifications. The vishti or forced labour of ancient India became begar of medieval and modern India. Interestingly, it stretched almost through the entire length and breadth of India, G.K. Rai, ‘Forced Labour in Ancient and Early Medieval India’, IHR 3 (July 1976). Hiroshi Fukazawa has shown its prevalence and importance in eighteenth century Maharashtra. Under the corvee or begar system, the menials were employed in agriculture, construction works, porterage, etc. His discursive look at the system of corvee or begar in the Maratha state seeks to show the use of caste system by the state. He says that the various artisanal and untouchable castes were regularly pressed into forced service in their respective traditional occupations by the government and the privileged holders of fief. This suggests that an important role 11

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__________________________________________________________________ was played by the caste system in the polity of the Maratha kingdom. He holds that the caste system maintained self-sufficiency in terms of services inside villages/cities, and it was readily utilized by the authorities through the system of forced labour, Hiroshi Fukazawa, A Note on the Corvee System, in The Medieval Deccan: Peasants, Social Systems and States, 16th-18th Centuries (New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1991), 137. 17 Evidences in Maharashtra show that even high jati Brahmin women were enslaved for ‘offences’ such as adultery. 18 Nai Raja’s migration to Malwa is one such case of temporary migration to the neighbouring state of Malwa. For details on the effects of droughts on the people of deserts in Rajasthan, See Surendra Kumar Rajpurohit, ‘Chhapaniya Akal’, Rajasthan Patrika, Bikaner, 27th June 1996, 12. This article gives a vivid picture of the deplorable conditions of the people of desert region of Rajputana during droughts and famines. Rajpurohit contends that in such times, the people were forced to feed on seeds, shoots, lentils, etc. Outmigration was more widespread then. The Famine Report of C.E. 1870 shows that in the drought of C.E. 1868, at least ten lakh Marwari inhabitants had left for safer abodes in the adjoining areas (namely Bayana, Delhi, Punjab, Gujarat, Malwa, etc), leaving behind only four lakhs in Marwar, Rajputane ke Kal ki Report (Alwar, December 1870), 48-49. 19 This has been seen in the case of the niece of Nai Raja. 20 A husband sold off his own wife, JSPB 26, V.S. 1839/1782, f. 97B; for loan repayment, wife sold off, JSPB 38, V.S. 1845/1788, f. 119B. 21 Uma Chakravarti, ‘Gender, Caste and Labour: Ideological and Material Structure of Widowhood’, Economic and Political Weekly, 30 (1995); Prem Chowdhry, ‘Customs in a Peasant Economy: Women in Colonial Haryana’; Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid, eds., Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial History (New Delhi, Kali for Women, 1989), 302-336. 22 Sold to musraf - JSPB 38, V.S. 1845/1788, f. 119B ; JSPB 38, V.S. 1845/1788, f. 138B. 23 Sold to a Nai - JSPB 26, V.S. 1839/1782, f. 97B. 24 A married dhoban or washerwoman was abducted and sexually assaulted by mers or a criminal tribe of colonial India, JSPB 10, V.S. 1827/1770, f. 118B. 25 Due to penurious conditions, Nai Sukha allowed Nai Kusal to keep his wife and children for some time. The latter kept his wife as his mistress with the consent of his nyat or caste council, JSPB 26, V.S. 1839/1782, f. 97B. 26 Nai Pharsa’s daughter was sold to musraf Pirthiraj, JSPB 38, V.S. 1845/1788, f. 119B. 27 In fact, slavery had been a part of the ancient Indian social system as well, see Dev Raj Chanana, ‘Slavery in Ancient India: As Depicted in Pali and Sanskrit Texts’, Subordinate and Marginal Groups in Early India, ed. Aloka Parashar Sen (New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2004), 83- 95. .

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Ziauddin Barani has shown that during Alauddin Khalji’s time while female slave or serving girl cost 5 to 12 tankas, the price for male slave was 100-200 tankas, see Eliott and Dowson ed., The History of India as Told by Own Historians: The Muhammadan Period, vol. III (London: Trubner Company, 18661877), 196. 29 This has been said since the Brahmin rulers of the Maratha state followed a stricter regime of caste system, where even high caste women, except the Brahmins were enslaved for ‘offences’ such as adultery, Ibid., 117. Since the late medieval Jodhpur state was not as stringent a follower of this system, there may have been noticeable differences between the two regarding the functioning of slavery.

Bibliography Chakravarti, Uma. ‘Gender, Caste and Labour: Ideological and Material Structure of Widowhood’. Economic and Political Weekly 30 (1995): 2248-2256. Chakravarti, Uma. ‘Conceptualizing Brahmanical Patriarchy in Early India: Gender, Caste, Class and State’. Economic and Political Weekly 28 (1993): 57985. Chanana, Dev Raj. ‘Slavery in Ancient India: As Depicted in Pali and Sanskrit Texts’. Subordinate and Marginal Groups in Early India, edited by Aloka Parashar Sen, 83-95. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004. Dirks, Nicholas. ‘The Original Caste: Power, History and Hierarchy in South Asia’. Contributions to Indian Sociology 23.1 (1989): 59-78. Chowdhry, Prem. ‘Customs in a Peasant Economy: Women in Colonial Haryana’. Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial History, edited by Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid, 302-336. New Delhi: Kali for Women, 2001. Fukazawa, Hiroshi. The Medieval Deccan: Peasants, Social Systems and States, 16th- 18th Centuries. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1991. Eliott and Dowson, ed. The History of India as Told by Own Historians: The Muhammadan Period, 8 Vols. London: Trubner Company, 1866-1877. Erskine, K.D. Rajputana Gazetteers: The Western Rajputana States Residency and Bikaner Agency (Statistical Tables). Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Book Depot, 1908.

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__________________________________________________________________ Jha, Vivekananda. ‘Caste, Untouchability and Social Justice’. Social Scientist 25 (1997): 19-30. Mukhia, Harbans. ‘Illegal Extortions from Peasants, Artisans and Menials in Eighteenth Century Eastern Rajasthan’. Indian Economic Social Historical Review 14.2 (1997): 231-245. Priyadarshini, Jaya. ‘Redefining Social Worlds: The “Menials” and Service Jatis in 18th Century Marwar’. PhD Dissertation, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2014. Quigley, Declan. The Interpretation of Caste. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993. Rai, G.K. ‘Forced Labour in Ancient and Early Medieval India’. Indian Historical Review 31 (1976): 41-59. Rajpurohit, Surendra Kumar. ‘Chhapaniya Akal’. Rajasthan Patrika, 27 June 1996, 12. Sharma, R.S. ‘Class Formation and its material Basis in the Upper Gangetic Basin (c. 1000-500 B.C.)’. Indian Historical Review 2 (1975): 1-13. Singh, Dilbagh. ‘Caste and the Structure of the Village Society in Eastern Rajasthan during the Eighteenth Century’. Indian Historical Review 2.2 (1976): 334-346. Upadhyaya, Manorama. ‘Caste Demography in 17th and 18th Century Marwar (An Economic Study with Special Reference to the Pargana Sojhat)’. Rajasthan History Congress Proceedings 22 (2008): 29-40. Jaya Priyadarshini is an Assistant Professor in Motilal Nehru College (Evening), Delhi University. She received her doctorate degree in 2015 from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her thesis, Redefining Social Worlds: The ‘Menials’ and Service Jatis in 18th Century Marwar is a nuanced study of the existence and experience of the low service caste categories of pre-modern Marwar or Jodhpur.

Part II Modern Day Slavery

Legacies of Slavery in a Former Slave-Reservoir: The Case of the Guéra Region Valerio Colosio Abstract Legacies of slavery are a relevant social issue in Sahel, a region in continent of Africa. Exclusion from land ownership and marriage, as well as social stigma, are the more common modalities of slave-descendants’ marginalisation and are widespread all over the region. During the last thirty years, many civil society organisations based within slave descendant groups have been established to fight against these discriminations. However, these movements did not spread to the Guéra region, in central Chad, which is the focus of my work. This chapter investigates the strategies used by local people to deal with the legacies of slavery in the Guéra region, analysing the reasons that make this context different from other similar cases in Sahel. It argues that the Guéra region has traditionally been a slave-reservoir for the Wadai sultanate (the main pre-colonial political power) and presents the evolution of the region from pre-colonial to colonial times, focusing on the local land tenure system and colonial administrative arrangements as clues to explain the context. The French conquered the Guéra region at the beginning of the 20th century and put people locally labelled as slave-descendants, called Yalnas, in cantons, awarding them with the same rights they gave to the other groups of the region, including those over land. Thus, despite the social stigma, the Yalnas avoided the main form of discrimination, which is the exclusion from land ownership. They were, then, progressively integrated in the region through mixed marriages with the other groups; at the same time, their stigma did not fully disappear, and their rights have sometimes been challenged. Today, the Yalnas have intense interactions with other Guéra ethnic groups, both collaborative and conflictive. The social and ethnic landscape in Guera is complex as in many Sahel contexts, and the legacies of slavery are an important key in order to understand this complexity. Key Words: Legacy of slavery, Sahel, ethnic identity, land rights, marginal groups, trans-Saharan slave trade. ***** 1. Introduction The Sahel is the arid area separating the Sahara desert from the more fertile savannas and forests of tropical Africa. This geographical region has for centuries been the core area of intense slave-trading, directed towards the Sahara and the Mediterranean regions. The legacies of this past affect contemporary social and political life in all Sahel countries. Groups labelled as slave-descendants are often

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Legacies of Slavery in a Former Slave-Reservoir

__________________________________________________________________ excluded from land control and weddings, remaining in dependent relationships with their previous masters.1 Since the 1990s, following a wave of democratisation in the area, previously marginalized slave descendent groups have tried to empower themselves. Decentralisation policies and the spread of civil society organisations have given new opportunities to these communities in this regard.2 However, among the Sahel countries, Chad remains an exception. Here, there are no movements fostered by slave-descendants, even though the slave trade was massive until the beginning of the 20th century3, and the state had been involved in the same decentralization processes involving the other Sahelian countries. My research will investigate the Chadian case, on the assumption that here local people have been dealing differently with legacies of slavery: people considered as slave descendants are trying to be integrated, rather than challenging the other groups. Analysing the social trajectory of a locally stigmatised group, the Yalnas4 of the Guéra region, I will focus on their contemporary social role, considering their condition as a clue to understand the way local groups deal with the legacies of slavery. Firstly, I present the region, which I define as a slavereservoir because of the frequent raids conducted there by the troops of the Wadai sultanate. Then, I present the contemporary social landscape in Guéra and the role of the Yalnas. I will finally draw some conclusions about the way people deal with legacies of slavery in a former slave-reservoir as Guéra, focussing on the peculiarities of slave-descendants’ strategies here. 2. Guéra, a Former Slave-Reservoir of Wadai Sultanate Guéra is a mountainous region in the central region of Chad. It is located around 350 km south of Abeche, the former capital of Wadai sultanate. In an arid environment like this, the mountains are important water collectors: small rivers spread from them, creating a favourable environment for human settlement. Thus, since a remote past, Guéra was a relatively safe area, inhabited by small groups of hunters and gatherers. According to local legends, all the people who progressively arrived there were received by indigenous people claiming to have grown up in the mountains. They allowed foreigners to stay, asking them to respect local religious authorities. The migrations increased during the 13th and 14th centuries; and became intense following the growth of the Wadai sultanate and its involvement in slave trade with Libya and the Ottoman Empire.5 Wadai sultanate was located in the east of the country, at the border with Darfur. In 1635, Abdel Karim, the son of a faki (a Muslim religious authority), overthrew the previous king. He started the Abbasid dynasty, and claimed to be a descendant of Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, the youngest uncle of Prophet Mohammed. This dynasty fostered Islam in the area and developed significant economic ties with Muslim kingdoms on the other side of the Sahara. Slaves constituted the most important good in these trades, and they were captured from the surrounding regions inhabited by non-Muslims. The slave trade progressively

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__________________________________________________________________ grew, achieving its peak in the 19th century. Thanks to these trades, Wadai gained access to weapons and money, and became able to enforce a more direct control over an important part of the territory.6 Guéra with its mountains was then one of the few safe areas for the scattered non-Muslim groups that refused Wadai authority. On occasions, these groups fought against each other in order to get captives, and give them away as a form of tax to the Wadai military chiefs. At other times, they made defensive alliances while hiding in the mountains and trying to resist the razziah. Thus, local people mainly inhabited the mountains; the only groups inhabiting the plains were the nomadic herders, mainly Arabs allied with the Wadai soldiers; and the inhabitants of the slave camps created by Wadai soldiers to house captives during their razziah. This was the landscape when the French army arrived in the first decade of the 20th century. They conquered Abeche in 1911, while progressively liberating the slaves and pushing the Guéra people to leave the mountains and settle in the plains. During the 1920s, they administratively organized Guéra, giving a canton to every major group, including the people living earlier in the slave camps7. While describing the Chad political organization, two scholars named Baniara Yoyana and Magnant8, who had studied Chad history and customary law, divided the country into three main areas. According to their model, there are the areas under the direct control of the sultanate, those under the vassals of smaller kingdoms, and also, those without any structured powers and seen as slavereservoirs respectively. They argue that the former slave-reservoir rules regarding land access or marriage tended to be less rigid, as there was not a central power able to enforce its own law system. My assumption is that, in such a situation, slave-descendants may have found fewer constraints in getting land access or getting married to other people; therefore, they could have had more opportunities for empowerment. At the same time, it could have been harder to build effective social ties that supported integration among different groups when a central power was enforced. I have tackled these issues focusing on social trajectory of the Yalnas. The term ‘Yalnas’ in local Arabic language means ‘the sons of the people’ and this word refers to the people with unclear genealogy, such as the descendants of slaves. Through analysing their story, I will show the way people deal with legacies of slavery in Guéra. 3. Land Division, Weddings and Social Hierarchies: the Legacies of Slavery in Guéra9 Though there are no more people who had directly experienced it, but the reminiscences of the Wadai razziah are well alive in the Guéra region. However, when the fate of former slaves is asked, people’s memories are more confusing. According to the local stories, former slaves were either left or absorbed by their original groups. However, there are many legacies that can be found. During my

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__________________________________________________________________ research, I found two main areas where the memory of enslavement matters, ie., in the land tenure system and marriage discriminations. A. Inhabiting the Land and Owing the Land In pre-colonial Guéra, different waves of people progressively came and mixed with autochthonous groups. Because of the general insecurity, agriculture was marginal at that time, and therefore the control over land was not crucial. Often migrants were allowed to settle close to already existing villages; the land could be inhabited, but migrants had to respect the ownership of mountain spirits, represented by the land chiefs of indigenous groups. This system lasted until the administrative division of the territory, when Chad was recognised as part of the French Equatorial Africa. The colonial government established different cantons, giving the authority over land to the chief of each canton. As borders in the precolonial period were not clearly established, many small groups tried to be recognized as canton, using pre-colonial agreements as sources of legitimacy. Therefore, the stories of the groups before the arrival of the French were crucial in the arrangement of the official administrative divisions. During my fieldwork I had collected different stories about the origins of the Yalnas. Their neighbours said that they were the inhabitants of Wadai slaves’ camps until the French arrived. In this version, they are referred to as former slaves, who were captured from areas around Guéra; therefore, they possess no land rights. The majority of local groups accept this version. The Yalnas generally recognize the existence of camps, but also claim that all the slaves had left after the arrival of the French. Hence, the people who remained there became the descendants of the Wadai warriors managing these camps. They settled there at the beginning of the 19th century and had got the land from a local chief with whom they made a still existing alliance. When the French army took the control of the territory, the Wadai warriors accepted the French rule and hid their link with Wadai sultanate, since the war between the French and Wadai was still on-going. Therefore, they accepted to be called as Yalnas, a strategic label that enabled them to be recognized as a group, as also, to absorb the old captives that had no village to join. Despite attaching stigmas to slave-descendants, the French awarded the Yalnas with land rights and a political representative. This outcome is related both to the lack of clear land ownership in pre-colonial times, and to the strategic ability of the Yalnas leaders in negotiations with the French. The Yalnas are the only group whose mother tongue is local Arabic. At that time the use of Arabic was rare in the Guéra region. However, it was the only language the French were able to understand. Thus, they played an important brokerage role between the French and the other groups. In colonial reports, the French administrators noted that the Yalnas were awarded with a canton because of their commitment.10 Owing to such strategies, the Yalnas were able to avoid exclusion from land ownership.

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__________________________________________________________________ The topic of land rights for the Yalnas is still debated. Though the canton is officially recognized, many among their neighbours claim that the land belonged to them, and that the Yalnas just inhabited it. According to this point of view, they could farm land, but not have the right to sell or mortgage it. Generally, conflicts occurred especially when the Yalnas used the land for construction. In such cases, their neighbours tried to block Yalnas’ initiatives, claiming that, as the Yalnas were not the owner of the land, they had not the right to use it in this way. However, these plans were never achieved. The Yalnas had the capacity to educate a class of good officials and arrange for a network of alliances that enabled them to effectively defend their land and rights. B. Stigma and Marriage Policies In Guéra, a region where different ethnic groups progressively mixed, the choice of the wife is a central issue for a family. Mixed marriages among different ethnic groups have become popular recently, but there are certain rules to be followed. Apart for the caste of blacksmiths (called “Haddad” in local Arabic), there are no groups excluded from ethnic-mixed marriages. However, the control exerted over marriages by elders of the families is strong in Guéra. Moreover, despite the plurality of ethnic groups and the coexistence of Christianity and Islam in the same region, marriages have some common features. The lineage system is patrilineal, i.e., after the wedding, women stay in their husband’s place, and they are considered as part of his family. The families have to agree on the dowry, which is paid by the husband’s family. Therefore, it is easier to arrange for weddings inside the same community or between groups that already have an alliance which regulate reciprocal relationships. I have often heard the expression ‘to give a girl’, describing a marriage as an effort to build stable relationships with other groups. For the family of the man, the ethnic origin of the girl does not matter so much: through the marriage, she will be integrated in the husband family and will adopt its language and religion. On the contrary, a family may have some resistance before arranging a marriage for their own girls. Agreeing to marry a girl from the household to another family is an important sign of friendship. Therefore, marriage policies can help in understanding the evolution of alliances over the time. As mentioned before, the term Yalnas means ‘sons of the people,’ indicating that they are an array of persons with varied origins. Local sources agree on the fact that the villages of the Yalnas were full of captives in pre-colonial times. After the arrival of the French, those who knew their origins got absorbed into their original groups. Those remaining stayed with the former warriors. These warriors developed good relationships with the French soldiers when they arrived and their chief was appointed as canton chief by them. My argument is that those former captives were progressively absorbed in the canton chief’s clan. As I said, through a marriage, a girl automatically became member of the family of her husband. As

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Legacies of Slavery in a Former Slave-Reservoir

__________________________________________________________________ the camps were managed by warriors, there were probably a good number of men able to marry and assimilate the women into their own group. These weddings contributed towards enlarging and strengthening the group. Therefore, the captives who had lost the memory of their native villages claimed to be the members of the clan and decided to be integrated into it as Yalnas. The institution of marriage had an important role in the creation of the Yalnas group. In the following years, it also contributed to their integration in the region. Mixed weddings in the past were rare, as it was easier to arrange them inside the clan. However, the Yalnas had alliances outside their clan since the pre-colonial time: those with the people of P., the group that, according to their legend, hosted the founder of the clan; those with the people of D., that made a military alliance with them; and various alliances with some of the nomadic Arab groups, who decided to unite with the Yalnas because of their common language and religion. These alliances helped the Yalnas to not be marginalized on the basis of their origin. Since colonisation, all the groups moved to the plains, especially because of the increased security and migrations towards urban areas. This further contributed to mixed marriages. The presence of previous alliances enabled the Yalnas to enlarge their network of social relations. The Yalnas have been able to take advantage of this process and enlarge their social network, obtaining a space in a contemporary social context. 4. Interactions and Conflicts in a Scattered Social Context Today in the more important village of Yalnas canton, there is a big school. Different elders of the villages proudly told me that all the teachers working here were from the same village. The school was opened in the early 1960s. After a period of inactivity due to the civil war, it reopened in the early 1980s. At the end of the 1990s, it was one of the first schools to be restructured by a local NGO, and nowadays children from neighbouring villages come here. The village has a high number of communitarian teachers and some of them are regularly sent to neighbouring villages’ schools. This is contributing to new ties and mixed marriages. This school is an example of the effort they made to build up a new image for their canton. Since colonial times, the Yalnas had accepted more than others the new institutions brought by the French. Members of the chief family were able to achieve their studies and become integrated as state officials. They crucially contributed to defending the canton when it was threatened, and built new alliances. In the 1990s, when local civil society organisations had become popular, the Yalnas’ leaders were well known to the new local elites, and their villages took advantage of development interventions. The school was one of the first projects there, and since then many others followed. The growing importance of local civil society and the social networks related to it is something common all over the region. The Yalnas were able to use their old alliances and knowledge to build good relationships with these new elites. The

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__________________________________________________________________ boost to communication and improved roads in the last two decades further contributed to the process. However, the increase of interactions among different groups is not necessarily fostering cooperation and expunging the legacies of slavery. The spread of local civil society is fostering interactions at the local level, giving new leverage to previously marginalized groups. This is simultaneously, increasing the arenas for conflict among groups who were already divided. Civil society organisations are often related to the elites of the different local groups and are sometimes in competition for resources and projects. The dynamism of these actors and the tensions between them shape the contemporary Guéra political arena. Yalnas have been able to be involved in this arena as a group with full rights, but have often to fight to keep this status. 5. Conclusions In this chapter, I have tried to outline the main legacies of slavery in contemporary Guéra and their effect on social and political life. I have started presenting the region, emphasizing its past as a slave-reservoir, and focusing on the locally stigmatised group of the Yalnas. I have argued that in Guéra this group may have had more opportunities to overcome the traditional forms of marginalization because of the lack of rigid customary laws or traditions in the region. At the same time, it could be more difficult to guarantee social cohesion in such a scattered ethnic landscape. Subsequently, I have explored the main events regarding the Yalnas’ story. I have showed how they were able to become recognized as a group inhabiting land, and have been gradually involved in mixed marriages with other groups, progressively overcoming the stigma associated with being slavedescendants. The recent spread of civil society organisations seems to be further supporting them. However, it may also boost old rivalries in the region. Legacies of slavery here are handled differently than in other social contexts in Sahel, where slave descendants united themselves on the basis of their past as slaves. The situation of slave-descendants in Guéra facilitated strategies based on integration with local groups. The decentralization policies and the spread of civil society have increased the interactions between different groups, creating new opportunities for cooperation as well as potentially conflictive situations. Slave-descendants’ stigma and tensions among ethnic groups are alive, and the context is very dynamic, making it an interesting case to consider in the debate about legacies of slavery in Sahel.

Notes 1

Alice Bellagamba, Sandra Greene and Martin Klein, The Bitter Legacy. African Slavery Past and Present (New Jersey: Markus Wieners Publisher Princeton, 2013); Allan George Barnard Fisher and Humphrey Fisher, Slavery and Muslim Society in Africa: The Institution in Saharan and Sudanic Africa, and the Trans-

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__________________________________________________________________ Saharan Trade (London: Hurst, 1970); Bruce Stuart Hall, A History of Race in Muslim West Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011); Martin Klein, Slavery and Colonial Rule in French West Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998); Claude Meillassoux, L’Esclavage en Afrique Précoloniale (Paris : Maspero, 1975). 2 Stephen Ellis and Inekel Van Kessel, eds., Movers and Shakers: Social Movements in Africa (Leiden: Brill, 2009); Eric Komlavi Hahonou, ‘Culture Politique, Esclavage et Décentralisation: La Revanche Politique des Descendants d'Esclaves au Bénin et au Niger,’ Politique Africaine 111 (2008): 169-186; Eric Komlavi Hahonou and Lotte Pelckmans, ‘West African Antislavery Movements: Citizenship Struggles and the Legacies of Slavery,’ Stichproben - Wiener Zeitschrift für kritische Afrikastudien 20 (2011): 1-21. 3 Mario Azevedo, ‘Power and Slavery in Central Africa: Chad (1890-1925),’ The Journal of Negro History 67.3 (1982): 198-211; René Lemarchand, ‘Chad: The Misadventures of the North-South Dialectic,’ African Studies Review 29.3 (1986): 27-41. 4 This is a local ethnonym applied to a various array of Arabic – speaking groups, locally stigmatised as slave-descendants. As this name is considered pejorative, nowadays many Yalnas groups have asked for a different ethnonym. I will use the term Yalnas both because the conclusion I am presenting may be applied to all these groups; and as a way to guarantee the confidentiality of the people involved in the research, which would not be possible if I would use the new ethnonyms. For the same confidentiality purpose, I am not presenting the names of villages, cantons and people involved in the research. 5 Peter Fuchs, La Religion des Hadjéray (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1997). 6 Marie-José Tubiana, Issa Hassan Khayar and Paul Deville, Abd el-Karim ibnou Djamé, Propagateur de l'Islam et Fondateur du Royaume du Ouaddaï (Paris: Editions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1978); John Wright, ‘The Wadai-Benghazi Slave Route,’ Slavery & Abolition: A Journal of Slave and PostSlave Studies 13.1 (1992): 174-184. 7 Louise Duault, La Subdivision de Mongo de 1911 à 1935 (Mongo, 1938). 8 Jean Baniara Yoyana and Jean-Pierre Magnant, Introduction aux Droits Coutumiers du Tchad (N’Djamena: Africaine Edition, 2013). 9 These findings are the results of the direct observations and interviews I did during my fieldwork, between August 2014 and June 2015. 10 Louise Duault, La Subdivision de Mongo de 1911 à 1935 (Mongo, 1938).

Bibliography Ablaye Roasngar, Toussaint. L’Accés à la Terre au Tchad. N’Djamena: CEFOD, 2008.

Valerio Colosio

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Azevedo, Mario. ‘Power and Slavery in Central Africa: Chad (1890-1925).’ The Journal of Negro History 67.3 (1982): 198-211. Azevedo, Mario. The Roots of Violence: A History of War in Chad. London: Routledge, 1998. Baniara Yoyana, Jean. Jean-Pierre Magnant. Introduction aux Droits Coutumiers du Tchad. N’Djamena: Africaine Edition, 2013. Bellagamba, Alice, Sandra Greene and Martin Klein. The Bitter Legacy. African Slavery Past and Present. New Jersey: Markus Wieners Publisher Princeton, 2013. Duault, Louise. La Subdivision de Mongo de 1911 à 1935. Mongo, 1938. Ellis, Stephen. Van Kessel, Ineke, eds. Movers and Shakers: Social Movements in Africa, Leiden, Brill, 2009. Fisher, Allan George Barnard; Fisher, Humphrey. Slavery and Muslim Society in Africa: The Institution in Saharan and Sudanic Africa, and the Trans-Saharan Trade, London, Hurst, 1970. Fuchs, Peter. La Religion des Hadjéray. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1997. Hall, Bruce Stuart. A History of Race in Muslim West Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Hahonou, Eric K. ‘Culture Politique, Esclavage et Décentralisation: La Revanche Politique des Descendants d'Esclaves au Bénin et au Niger.’ Politique Africaine 111 (2008): 169-186. Hahonou, Eric K., Lotte Pelckmans. ‘West African Antislavery Movements: Citizenship Struggles and the Legacies of Slavery.’ Stichproben - Wiener Zeitschrift für kritische Afrikastudien, 20 (2011): 1-21. Hassan Khayar, Issa. Le Refus de l'Ecole: Contribution à l'Etude des Problèmes de l'Education chez les Musulmans du Ouaddai (Tchad). Adrien Maisonneuve: Paris, 1976. Klein, Martin. Slavery and Colonial Rule in French West Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

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Le Cornec, Jacques. Les Chefferies du Tchad et l'Evolution Politique. Paris: Pichon et Durand-Auzias, 1963. Lemarchand, René. ‘Chad: The Misadventures of the North-South Dialectic.’ African Studies Review 29.3 (1986): 27-41. Meillassoux, Claude. L’Esclavage en Afrique Précoloniale. Paris: Maspero, 1975. Quirk, Joel. The Anti-Slavery Project: From the Slave Trade to Human Trafficking. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania press, 2011. Tubiana, Marie-José, Issa Hassan Khayar and Paul Deville. Abd el-Karim ibnou Djamé, Propagateur de l'Islam et Fondateur du Royaume du Ouaddaï . Paris, Editions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1978. Wright, John. ‘The Wadai-Benghazi Slave Route.’ Slavery & Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies 13.1 (1992): 174-184. Valerio Colosio is a PhD student researching about the aftermaths of slavery in Chad. He works at the University of Sussex, in co tutorship with the Università degli Studi di Milano – Bicocca. The research is funded by the ERC project ‘Shadow of Slavery in West Africa and Beyond’ (Grant ERC 313737).

Workers/Slaves of the State: Prisoners Ozde Nalan Koseoglu Abstract In the ‘new economy’ under the banner of neoliberalism, prisons came to the forefront as a rising industry. Penal institutions are not only the space of disciplinepunishment and rehabilitation, but also a space for production. The strict relation between work and the prison regime at that point is revealing. It spawned a prisoner-workforce that is deprived of the rights that are inherent to free-wage labour. Prisoners -both convicts and pre-trials- work inside and outside penal institutions all around the world producing for the multinational companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Motorola, Nike, Lee Jeans. Working prisoners operate in a ‘grey zone’ where they are mostly obliged to work because refusal to work is considered a disciplinary offence. Deprived of the legal protection provided by a real employment contract, they have no job security. They are excluded from national social security systems, they do not have individual and collective rights like freewage labourers, frequently they are not paid for their work or paid low-wages, less than free-wage labour, their remuneration being skimmed by the prison administration for the purpose of paying for ‘prison expenses.’ In that grey zone, they are one of the most disadvantaged categories of workers and to some degree form a kind of new slavery. A conceptualization addressing the class condition of prisoners as working class does not seem sufficient in these circumstances. The obligation to work and being unpaid force us to underline the coerced and unfree characteristics of prison labour in some cases. It is a necessity to discuss the notion of new/modern slavery for that reason. I would like to make a comparison between cases from European countries, USA and Turkey by relating the issue to the concept of the prison industrial complex. Key Words: Modern slavery, forced labour, unfree labour, working prisoners, labour regime, prison labour, free-wage labour. ***** 1. Introduction I cannot go on strike, nor can I unionize. I am not covered by workers’ compensation of the Fair Labour Standards Act. I agree to work late-night and weekend shifts. I do just what I am told, no matter what it is. I am hired and fired at will, and I am not even paid minimum wage. I cannot even voice grievances or complaints. You need not worry about NAFTA or your jobs going to Mexico and other Third World countries. I will have at

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__________________________________________________________________ least five per cent of our jobs by the end of this decade. I am called prison labour.1 The steady development of the global capitalist system from the late twentieth century onwards under the banner of neo-liberalism affects the economical, political and social life in many societies. One of the most striking effects of this is to be seen in the management of prison systems, not only as tools to enforce ‘justice’ but also as potentially profitable industries, especially with the help of the punitive turn in penal policies, which had started in the 1970s, first in the USA and after in many European countries. The new penal policies can be summarized with the help of the doctrines of ‘get tough on crime’ and ‘zero tolerance’ and the ruling out of discretionary actions of judges, which allows them to specify the minimum and maximum penalties.2 Concomitantly a carceral leap can easily be seen in the increasing numbers of inmates. Penal institutions are not only the space of discipline-punishment and rehabilitation, but also a space for production. The role of prison labour in the prison regime is revealing. Prison labour is the backbone of this ‘new economy.’ The increasing unemployment numbers in the regular labour market, the axiom of cost reduction and profit maximization of capital constituted the use of prison labour and the exploitation of prisoner-workers in private as well as in state prisons. This huge change spawned a prisoner-workforce that is deprived of the rights that are inherent to free-wage labour. Prisoners -both convicts and pre-trialswork inside and outside penal institutions producing for the multinational companies like Microsoft, McDonald’s, IBM, Starbucks, Motorola, Nike, American Airlines and Lee Jeans. Today in many penal institutions in European countries and the USA, refusal to work is considered as a disciplinary offence and that can lead to the denial of the opportunity to buy goods in the canteen, to meeting family members, to make telephone calls, to socialize in the prison yard with the other inmates and other sanctions. Even when they don’t refuse to work, their incomes are wholly or partly confiscated on the pretext of health expenses, legal costs and tax payments.3 Mostly they work without getting any wage or stipend. Many of the companies have already recognized these goals in order to maximize profits. What particularly directs me to study this issue is the subject’s potency to enable a comparison between free-wage labour and prison labour to discuss penal institutions not only as the spaces of punishment but also a space for production with reference to the ‘prison-industrial complex’4 and ‘wedding of workfare and prisonfare.’5 In Turkey, there is a great deal of research on blue, white-collar workers and precarious work types in spaces of production as factories, workshops, homes and offices and the class structure was studied in detail. But the new army of prisoners/workers toiling in workshops in penal institutions are still needed to be studied with the help of a comparative approach.

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__________________________________________________________________ This chapter is built on the findings in the Final Report of International Doctoral Research Fellowship Programme (2214), given to the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK). This eight-month long research, done in the Netherlands in the Criminology and Criminal Law Department of Maastricht University, was supported by TUBITAK within this fellowship programme. 2. Underprivileged Wage-Workers or Just ‘Slaves of the State’?6 Working prisoners operate in a ‘grey zone’ where they are mostly obliged to work without the legal protection provided by a real employment contract7 and they have no job security. They are excluded from national social security systems, they do not have individual and collective rights like free-wage labourers, frequently they are not paid for their work or paid low-wages, less than free-wage labour, their remuneration being skimmed by the prison administration for the purpose of paying for ‘prison expenses.’ In that grey zone, they are one of the most disadvantaged categories of workers and to some degree form a kind of ‘new’ slavery. In that grey buffer zone where exploitation of prison labour is taking place, the social rights of the prison-workers are denied to them by the state and in accordance with the principles of free market economy, ‘Third World was brought home.’8 It is not far away anymore, it is just ‘behind bars’ now. That is the exact reason why prison labour is much more preferable than free wage labour in the free market economy. According to Rule 26.13 of the European Prison Rules (EPR) about prison work, the precautions taken for free workers about their health and safety also have to be taken for working prisoners.9 But theory is mostly far away from practice. As well as low wages, there are certain privileges and immunities for private companies to prefer prison labour instead of free-wage labour, such as: -Reduced employer contributions -Exemption from several additional payments like statutory holidays/mandatory time off/redundancy payments/13th month pay -No statutory notice period, no trial period, no sanctions when contracts are abruptly terminated, no guaranteed income, no union representation, no binding collective agreements, no worker participation and no right to strike.10 A conceptualization addressing the class condition of prisoners as ‘working class’ does not seem sufficient in these circumstances. The obligation to work and mostly being unpaid in return of prison work, force us to underline the unfree and unpaid characteristic of prison labour in some cases. According to Rule 26.1 of the European Prison Rules (EPR), prison work ‘shall be approached as a positive element of the prison regime.’11 For that reason, prison

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__________________________________________________________________ work is defined as a right rather than a duty. But the reality is far more than that. For instance, in the USA, prisoners are forced to work minimum 7 hours a day by the federal government. In Oregon prison the prisoner would be put in solitary confinement if he refuses to work. In California, if inmates accept work in prison, the length of sentence decreases. A refusal to work leads to the increasing of punishment.12 Obligation of work is the main reason why hundreds of inmates on 9th December 2010 from Baldwin, Hancock, Hays, Macon, Smith and Telfair State Prisons ‘refused to work, stopped all other activities and locked down in their cells in a peaceful protest for their human rights.’13 They went on a strike to press Georgia Department of Corrections to stop treating them like slaves. The first demand that they set forth is ‘a living wage for work.’ The Department of Corrections (DOC) demands prisoners work for free. During the strike, the DOC insisted on forcing inmates back to work and inmates were beaten by guards with hammers when they were handcuffed at the time.14 …Brothers, we have accomplished a major step in our struggle…We must continue what we have started…The only way to achieve our goals is to continue with our peaceful sitdown…I ask each and every one of my Brothers in this struggle to continue the fight. ON MONDAY MORNING, WHEN THE DOORS OPEN, CLOSE THEM. DO NOT GO TO WORK. They cannot do anything to us that they haven’t already done at one time or another. Brothers, DON’T GIVE UP NOW. Make them come to the table. Be strong. DO NOT MAKE MONEY FOR THE STATE THAT THEY IN TURN USE TO KEEP US AS SLAVES….15 When we go across Atlantic, there are similarities. The Netherlands is ‘long held up as a model of humane penalty’16 as Loic Wacquant mentioned and as a consequence of the declining crime rates, 19 prisons were closed in 2013. According to the Dutch law, pre-trial prisoners who stay in a remand institution are not obliged to work but after transfer to a prison convicts are obliged to work. If they reject this, they will have the minimum regime. They earn only 0.76 Euros per hour for a working week of maximum 20 hours. In exceptional conditions -if the director of the prison requests- prisoners can earn 11.36 Euros per week in ‘special jobs.’ The officers stated that female inmates are considered as better workers than male prisoners. This gender-based statement is rooted in the situation of female inmates in their former lives outside. 80 % of them are single mothers and there have been no one outside sending them money to live on. That is the reason why female working prisoners comply with the prison administration more than male working prisoners do. Their remuneration is essential. They spend a part of their

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__________________________________________________________________ earnings for their own use, send a part of them to their families and try to save some before their release. For that reason, the amount of remuneration in return of their work and labour is crucial. According to the conducted semi-structured indepth interview with Eric Bouwsma from the Ministry of Justice and Security, 70 % of all prisoners in the Netherlands are working. That is the highest percentage in Western Europe and prison work is considered as an important activity rather than a way of making money. In most other European countries and also in Turkey it is close to 25% of the whole prison population. It is considered that the best way to prepare prisoners for the labour market is to provide ‘normal’ circumstances in prison. As one of the working prisoners stated in Ter Peel Prison, she was put in solitary confinement after her refusal arising from her medical condition for three days. This reveals that the Dutch context has common punishments with the Turkish and US case in obligating convicts to work. When it comes to Turkey, it could be seen that neo-liberal change in prison ‘business’ has been effective since 1997 by the Law Relating to the Establishment and Administration of the Work Dorms of Penal Institutions and Holding Facilities-No:4301. According to the numerical data about prison labour, given by official sources,17 by year 2012 there have been 227 penal enforcement institutions having workshops and ateliers within the structure of them. And also nearly 25% of the prison population (136.020/36.255) worked on different fields of operations like contract manufacturing for the automotive industry or textile products. There have been three main working positions for every prisoner coming with promotion. They are apprentice, assistant foreman and foreman. By 2012, the highest daily wage was 6.5 Turkish Lira (TL) for prisoners working as a foreman. Consequently, the highest monthly wage of a foreman is equal to 169 TL. The legal minimum monthly wage at that time was 886.50 TL for ‘free’ workers. Then the contradiction rises to the surface: The highest monthly wage for a working prisoner is one fifth of the minimum wage of a free worker. Some of them are not paid either. When it comes to the practice, according to the report of lawyer Eren Keskin –a human rights activist- in November 2009, all prisoners even the handicapped convict Perihan Kaynak are forced to work in Denizli-Bozkurt Open Women Prison. The woman who refused to work would be sent back to closed prison and lose her rights.18 A transgender convict Zehra, who still has been in Adana Yumurtalık Open Women Prison, stated that she has been working between 7 in the morning till 11 at night in the kitchen and has not been paid in return of her work owing to the loss of grant-in aid of the prison administration.19 The gap between laws and practice reveals at that point and force us to think the nature of prison labour in the contemporary world. 3. Conclusion The working conditions of prisoners including obligation to work, low wages or in some cases without remuneration, flexible working hours, lack of social

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__________________________________________________________________ insurance and employment contracts define the nature of prison labour in the contemporary world. This forces us to discuss the new slavery notion as a way to understand the exact situation of working prisoners in all its aspects. In their stimulating work ‘Writing a Global History of Convict Labour,’ De Vito and Lichtenstein define convict labour as ‘the work performed by individuals under penal and/or administrative control.’20 The main reason for restricting and simplifying the description as De Vito and Lichtenstein stated, is to underline the fact that convict labour can be understood ‘only with reference to specific historical contexts.’21 When we widen the description and take not only convicts but also pre-trials into account, it reveals that contemporary forms of prison labour can be understood in terms of neo-liberal targets. Penal regimes differ but in accordance with these neo-liberal targets, practice and legislation share similarities when it comes to prison labour.

Notes 1

Michael Lamar Powell/Prisoner from Capshaw, Alabama quoted in Avery F. Gordon, ‘Globalism and the Prison Industrial Complex: An Interview with Angela Davis,’ Race & Class 40.2/3 (1998/99): 148-149. 2 Yasemin Özdek, ‘Küreselleşme Sürecinde Ceza Politikalarındaki Dönüşümler,’ Amme İdaresi Dergisi 33 (2000): 25. 3 Ibid., 38, 41. 4 Gordon, ‘Globalism and the Prison,’ 146. 5 Loic Wacquant, ‘The Wedding of Workfare and Prisonfare Revisited,’ Social Justice 38 (2011): 1. 6 P. Wright, ‘Slaves of the State,’ Journal of Prisoners on Prisons 6.2 (1995): 1720. 7 Evelyn Shae, Why Work? A Study of Prison Labour in England, France and Germany (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot Freiburg i. Br. Max-Planck-Institut für Auslandisches und Internationales Strafrecht, 2007), 42. ‘All European prison regulations have in common that inmates at work are denied employee status because they cannot sign a contract of employment.’ 8 Robert P. Weiss, ‘Repatriating Low-Wage Work: The Political Economy of Prison Labour Reprivatization in the Postindustrial United States,’ Criminology 39.2 (2001): 253-291. 9 ‘Recommendation Rec(2006)2 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on the European Prison Rules,’ Council of Europe: Committee of Ministers, Viewed on 25 June 2015, https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=955747. 10 Shae, Why Work, 44. 11 ‘Recommendation Rec(2006)2,’ Council of Europe. 12 Özdek, ‘Küreselleşme Sürecinde Ceza,’ 38.

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__________________________________________________________________ 13

‘Inmates in Six Georgia Prisons on Strike for Third Work Day,’ Libcom, Viewed on 11 August 2015, https://libcom.org/news/inmates-six-georgia-prisons-strikefourth-day-14122010. 14 ‘Georgia Inmates Beaten with Hammers during 2010 Prisoners’ Strike – New Video Released,’ Libcom, Viewed on 11 August 2015, https://libcom.org/news/georgia-inmates-beaten-hammers-during-2010-prisonersstrike-new-video-released-30082013. 15 ‘Inmates in Six Georgia Prisons,’ Libcom. 16 Wacquant, ‘The Wedding of Workfare,’ 3. 17 ‘2012 Yılı Faaliyet Raporu,’ T.C. Adalet Bakanlığı İşyurtları Kurumu, Viewed on 25 June 2015, http://www.iydb.adalet.gov.tr/bilgi_bankasi.asp?icerik=2&kategori=51. 18 ‘Denizli Bozkurt Cezaevi’nde Eren Keskin’le Görüşen Hükümlülere Soruşturma,’ Sesonline, Viewed on 11 August 2015, http://www.sesonline.net/php/genel_sayfa.php?KartNo=54280. 19 ‘Bir Transın Gözünden İçerisi,’ Yusuf Al, Pembe Hayat, Viewed on 11 August 2015, http://www.pembehayat.org/haberler.php?id=411. 20 Christian G. De Vito and Alex Lichtenstein, ‘Writing a Global History of Convict Labour,’ International Review of Social History 58.2 (2013): 291. 21 Ibid., 292.

Bibliography ‘2012 Yılı Faaliyet Raporu.’ T.C. Adalet Bakanlığı İşyurtları Kurumu. Viewed on 25 June 2015. http://www.iydb.adalet.gov.tr/bilgi_bankasi.asp?icerik=2&kategori=51. ‘Bir Transın Gözünden İçerisi.’ Yusuf Al. Pembe Hayat. Viewed on 11 August 2015. http://www.pembehayat.org/haberler.php?id=411. ‘Denizli Bozkurt Cezaevi’nde Eren Keskin’le Görüşen Hükümlülere Soruşturma.’ Sesonline. Viewed on 11 August 2015. http://www.sesonline.net/php/genel_sayfa.php?KartNo=54280. De Vito, Christian G and Alex Lichtenstein. ‘Writing a Global History of Convict Labour.’ International Review of Social History 58.02 (2013): 285-325. ‘Georgia Inmates Beaten with Hammers During 2010 Prisoners’ Strike – New Video Released.’ Libcom. Viewed on 11 August 2015.

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__________________________________________________________________ https://libcom.org/news/georgia-inmates-beaten-hammers-during-2010-prisonersstrike-new-video-released-30082013. Gordon, Avery F. ‘Globalism and the Prison Industrial Complex: An Interview With Angela Davis.’ Race&Class 40.2/3 (1998/99): 145-157. ‘Inmates in Six Georgia Prisons on Strike for Third Work Day.’ Libcom. Viewed on 11 August 2015. https://libcom.org/news/inmates-six-georgia-prisons-strikefourth-day-14122010. Özdek, Yasemin. ‘Küreselleşme Sürecinde Ceza Politikalarındaki Dönüşümler.’ Amme İdaresi Dergisi 33.4 (2000): 21-48. ‘Recommendation Rec(2006)2 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on the European Prison Rules.’ Council of Europe: Committee of Ministers. Viewed on 25 June 2015. https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=955747. Shea, Evelyn. Why Work?: A Study of Prison Labour in England, France and Germany. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot Freiburg i. Br. Max-Planck-Institut für Ausländisches und Internationales Strafrecht, 2007. Wacquant, Loic. ‘The Wedding of Workfare and Prisonfare Revisited.’ Social Justice 38 (2011): 203-221. Weiss, Robert P. ‘Repatriating Low-Wage Work: The Political Economy of Prison Labour Reprivatization in the Postindustrial United States.’ Criminology 39.2 (2001): 253-291. Wright, P. ‘Slaves of the State.’ Journal of Prisoners on Prison 6.2 (1995): 17-20. Ozde Nalan Koseoglu is a PhD Candidate in the Department of International Relations in Istanbul University. Her dissertation is about ‘Prison Labour in Turkey.’

The Efficacy of a Youth Initiative Clare McLeod Abstract This paper explores the effectiveness of youth-led change. As the leader of Youth Ending Slavery, an anti-trafficking organization led completely by young people, I believe the rising generation has both the opportunity and responsibility to create a fair and equitable world. Our mission is to educate, engage, and encourage our fellow youth to be advocates for change. We do this through speaking engagements, facilitating chapters at various schools, and community-wide events. Although I am only seventeen years old, I believe young people have an important and much-needed voice in the fight against modern day slavery. Because traffickers target vulnerable children and cause them to be disproportionately affected by this epidemic, it is our responsibility to stand up for this generation across the world. When children are forced to work or have sex for the profit of someone else, that enslavement tarnishes their education and future. On an international level, our world suffers because those children are not given the opportunity to reach their full potential and contribute to the greater community. I will discuss several successes and failures of youth-driven solutions as well as historical examples of youth-led activism in the face of social injustice. There should not be a disparity between those victimized by human trafficking and those advocating for the end of it. Powerful movements are most successful when those affected by an issue join together to stand against it. To what extent and by what methods can youth to be advocates for change instead of victims of abuse? Key Words: Solution, youth, advocacy, awareness, children, education, human rights, global development, movement, activism, human trafficking, sexual exploitation, labour trafficking ***** Due to inherent vulnerability, a lack of independence, and an overbearing pressure to succumb to a misshapen society, children around the world fall prey to innumerable crises. Nearly 300,000 children worldwide fight in wars conducted by armed militant or rebel forces.1 The London Olympic Stadium could be filled three times over by these child soldiers. War-torn regions also yield torrential amounts of displaced people; of the 43 million refugees in the world, nearly 41 percent, or 17 million, are children.2 This number equals the approximate population of the Netherlands. Besides conflict-related crises, approximately three million children—who could fill the Coliseum more than 52 times—die each year due to hunger-related causes.3 Each of these numbers represents a multitude of future activists, doctors, parents, and mere humans lost to global injustices before even

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__________________________________________________________________ entering adulthood. As a result of these widespread issues, among the many worth noting, children experience a lack of education, a loss of childhood, and a depletion of potential. Although children comprise only a single demographic exposed to these crises, their exposure constitutes the most full-fledged and lasting effect. When children cannot access basic necessities, such as clean water, nutritional food, emotional support, and physical care, they heighten their chances of a disadvantaged future. Refugee children often struggle with an injured sense of belonging well into adulthood, while children who experience neglect or abuse often do not survive past childhood. Children who spend their youth as soldiers, either through manipulation or coercion, frequently develop irrational or detrimental views of violence. Naturally, this instability leads to a cycle of violence, poverty, and distress. As children internalize and normalize situations that would otherwise be instinctually negative, they carry those dangerous views of violence or abuse into adulthood. On a cyclical level, the same aforementioned situations will likely occur unhindered in either their own children’s lives or the lives of children within their community. Unfortunately this pattern also appears repeatedly within instances of a human rights violation not yet mentioned. Human trafficking, often coined as modern day slavery, occurs in multiple forms worldwide. This crime affects approximately the same number of children as the previously described crises, which signifies that human trafficking is no statistical anomaly. However, modern day slavery uniquely exists as both a result and a catalyst of other injustices—as a midpoint between the beginning and end of an unfortunate cycle. Due to the nature of the crime, trafficking disproportionately affects youth, therefore requiring a carefully developed solution. Everlasting progress in curbing this crime will only occur when those most affected rise up, demand justice, and foster change. In 2014, children accounted for over one-third of the detected trafficking victims across the globe, a five percent increase compared to the 2007-2010 period.4 In Africa and the Middle East, children comprise the majority of trafficking victims, while in Europe and Central Asia adult women comprise the majority of trafficking victims. However, even areas such as those dominated by adult female victims have experienced a decrease in adult female victims and an influx of child victims.5 Globally, young girls enter lives of sexual exploitation at ages at and younger than 12 to 13.6 This redistribution of the victim demographic demonstrates the extent to which child trafficking occurs and has increased in recent years. Whether due to a heightened awareness regarding adult trafficking or a lack of awareness regarding child trafficking, these numbers signify the need for a greater focus on youth prevention and intervention. While human trafficking is no exception as a human rights violation in regards to its numerical impact, human trafficking does stand alone in its longstanding effect on victims. Unlike the aforementioned crises against children, human

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__________________________________________________________________ trafficking serves as a transitional issue. As an issue that regrettably thrives on each end of the cause and effect spectrum, human trafficking serves as both a result of past human rights violations and as a catalyst for future injustice. As well, each form of human trafficking affects youth in an expansive manner. Of the most common forms of human trafficking, forced labour and sexual exploitation each capitalize on the use of children as a means to an end rather than an end in and of themselves. In this sense, human trafficking differs from other crimes against children by its global impact and imposition as a cause for future abuse as well as an effect of prior abuse. Within the several types of human trafficking, sexual exploitation accounts for the majority of reported cases. Among all the cases catalogued in 2011, 53 percent involved sexual exploitation.7 Due to the intimacy of this specific form of human trafficking, sexual exploitation impacts youth in high numbers. The specific recruitment involved in trafficking crimes greatly dictates the targeted victim. In terms of sexual exploitation, traffickers often obtain victims not through physical detainment but through emotional captivity. Across the United States, when traffickers pose as either romantic partners or parental figures for young people, they prey on children’s vulnerabilities that may exist due to external causes. In impoverished areas across the globe, this emotional manipulation reappears as traffickers convince families that legitimate work experience and financial income will result from the exploitation of their children. This recruitment technique, which preys on victims’ and families’ vulnerabilities, portrays how human trafficking serves as both a result and cause of countless other human rights violations such as poverty, neglect, and poor socioeconomic standing. Sexual exploitation disproportionately affects vulnerable communities that have faced prior injustice. In the U.S., for example, young children in the foster care system, teens who have experienced child abuse, and youth experiencing homelessness often encounter the highest rates of sexual exploitation. Youth in foster care or group homes often lack resources such as consistent parental support and unhindered access to counseling services. This inability to discover solace often leads to a higher risk for sexual exploitation. Across the U.S. in 2014, 68 percent of sex trafficking victims were in or had been in the care of social services when they became sex trafficking victims.8 The fact that over half of the recovered victims of child sex trafficking were involved in the foster care system elicits two clear notions. First, the United States’ foster care system needs reform in order to offer children genuine stability and support. If these needs were met, children would not be enticed to seek that support from potential traffickers. Second, the fact that so many victims come from the foster care system demonstrates trafficked youth have often already experienced some other form of distress. Besides the immense amount of child sex trafficking victims who come from foster or group homes, youth who lack homes are overwhelmingly susceptible to becoming child sex trafficking victims. Without a physical home, youth on the

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__________________________________________________________________ streets in the U.S. are unmistakable targets for traffickers. Accordingly, one in three runaways will be recruited by a potential trafficker within forty-eight hours of leaving home.9 This high rate of recruitment signifies that traffickers prey on homeless children’s vulnerabilities, such as a loss of steady family intervention. Without immediate and attainable care within those first forty-eight hours of being on the street, countless youth become victims of sex trafficking simply because they lack a physical home, either by their guardians’ choice or their own. This high number of simultaneously homeless and trafficked youth reveals how trafficking acts as a downstream issue that occurs as a result of an upstream crisis. Among the highly victimized demographics, teens who have experienced sexual abuse as children also experience high rates of sexual exploitation. In fact, 95 percent of sex trafficking victims report instances of child abuse.10 Due to the high rate of victims with this common childhood human rights violation, sex trafficking undoubtedly occurs as one of many issues in a long line of crises. When children face sexual abuse, that exposure detrimentally impacts their future confidence, well-being, and potential for healthy sexual relationships. Because of this streamlined effect, traffickers masterfully target young adults whose history includes abuse. In a disgusting fashion, traffickers prey on a population that has already been depleted, only to lead them to further maltreatment. Because trafficking lies further down the pipeline than issues like child abuse and homelessness, some may argue that society should prioritize solving those issues before trafficking. But the cycle of injustice against children often runs full circle; trafficking in no way sits solely as the result of prior abuse. Once exploited, victims of sexual exploitation often become victims of physical abuse, emotional abuse, drug abuse, and rape. These issues result from human trafficking and often keep victims within the industry, reluctant to re-enter society or eventually testify against their former trafficker. Furthermore, when victims have children, those children fall into the same vicious cycle that led to their parent being trafficked. Given this knowledge, trafficking serves not only as an issue at the end of a long stream of past injustice, but also as the springboard for a long list of future injustice. In this manner, trafficking explicitly affects youth who already possess irrevocable vulnerability due to their age and lack of cerebral cortex development. Because injustice such as child abuse so easily precedes trafficking and because later drug or physical abuse results from trafficking, children embody the ideal victim. These vulnerabilities demonstrate the need for increased action against the many issues that affect youth. In turn, this action may decrease the amount of trafficked children who at that point would likely remain within the industry. Besides the apparent exploitation of youth within the sex industry, children also experience high rates of labour trafficking. As the second largest form of human trafficking in the world, labour trafficking comprises 40 percent of reported cases worldwide.11 Since the beginning of business consolidation during the industrial revolution, child labour has been debated extensively. Some proponents may argue

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__________________________________________________________________ that youth employment can lead to more sustainable families and work experience for adolescents themselves. Economists may claim that “sweatshops” can lead to economic development in otherwise destitute communities. However, these two perceived pros of childhood employment often dwindle under the sheer corruption, manipulation, and deregulation that surround child labour across the world today. When unregulated “employers” force children to work within the agricultural, commercial, or manufacturing industries, that work “experience” actually blocks youth from better futures. Exploited children often lose critical years that many children in more developed nations can devote to education. On this global level, child labour and sexual exploitation disproportionately affect nations where lower family incomes exist and a larger need for each family member to financially contribute become more important than child welfare. Because of this direct relationship between human trafficking and economic well being, forced labour or sex negatively impacts generations of in-debt families who normalize unfair working standards. This disparity also widens the gap between financially stable and financially unstable countries. As a result, the widespread and disadvantageous effect perpetuates a worldwide economy where human rights cease to be protected. While children face the brunt of labour trafficking as victims, children also occupy a pivotal role in lessening the demand for unnecessary products molded by exploited and mistreated hands. Undoubtedly, youth in developed nations frequent malls and shopping centres as consistently as parks and schools. Given the rampant consumerism that permeates youth culture today, young adults have both the opportunity and responsibility to understand the consequences of their purchases— in relation to the exhaustion of the environment, the draining of natural resources, and the omnipresence of labour trafficking. This awareness would inevitably create a rising generation that understands their impact and effectively aids the worldwide anti-trafficking cause simply by monitoring individual purchases. Through this individual activism, young adults can stand in solidarity with fellow children across the world who have been exploited. Youth around the globe have already taken up this call to action as a means to prevent human trafficking in the simplest form possible—pure activism. Countless organizations such as Youth Ending Slavery, Students Opposing Slavery, and Students Ending Slavery, besides overlapping in nomenclature, have each contributed to the contemporary abolition movement through education and empowerment. Their work valuably fills the void that requires a youth-inspired solution for an issue so devastatingly inflicted on children. Through both solidarity and direct work, these non-profits enable youth to avoid trafficking and advocate for the end of it through policy change and recovery initiatives. The most valuable aspect of these organizations is that they utilize young people’s voices to spark more innovative movements. As young people today surround themselves with social media and online networks, social activism has been recreated and invigorated through online movements, such as the ‘End it Now’ project, largely

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__________________________________________________________________ motivated by youth. Through this initiative, participants post ‘selfies’ with a red X painted on their hands to symbolize their support for modern day abolition and awareness while also raising money for anti-trafficking organizations that work directly with victims and survivors. Yet while countless youth have become more involved through volunteer work and advocacy, much progress remains to be made in the sphere of anti-trafficking work. Even today, non-profits often operate removed from the issue, as those working within organizations have often not directly experienced trafficking. While this trend can be justified by the fact that victims would often rather move on with their lives than return to a position immersed in the issue, a dire need persists for work that effectively pulls children out of human trafficking before adulthood, instills the confidence needed to speak out against the crime, and enables those former victims to immeasurably transform the lives of other exploited young people. Due to the unending stigmas that society associates with human trafficking, many victims often simply retreat in order to rebuild their lives. Unlike the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer ‘Walk[s] for the Cure’ which are dominated by rightfully proud survivors, victims of trafficking, while offered legal aid and support, do not often experience the same confidence that would enable them and their families to power through a run or walk for abolition. In this sense, the world of anti-trafficking requires still more reformation in order to establish organizations that are driven through a victim-centric focus—in addition to the efforts of youth but by the advice of survivors. Across the world, human trafficking constitutes only one of many injustices that disproportionately and drastically affect children. Because of innumerable vulnerabilities, youth come to the anti-trafficking fight defenseless in the face of potential traffickers who understand how to manipulate and coerce young people. While not unlike the forms of slavery that have existed and thrived throughout history, human trafficking has yet to be defined or placed in common history books that would yield a generation of young people who understand its effect. Therefore, the need to educate and empower today’s young people regarding this epidemic falls into the laps of non-profits and governments. Because youth often have little to no expectations from society to impact policy change or take on social justice issues, young people that speak out against change carry an amplified and powerful voice. Due to this uncompromised passion, youth are and will continue to be the mightiest warriors in the contemporary abolition movement. Women rights, children rights, and education rights activist Malala Yousafzai states, “When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.”12 This naturally applies to the youth voice, which regrettably lacks magnitude within society but which can be world-changing if given the tools, stage, and audience to command change.

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Notes 1

Eben Kaplan, ‘Child Soldiers Around the World,’ Council on Foreign Relations, last modified December 2, 2005, accessed 20 May 2015, http://www.cfr.org/human-rights/child-soldiers-around-world/p9331. 2 ‘Resources for Speakers on Global Issues,’ United Nations, last modified 2015, accessed 20 May 2015, http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/briefingpapers/refugees/. 3 ‘About Global Hunger,’ Bread for the World, last modified 2015, accessed 20 May 2015, http://www.bread.org/hunger/global/. 4 Angela Me, ‘Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2014,’ United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 5, published 2014, accessed 20 May 2015, http:/www.unodc.org/documents/data-andanalysis/glotip/GLOTIP_2014_full_report.pdf. 5 Ibid., 11. 6 Eric Dye, ‘Child Sex Trafficking, Pornography, and Prostitution (Info graphic),’ Finding Justice, published October 25, 2013, accessed 20 May 2015, http://findingjustice.org/child-sex-trafficking-pornography-prostitution/. 7 Me, ‘Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2014,’ 33. 8 ‘Child Sex Trafficking in America: A Guide for Parents and Guardians,’ National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, last modified April 2014, accessed 20 May 2015, http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/documents/Fact_Sheet_Parents_Guardians.pd f. 9 Dye, ‘Child Sex Trafficking, Pornography, and Prostitution (Info graphic).’ 10 Ibid. 11 Me, ‘Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2014,’ 33. 12 ‘Malala Yousafzai Makes History,’ The Voice Today, October 10, 2014, accessed 20 May 2015, http://www.the-voice.today/malala-yousafzai-makes-history/.

Bibliography ‘About Global Hunger.’ Bread for the World. 2015. Accessed 20 May 2015. http://www.bread.org/hunger/global/. ‘Child Sex Trafficking in America: A Guide for Parents and Guardians.’ National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Last modified April 2014. Accessed 20 May 2015. http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/documents/Fact_Sheet_Parents_Guardians.pd f.

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__________________________________________________________________ Dye, Eric. ‘Child Sex Trafficking, Pornography, and Prostitution (Info graphic).’ Finding Justice. Posted October 25, 2013. Accessed 20 May 2015. http://findingjustice.org/child-sex-trafficking-pornography-prostitution/. Kaplan, Eben. ‘Child Soldiers Around the World.’ Council of Foreign Affairs. Last modified December 2, 2005. Accessed 20 May 2015. http://www.cfr.org/humanrights/child-soldiers-around-world/p9331. ‘Malala Yousafzai Makes History.’ The Voice Today. October 10, 2014. Accessed 20 May 2015. http://www.the-voice.today/malala-yousafzai-makes-history/. Me, Angela. ‘Global Report on Trafficking in Persons.’ United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Published 2014. Accessed 20 May 2015. http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-andanalysis/glotip/GLOTIP_2014_full_report.pdf. ‘Resources for Speakers on Global Issues.’ United Nations. Last modified 2015. Accessed 20 May 2015. http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/briefingpapers/refugees/. Clare McLeod is the President of Youth Ending Slavery, an entirely student-led non-profit that aims to combat modern day slavery by raising awareness about its prevalence in our world and empowering youth to be advocates for change.

Male Victims of Human Trafficking Polina Smiragina Abstract This chapter forms part of research on the invisibility of male victims of human trafficking, which will form the basis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney. This research addresses social issues such as alienation, suppression, oppression, gender discrimination and gender inequality towards male victims of Human Trafficking who have been exploited for different purposes and by different means; who in accordance with the Trafficking Protocol fall under the definition of victims of human trafficking but are facing discriminative conduct on the part of the law enforcement, assistance and aid organizations and, thus, may not have access to support services. This chapter will look at a case of misidentification of a male victim of human trafficking and offer a review of literature that looks at trafficking of men. This chapter establishes a gap in research as well as in the aid sector and demonstrates that male trafficking constitutes a considerable part of the human trafficking flow. Key Words: Human trafficking, male trafficking, men, masculinities, labour exploitation, exploitation, victims. ***** 1. Introduction The human trafficking discourse has been on the human rights agenda for quite some time. This has culminated in progressive research, which then initiated the development and implementation of policies, instruments and projects aimed at addressing harms that accompany violations to individual rights. This has also led to the formation of mechanisms and institutions aimed at assisting the victims of human trafficking. The first and main universal instrument that attends to all aspects of trafficking in persons today is the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (The Trafficking Protocol). The Trafficking Protocol was adopted with the aim to prevent trafficking, punish the traffickers and protect the trafficked. Even though the protocol was developed as a tool, which ideally should prevent all possible forms of human trafficking and to protect all possible victims, some sections of the protocol were designed in ways that contradict this assumption. Namely, the protocol emphasizes the assistance offered to women and children and neglects men. One of the factors that stirred my interest is its association with trafficking of women and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The way in which the human trafficking discourse was put together has created the pervasive assumption that the definition of human trafficking is synonymous with sexual exploitation of

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__________________________________________________________________ women and girls. This assumption has fuelled the way that many anti-trafficking actors address the issue and it has become a hindrance to identification and assistance to victims of other forms of exploitation and of different gender. There is an indirect implication in the Trafficking Protocol that men are secondary when it comes to assistance and protection of victims of human trafficking. This indirect implication is seen first and foremost in the name of the protocol, where it is directly implied that this protocol is to protect, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, and then throughout the protocol where women and children are highlighted as especially vulnerable. The following sections of the protocol identify women and children as a group that requires special consideration. Men are not indicated in the protocol as a potentially vulnerable group to human trafficking. In fact, the words ‘man’, ‘men’ and ‘male’ do not appear in the Protocol at any point. The only way of seeing that possible male victims are also addressed in the Protocol is through the words ‘human’ and ‘person(s)’. These terms are not defined through gender. Thus, it is evident that men are not disregarded in the Protocol; they are simply not given special consideration. Men as well as women are subjected to the forms of exploitation that constitute human trafficking. However, today’s programmes that are aimed at assisting male victims of human trafficking are either invisible or do not exist, whereas many human rights organizations have made assistance and aid programs available to female victims. This chapter forms part of research on the invisibility of male victims of human trafficking, which will form the basis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney. This research addresses important social issues, namely alienation, suppression, oppression, gender discrimination and gender inequality towards a group of people (male victims of human trafficking) who have been exploited for different purposes and by different means; who in accordance with the Trafficking Protocol fall under the definition of victims of human trafficking; but are facing discriminative conduct on the part of the law enforcement, assistance and aid organizations as well as donors; and, thus, may not have access to support services, specialized rehabilitation centres, shelters, aid programs and corresponding institutions. The overall aim of this research is to identify the causes and consequences of the invisibility of male victims of human trafficking by doing a thorough analysis of male trafficking discourses through concepts of masculinity, victimization and the Hierarchy of Victimhood theory incorporated into the grounded theory method. This study will address the types of exploitation men are subjected to, programmes and policies designed specifically at assisting men and boys who have become victims of human trafficking, the assistance provided to male victims of human trafficking and how the criminal justice system responds to male trafficking. This chapter will offer an example of a potential case of misidentification of a male victim of human trafficking and provide a literature review of works that look at

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__________________________________________________________________ the male trafficking phenomenon. Through this I attempt to substantiate that male trafficking constitutes a considerable part of the human trafficking flow and that human trafficking is more complex and multidimensional than commonly acknowledged. 2. Background of the Study My interest in the male trafficking issue appeared when I first heard of the human trafficking phenomenon. But what has really led to this research was my work at an International Non-profit Organisation dealing with migration-related issues. I was involved in a project that aimed to assist migrants in distress in Russia. My role was to assist as an interpreter during the primary interviews and to take the project beneficiaries (who overstayed their visa) through all steps of local official migration processes. These processes involved: in some cases going to the police to issue a statement of loss or theft of travel document; going to the Federal Migration Services office to register that the migrant has overstayed the visa; going to court to receive a token stating that the migrant has committed an administrative offence of overstaying the visa and has to leave the country within a specific timeframe after obtaining the token and paying the administrative fine. Most beneficiaries of this project were adult men. My first case was a middle-aged man from Sub-Saharan Africa. I was not present at the initial interview, thus do not know for certain what was officially stated in his application form. But on our way to the Federal Migration Services office he told me his story. Back home a stranger promised him that he would get a job in Moscow as a salesperson. He would sell cocoa imported from Africa. He would earn good money. The stranger seemed nice and promised to organize the visa and tickets. So the beneficiary borrowed some money to pay whatever the stranger said was needed in order to obtain the necessary documents to go to Russia. Once that was done, the beneficiary was on his way to Moscow. Upon arrival he was supposed to be met by his employer at the airport. But there was no one there. So he stood waiting for hours in a foreign country with barely any money in his pocket, no ticket back home, no work permit and no knowledge of the local language. He felt tricked, deceived, deluded and alone. He then explained that somehow he managed to find compatriots, who leased him a bed and, in place of payment, he worked for them as a leaflet distributor in the Moscow city centre. He tried to earn the amount he was initially planning to earn, but understood very quickly that this was not possible. He had been trying to earn money in Moscow for almost a year, overstayed his visa and realized that he needed to find a way to get back home. Eventually he came to the organization in question and became one of many beneficiaries of a project, which assisted migrants in distress to voluntarily return to their home country. The beneficiary was provided with assistance and safely returned to his home country, but I later understood that it might have been more beneficial and helpful

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__________________________________________________________________ to assist the beneficiary within the framework of a different program. If we look at human trafficking as a notion that comprises of three factors: activity, means and purpose,1 then in the case described above the activity was that the victim was recruited and transported; the means was fraud, deception and the abuse of a person in a position of vulnerability; and the purpose, in this case, is a bit tricky to identify. If the two parts of the story were linked, if the man who had prepared the transportation had intentionally sent the victim to the recipient (the man who had provided lodging in return for work), then the purpose was exploitation of labour. Bearing in mind that no investigation on this case as a trafficking incident has been done, we cannot know that the transportation and receipt were linked. Nonetheless, the second part of the story – the unpaid labour in lieu of non-payment for the lodging (debt) can be seen as debt bondage, which is one of the conditions under which a trafficked victim can be exploited. Furthermore, ‘human trafficking can include but does not require movement.’2 Therefore, bearing in mind all of the above, the beneficiary fits the human trafficking profile. Although the victim did receive help and avoided further exposure to poor living conditions and treatment of exploitative nature, the aid provided was aimed at sending the beneficiary home. However, according to the European Commission’s Guidelines for the Identification of Victims of Trafficking in Human Beings ‘it is very important to acknowledge the impact of trauma upon trafficked persons and recognise the symptoms’ as trafficked victims may suffer (among other things) from various psychological conditions due to traumatic incidents they may have endured.3 Moreover, specialized counselling should be provided to avoid revictimization. It is important to note that this is not the only case of misidentification and this story raises a lot of questions with regard to the investigation, the identification, the definition and the understanding of human trafficking and human trafficking victims. The following sections will give a review of the literature that focuses on men within the human trafficking discourse. 3. Male Trafficking Research Most works that contain some kind of information on male trafficking are very limited in the amount of information that they provide. They are usually reports and articles that have a focus on human trafficking in general and mention that human trafficking is a crime, which is faced by men, women and children. This type of inclusion of men into the human trafficking discourse may be found in works of Sally Stoecker, Louise Shelley, Anna Repetskaya, Elena Tiuriukanova, Beatrix Siman Zakhari, Kleimenov and Shamkov, Piper, Linquist and Piper, Kelly, Di Nicola, and many others whose research centres on human trafficking related issues.4 However, references to the female in human trafficking literature still outweighs that of men; and literature that concentrates on male trafficking exclusively is still very limited. This demonstrates the gap and the need for research.

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__________________________________________________________________ Nicola Piper points out the necessity of a gendered analysis within research on human trafficking.5 Piper affirms that men are usually being treated as smuggled labour migrants, whereas the ‘trafficking’ classification usually falls on women and children. Referring to Carling, Piper states that in gender research there is a tendency to assume that the human trafficking studies usually centre around women and very rarely on the two genders with regard to each other.6 This is reflected in various empirical case studies where male respondents are hardly ever included. Moreover, according to Rosenberg, male victims are not identified as victims; rather they are seen as irregular migrants and are deported without an investigation of their case.7 Rosenberg holds the opinion that even if men will appear to be in the same situation as women who are identified as trafficked victims, men will never be considered as such because ‘the profile of trafficked persons is based on known victims’8 – meaning the types of victims that have already been identified. Women trafficked for prostitution have to date been seen as the main, if not only (by some anti-trafficking actors) profile of victims of human trafficking. Hence, there exists an assumption that trafficking is ‘of women for the purpose of prostitution, and therefore that is the profile which authorities look for when they look for trafficking.’9 Consequently, some scholars today tend to restrict trafficking to sexual exploitation of women. For example recent case studies related to human trafficking in Russia have predominantly focused on sex trafficking and women.10 However, the most frequent form of human trafficking in Russia is labour exploitation, where men constitute the majority.11 Furthermore, looking at cases of sex trafficking, the Trafficking in Persons report claims that in certain Middle Eastern countries sex trafficking is more common among boys than girls.12 Statements like these affirm the importance of looking at human trafficking from a local perspective, rather than fitting every case into one global internationally perceived definition. Moreover, while it is evident that trafficking of women is more frequent than that of men, if we look at the 2012 International Labour Organization Estimate of Forced Labour, which estimates that 20.9 million people today are victims of forced labour (sexual and labour exploitation), then women and girls constitute 55%, and men and boys 45% of the overall forced labour flow worldwide.13 Rebecca Surtees states that regardless of the fact that there is profound evidence in many regions that men too are victims of exploitation and are violated ‘in ways that constitute human trafficking’14 the consideration of trafficking in males is far less common. Piper states that men are seldom considered as ‘potential victims of socio-economic pressures and structures leading to their being trafficked.’15 Surtees argues that men who migrate are being ascribed the breadwinner role and are seen as ‘active, adventurous, brave and deserving of admiration,’16 whereas women who migrate are viewed as ‘passive, foolish and naïve, deserving either rescue or punishment.’17 Surtees concludes that within the human trafficking discourse and practice, assumptions about gender, migration and

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__________________________________________________________________ vulnerability are emphasized in a way that female migrants that are subjected to exploitation are frequently seen as trafficked, whereas it is very common that male migrants who face the same kind of exploitation, violation and abuse are pictured as irregular migrants. 4. Types of Exploitation of Men Existing studies that refer to the male trafficking phenomenon usually focus on physical labour exploitation. Although male trafficking is not restricted to the exploitation of manual labour, this section will predominantly focus on labour exploitation as most scholars who look at exploitation of men within the human trafficking discourse provide evidence of their exploitation in the following fields: construction work, agriculture, factories, mines and fisheries. However, some examples of male sex trafficking will also be provided in this section. Shelley’s Asian trafficking case study gives an example of adult men and young children being forced into slave labour in illegal mines and brick factories. 18 Exploitation of adult men in this particular field is not novelty. Several other scholars have focused on the exploitation of men specifically in brick kilns.19 This type of exploitation of men is distinctive in Asia. Aronowitz affirms that there is an occurrence of male trafficking for the purpose of forced labour practices in brick kilns in China.20 In Brazil foreign victims tend to also be exploited in factories, whereas local male victims of internal trafficking are usually exploited in agricultural labour.21 Cullen-DuPont gives a broader picture of the different types of labour trafficking that men can become part of.22 Specifically mentioned are fields and factories as well as trafficking of men and boys in the fishing industries.23 The latter is very typical in the following areas: the Black Sea, the Sea of Japan, the Andaman Sea, and the Gulf of Thailand; as well as on many other waters.24 In a case study offered by Cullen-DuPont, it is argued that adult male victims may be of various age groups. For example male victims between the ages of 18 and 50 were found on a Russian fishing boat in the Sea of Japan. Male victims of the same age group were identified in the Balkans.25 Moreover, according to Copic et al. the majority of trafficked male victims in the Western Balkans are adults, which contradicts the common perception that male victims of human trafficking are usually children.26 The above-mentioned types of labour exploitation are a frequent occurrence in academic works that illustrate different types of male trafficking. However, several scholars have revealed cases of male sex trafficking in different parts of the world. Consequently, such cases have been disclosed in Germany and Russia.27 However, sex trafficking of men is very rarely identified and male victims are seldom assisted.28 This could be due to several reasons. As human trafficking is mainly associated with women being trafficked for prostitution, in some countries the ‘identification tools’ are designed to identify the victims that fit the latter profile. Furthermore, according to scholars that have focused on male sexual exploitation,

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__________________________________________________________________ it is very difficult for a sexually assaulted man to admit to himself that he has been assaulted and to seek assistance.29 5. Conclusion This chapter has exposed human trafficking literature that focuses on men within the broader human trafficking discourse. Although literature on male trafficking is very limited, this chapter shows that male trafficking exists and the extent of the involvement of men within the human trafficking discourse is much more complex and multidimensional than commonly acknowledged. To date male trafficking remains neglected in terms of assistance and aid, which impedes male victims of human trafficking from receiving the essential medical help, psychological and physical rehabilitation, in some cases reintegration and prevention of re-trafficking and secondary victimization. Being an advocacy research, this study aims to advance an agenda for change to, in the long run, improve the lives of male victims of human trafficking by highlighting the instance of male trafficking as a genuine challenge to contemporary society.

Notes 1

UNODC, ‘Abuse of a Position of Vulnerability and Other “Means” within the Definition of Trafficking in Persons.’ (United Nations New York, 2013). 2 TIP, ‘Trafficking in Persons Report.’ (Washington (DC): U.S. Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Person, 2014), 29 3 European Commission ‘Guidelines for the Identification of Victims of Trafficking in Human Beings.’ (Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2013). 4 Sally Stoecker, ‘Human Traffick: A New Challenge for Russia and the United States,’ Human Traffick and Transnational Crime, Eurasian and American Perspectives, ed. Sally Stoecker and L. Shelley (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005) 12-29; L. Shelley, Human Trafficking: A Global Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2010); A. Repetskaya, ‘Classifying the Elements of Human Trafficking Crimes,’ Human Traffick and Transnational Crime, Eurasian and American Perspectives, ed. Sally Stoecker and L. Shelley (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005) 47-63; E. V. Tiuriukanova, ‘Female Labor Migration Trends and Human Trafficking: Policy Recommendations,’ Human Traffick and Transnational Crime, Eurasian and American Perspectives, ed. Sally Stoecker and L. Shelley (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005) 95-115; Beatrix Siman Zakhari, ‘Legal Cases Prosecuted under the Victimization of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000,’ Human Traffick and Transnational Crime, Eurasian and American Perspective, ed. Sally Stoecker and L. Shelley (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005) 125-50; M. Kleimenov and M. Shamkov, ‘Criminal Transportation of Persons: Trends and Recommendations,’ Human Traffick and Transnational

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__________________________________________________________________ Crime, Eurasian and American Perspectives, ed. Sally Stoecker and L. Shelley (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005) 29-47; Nicola Piper, ‘A Problem by a Different Name? A Review of Research on Trafficking in South-East Asia and Oceania,’ International Migration 43.1-2 (2005): 203-33; John Lindquist and Nicola Piper, ‘From Hiv Prevention to Counter-Trafficking: Discursive Shifts and Institutional Continuities in South-East Asia,’ Human Trafficking in USA and Canada, ed. Maggy Lee (Culmcott House: Willan Publishing, 2007); Liz Kelly, ‘A Conductive Context: Trafficking of Persons in Central Asia,’ Human Trafficking, USA and Canada, ed. Maggy Lee (Culmcott House: Willian Publishing, 2007), 7392; Andrea Di Nicola, ‘Researching into Human Trafficking: Issues and Problems,’ Human Trafficking, USA and Canada, ed. Maggy Lee (Culmcott House: Willan Publishing, 2007), 49-72. 5 Nicola Piper, ‘A Problem by a Different Name? A Review of Research on Trafficking in South-East Asia and Oceania.’ 6 Ibid. 7 Ruth Rosenburg, ‘Trafficking of Adult Men in the Europe and Eurasia Region: Final Report,’ The Social Transition Series (Washington (DC): Social Transition Team, Office of Democracy, Governance and Social Transition of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID/E&E/DGST), 2010). 8 Rosenburg, ‘Trafficking of Adult Men,’ v. 9 Ibid. 10 James O. Finckenauer, Russian Transnational Organized Crime and Human Trafficking Vol. 175 (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001); Sally Stoecker, ‘Human Traffick,’ 12-29; Yuliya V. Tverdova, ‘Human Trafficking in Russia and Other Post-Soviet States,’ Human Rights Review 12.3 (2011): 329-44. 11 O. P. Levchenko, Human Trafficking and Legalization of Criminal Profits. Issues of Prevention: A Scientific and Practical Guide, ed. O. P. Levchenko (Moscow: Unity-Dana, 2009). 12 TIP, ‘Trafficking in Persons Report.’ 13 ILO, ‘Ilo Global Estimate of Forced Labour, Results and Methodology.’ (Switzerland: International Labour Office (SAP-FL), 2012). 14 Surtees, ‘Trafficking of Men,’ 16. 15 Nicola Piper, ‘A Problem by a Different Name? A Review of Research on Trafficking in South-East Asia and Oceania.,’ 217. 16 M. Wijers, ref. Rebecca Surtees, ‘Trafficking of Men,’ 17. 17 Ibid. 18 Shelley, Human Trafficking. 19 A. A. Aronowitz, Human Trafficking, Human Misery: The Global Trade in Human Beings (Praeger, 2009); Jayoti Gupta, ‘Informal Labour in Brick Kilns: Need for Regulation,’ Economic and Political Weekly 38.31 (2003): 3282-92; A. Ercelawn and M. Nauman, ‘Unfree Labour in South Asia: Debt Bondage at Brick

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__________________________________________________________________ Kilns in Pakistan,’ Economic and Political Weekly 39.22 (2004): 2235-42. 20 Aronowitz, Human Trafficking, Human Misery. 21 Ibid. 22 Kathryn Cullen Du-Pont, Global Issue: Human Trafficking (New York: Infobase Publishing, 2009). 23 Ibid. 24 Aronowitz, Human Trafficking, Human Misery. 25 S Copic, and B Simeunovic-Patic, ‘Victims of Human Trafficking: Meeting Victims’ Needs,’ Human Trafficking: Exploring the International Nature, Concerns, and Complexities (Boca Raton, FL: Taylor and Francis 2012). 26 Ibid. 27 Christophe Gille, in L. Shelley, Human Trafficking: A Global Perspective; Surtees, ‘Trafficking of Men.’ 28 Christophe Gille, in L. Shelley, Human Trafficking: A Global Perspective 29 C. M. Bullock and M. Beckson, ‘Male Victims of Sexual Assault: Phenomenology, Psychology, Physiology,’ J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 39.2 (2011): 197-205; Denise A. Donnelly and Stacy Kenyon, ‘“Honey, We Don’t Do Men”: Gender Stereotypes and the Provision of Services to Sexually Assaulted Males,’ Journal of Interpersonal Violence 11.3 (September 1, 1996): 441-48; E. MonkTurner and D. Light, ‘Male Sexual Assault and Rape: Who Seeks Counseling?’ Sex Abuse 22.3 (Sep 2010): 255-65.

Bibliography Aronowitz, A.A. Human Trafficking, Human Misery: The Global Trade in Human Beings. Praeger, 2009. Bullock, C. M. and M. Beckson. ‘Male Victims of Sexual Assault: Phenomenology, Psychology, Physiology.’ [In eng]. J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 39.2 (2011): 197-205. Copic, S, and B Simeunovic-Patic. ‘Victims of Human Trafficking: Meeting Victims’ Needs.’ Human Trafficking: Exploring the International Nature, Concerns, and Complexities. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor and Francis, 2012. Cullen Du-Pont, Kathryn. Global Issue: Human Trafficking. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2009. Di Nicola, Andrea. ‘Researching into Human Trafficking: Issues and Problems.’ In Human Trafficking, USA and Canada, edited by Maggy Lee, 49-72. Culmcott House: Willan Publishing, 2007.

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__________________________________________________________________ Donnelly, Denise A., and Stacy Kenyon. ‘“Honey, We Don’t Do Men”: Gender Stereotypes and the Provision of Services to Sexually Assaulted Males.’ Journal of Interpersonal Violence 11.3 (September 1, 1996): 441-48. Ercelawn, A., and M. Nauman. ‘Unfree Labour in South Asia: Debt Bondage at Brick Kilns in Pakistan.’ Economic and Political Weekly 39.22 (2004): 2235-42. European Commission ‘Guidelines for the Identification of Victims of Trafficking in Human Beings.’ Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2013. Finckenauer, James O. Russian Transnational Organized Crime and Human Trafficking. Vol. 175. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. Gupta, Jayoti. ‘Informal Labour in Brick Kilns: Need for Regulation.’ Economic and Political Weekly 38.31 (2003): 3282-92. ILO. ‘ILO Global Estimate of Forced Labour, Results and Methodology.’ Switzerland: International Labour Office (SAP-FL), 2012. Kelly, Liz. ‘A Conductive Context: Trafficking of Persons in Central Asia.’ In Human Trafficking, USA and Canada, edited by Maggy Lee, 73-92. Culmcott House: Willian Publishing, 2007. Kleimenov, M., and M. Shamkov. ‘Criminal Transportation of Persons: Trends and Recommendations.’ In Human Traffick and Transnational Crime, Eurasian and American Perspectives, edited by Sally Stoecker and L. Shelley, 29-47. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. Levchenko, O.P., ed. Human Trafficking and Legalization of Criminal Profits. Issues of Prevention: A Scientific and Practical Guide, edited by O. P. Levchenko. Moscow: Unity-Dana, 2009. Lindquist, Johan, and Nicola Piper. ‘From HIV Prevention to Counter-Trafficking: Discursive Shifts and Institutional Continuities in South-East Asia.’ In Human Trafficking in USA and Canada, edited by Maggy Lee. Culmcott House: Willan Publishing, 2007. Monk-Turner, E., and D. Light. ‘Male Sexual Assault and Rape: Who Seeks Counseling?’ [In eng]. Sex Abuse 22.3 (Sep 2010): 255-65.

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__________________________________________________________________ Piper, Nicola. ‘A Problem by a Different Name? A Review of Research on Trafficking in South-East Asia and Oceania.’ International Migration 43.1-2 (2005): 203-33. Repetskaya, A. ‘Classifying the Elements of Human Trafficking Crimes.’ In Human Traffick and Transnational Crime, Eurasian and American Perspectives, edited by Sally Stoecker and L. Shelley, 47-63. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. Rosenburg, Ruth. ‘Trafficking of Adult Men in the Europe and Eurasia Region: Final Report.’ In The Social Transition Series. Washington (DC): Social Transition Team, Office of Democracy, Governance and Social Transition of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID/E&E/DGST), 2010. Shelley, L. Human Trafficking: A Global Perspective. Cambridge University Press, 2010. Stoecker, Sally. ‘Human Traffick: A New Challenge for Russia and the United States.’ In Human Traffick and Transnational Crime, Eurasian and American Perspectives, edited by Sally Stoecker and L. Shelley, 12-29. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. Surtees, Rebecca. ‘Trafficked Men as Unwilling Victims.’ St Antony’s International Review 4.1 (2008b): 16-36. ———. ‘Trafficking of Men — A Trend Less Considered. The Case of Belarus and Ukraine.’ In IOM Global Database Thematic Research Series. Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Migration, 2008a. TIP. ‘Trafficking in Persons Report.’ Washington (DC): U.S. Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Person, 2014. Tiuriukanova, E. V. ‘Female Labor Migration Trends and Human Trafficking: Policy Recommendations.’ In Human Traffick and Transnational Crime, Eurasian and American Perspectives, edited by Sally Stoecker and L. Shelley, 95-115. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. Tverdova, Yuliya V. ‘Human Trafficking in Russia and Other Post-Soviet States.’ [In English]. Human Rights Review 12.3 (2011): 329-44.

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__________________________________________________________________ UNODC. ‘Abuse of a Position of Vulnerability and Other “Means” within the Definition of Trafficking in Persons.’ New York: United Nations, 2013. Zakhari, Beatrix Siman. ‘Legal Cases Prosecuted under the Victimization of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000.’ In Human Traffick and Transnational Crime, Eurasian and American Perspective, edited by Sally Stoecker and L. Shelley, 125-50. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. Polina Smiragina is a PhD Candidate at the University of Sydney. Her research interests include human trafficking; male trafficking; migration; forced labour; criminology; organized crime; gender studies and human rights. Her current research focus is on the invisibility and misidentification of male victims of human trafficking.

Part III Dissecting the Place of African Slavery

Teaching ‘Slavery in a Global Context’: Some Pedagogical Themes and Problems Catherine Armstrong Abstract This chapter will discuss a new second year undergraduate optional module entitled ‘Slavery in a Global Context.’ This module is open to History and Joint Honours History students and uses lectures and seminars to explore a chronological history of global slavery. The module covers many of the themes of the conference including the connection between slavery and race, class and gender, the significance of the legal framework and the connection between particular economic and social systems and the prevalence of slavery. The term ‘slavery’ itself is discussed, and taken broadly: we examine serfdom and feudal bonded labour, and also consider contemporary coerced labour such as sex trafficking, domestic slavery, child marriage and child soldiers. We begin in the Ancient World, progressing to slaveries in China and India, the Indian Ocean world, and medieval and early modern Europe. The transatlantic trade and slavery in the Americas also feature, before a discussion of modern slavery-like practices such as convict labour. Finally, we devote several weeks at the end of the module to discussing modern day slavery. This chapter explores the pedagogical justification behind the syllabus and teaching and assessment methods, as well as reflecting on this module’s place in the curriculum. I acknowledge the challenges faced when teaching this module in contrast to the more ‘traditional’ approach to transatlantic slavery that I have adopted previously in other modules. I reflect on the success of my aim to challenge students’ preconceptions of slavery as an Atlantic phenomenon. This module also uses a non-typical assessment strategy, requiring students to devise a museum exhibition on a topic of their choosing related to the global history of slavery. Finally I reflect on the ways that the module will be adapted for subsequent years in response to the participation and feedback of students in this first cohort. Key Words: History of slavery, global history, higher education pedagogy, student experience, assessment. ***** This chapter will discuss the planning, design, development and delivery of a new second year undergraduate optional module, which attracted fifty students in its first cohort, entitled ‘Slavery in a Global Context.’ This module is open to History and Joint Honours History students at Loughborough University and uses lectures and seminars to explore a chronological history of global slavery. I am an American historian and for five years taught a module on slavery in the Atlantic

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__________________________________________________________________ world. However, on moving institutions I decided to change focus and adapt this module, making broader in chronological and geographical scope. Partly this was in response to the way that slavery is taught here in British higher education institutions. The vast majority of modules on slavery focus on the North American experience, while some introduce comparative elements bringing in evidence from the Caribbean and South America. The popularity of the Atlantic World as a discipline has encouraged this broadening. As with school education, much of the focus is on the Transatlantic slave trade, (often simplified, even at university level, as the euro-centric ‘triangular trade’). The Atlantic History approach, championed by scholars such as Bernard Bailyn, Alison Games and David Armitage, does try to challenge this by bringing in the African perspective.1 Their agency, their role as actors rather than reactors to historical change is still underplayed. Even within this limited case study, the picture is presented simplistically, in purely ‘black and white’ terms if you’ll pardon the pun. School or higher education classrooms tell students about none of the liminal, more complex stories of slave ownership and experience in the Americas, for example, ownership by poor whites, by free people of colour or by Native Americans. US-based teaching about slavery is equally restrictive, seeing ‘their’ example of slavery as the overriding one. Many modules at school and college focus more on the legacies of slavery, the racial aftermath, including up to the present day. This work is, of course, crucial in preparing students for full citizenship as Laurence Blum’s work on High Schools: Race and America’s future has shown.2 However, the breadth of understanding of slavery is limited and I argue this restricts the students’ understanding of twenty-first century hegemonic relations. According to Blum, few American high school students in his classes knew of Anthony Johnson, a seventeenth-century African who arrived in Virginia on the first transport in 1619 as a slave, and who bought his freedom and a plot of tobacco land in Virginia’s Northern Neck and proceeded to use white indentured and black slave labour to farm it.3 Thus many history modules approaching the subject of slavery are chronologically, geographically and thematically limited. The slave experience presented therefore can be monolithic. At times, fruitful use is made of comparative techniques, following for example the work of Peter Kolchin in comparing African-American slavery with Russian serfdom.4 But most modules do not attempt to look at the essence of what slavery is across different times and places. Another crucial issue is the ignorance of modern day slavery. As a historian, I find teaching the contemporary world challenging, but to bring to bear the weight of historical knowledge on such a challenging problem is crucial to developing students’ understanding of past and present. The group Historians against Slavery has done a great deal in the United States to highlight this issue with two conferences and the development of networks of scholars.5 However, in undergraduate teaching, most modules convey the idea that slavery is something that happened in the past. It was a factor of the uncivilized, pre-modern past that

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__________________________________________________________________ was mostly eradicated by whites of European ethnic origin and is now a ‘done deal.’ Blum observed that his high school students adopted a position on the moral high ground because slavery has ended. They believed that they are more civilized than those ignorant people in the past.6 Laura Brunell has described the importance of students undertaking programmes of ‘civic engagement’ while at university but has stressed that, in many contexts, this has been interpreted as a concern with purely local issues. She and I argue that this is not necessarily the most fruitful context and that encouraging what she calls ‘global connectedness’ enhances student engagement more successfully. Brunell suggests that we should encourage a ‘conscious cultivation of a global sense of civitas.’7 One challenge faced by teachers trying to prepare a module that introduces a broader definition of slavery into their classroom is that the vast majority of the pedagogical literature concerning the teaching of slavery deals with transatlantic slave trade and its racial legacy, precisely the part of the topic that is already well-embedded into the curriculum. 1. Syllabus and Teaching Methods The ‘Slavery in a Global Context’ module covers many of the themes that concern this conference, including the connection between slavery and race, class and gender, the significance of the legal framework in determining the nature of slavery and the connection between particular economic and social systems and the prevalence of slavery. The purpose of the module was to allow students to compare types of slavery and bonded labour across time and space by examining the causes, slave experience, both physical and psychological, the influence of gender, race and class, the importance of war as a means of enslavement, the potential of achieving freedom, and resistance to slavery from those within or without the system, among other factors. The purpose was not to identify which types of slavery were harshest, although inevitably, some students did think in those terms. Initially, the term ‘slavery’ itself was discussed, and taken broadly: we examined serfdom and feudal bonded labour, and also considered contemporary coerced labour such as sex trafficking, domestic slavery, child marriage and child soldiers. We studied other slavery-like systems of work such as convict labour. In each context we explored in some depth who was likely to be enslaved and for what purpose, how they were treated by their owners, by the rest of society and by the legal system. This involved temporarily immersing ourselves in the literature of a particular historiography for one week only, for example, the ancient world. Examining journal articles in the field as well as primary sources formed a key part of our studies. There was no core text for the module, and, indeed, there is a great potential for one to be written. However, Orlando Patterson’s seminal work, Slavery and Social Death of 1982 formed a starting point for the reading of many students.8 We began in Ancient Greece, Egypt and Rome, progressing to slaveries in China and India, the Indian Ocean world, and medieval and early modern

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__________________________________________________________________ Europe. The transatlantic trade and slavery in the Americas also featured, before a discussion of modern practices such as convict labour in Australia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the Southern United States in the early twentieth century. Finally, we devoted several weeks at the end of the module to discussing modern-day slavery. For each week three recent journal articles were provided, outlining the latest scholarship in that particular area. In all weeks, including the contemporary studies, we made use of primary evidence derived from the slave owning hegemony and, where available, from the slaves themselves, analysing its reliability and authenticity as well as its contents. For example, we examined whether John Blassingame’s cautions about the use of the United States’ Works Progress Administration slave narratives of the 1930s might be applied to twentyfirst century slave narratives. Blassingame urged caution and required us to consider the power relations present in the testimonial interaction between a former slave and a white, middle class recorder.9 Other primary sources examined included: deeds of sale for slaves in Tang China, a Sanskrit treatise mentioning slavery in 300BC, William the Conqueror’s description of slavery in England, an edict from the Pope in 1204 on Jewish slave owners, a legal code limiting serfdom in 1649 Russia, as well as images, including for example romanticized images of the slave market of Cairo painted in 1878. This module used a non-typical, innovative assessment strategy, requiring students to devise a museum exhibition on a topic of their choosing related to the global history of slavery. This served the purpose of providing skills for those students who wanted to choose the heritage industry as a career, but also offered the entire cohort a way in to the debates over history and heritage. I concur with Jay Rounds that museums provide a ‘safe place to explore otherness’ and thus sensitive topics such as slavery and race can be handled carefully in this context.10 The students selected a number of images, artefacts and textual sources to display in their exhibit before writing captions for these. They also wrote a catalogue entry for their exhibition, explaining in depth the historical background to their topic and justifying their choice of artefacts. The issue of significance is very important here. They discussed why they had selected these particular artefacts for display. Some students produced outstanding pieces of work, including several who decided to tailor their exhibition to a particular audience, for example primary school children. This approach mirrors the findings of Savenije, Van Boxtel and Grever who argue that a ‘heritage approach’ to the study of slavery in the past is rewarding but challenging. Students must be carefully instructed so as to avoid the ‘instrumental and mythical constructs’ of the past and the ‘loss of multiperspectival approaches.’11 Thus, through this module students have been able to develop citizenship skills by better understanding the suffering of slaves in the contemporary world, and also through undertaking the assignment have been able to develop skills useful in the pursuance of a career in the heritage industry. They

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__________________________________________________________________ have also become aware of some of the tensions between academic and public history. 2. Analysis of First Cohort Performance and Feedback Having completed the teaching and assessing for this module in its maiden year, I am in a position to reflect on its success. First, I want to acknowledge the challenges faced when teaching this module in contrast to the more ‘traditional’ approach that focuses on transatlantic slavery. Requiring students to familiarize themselves with the histories of so many times and places was demanding. Many of these topics, such as the ancient world, the Indian Ocean world and the Medieval world, will not have been studied in detail before, despite this cohort having taken a World History module in the second semester of their first year. Time was limited in this module. We had three hours in order to examine the slavery of Ancient Greece, Egypt and Rome, for example. However, many students responded to this challenge positively, welcoming the opportunity of studying many places and times through the prism of a single theme. I was clear from the start that this module would involve breadth rather than depth of study and the cohort engaged positively with this concept. Many of the challenges faced in this module were those also confronted by teachers of transatlantic slavery: how do we teach sensitively about this? Teaching about slavery and imperialism is a sensitive topic in the Netherlands as well as in the UK.12 There was a tendency by teachers in a classroom shaped by the postcolonial migration patterns to assume that the classroom was peopled by descendants of enslaved people or traders and this could result in a polarized cohort. It is vital to avoid a sense of victimization or of ‘white guilt,’ both of which shut down genuine debate and cooperation. White students debating slavery are frequently fearful of disagreement, of sharing their personal views or of disagreeing with others, especially with students of different ethnic origins, because they are loathe to be seen as racist. By broadening the students’ understanding and horizons about slavery, and showing that slavery exists in many times and places, it is vital to prevent the idea of excusing the perpetrators to come to the fore in classroom discussion. Because slavery is ubiquitous, this does not mean that we should accept it as part of human society. How do we avoid excusing the perpetrators? The answer must be by educating about the causes and effects of slavery. Another issue that I faced when teaching about slavery in British classrooms is that often I am not working with an ethnically diverse class. What does it mean as a white female to be teaching a class of mostly white ethnically British students about global slavery? Will they question my ‘authenticity?’ How do I make this meaningful to them? Would I teach differently to a diverse classroom? Allison Dorsey found that African-American students were often less forthcoming in classes about slavery. This self-imposed silence was adopted by the students because they felt that they should have already known ‘their’ history.

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__________________________________________________________________ Because of their embarrassment at their lack of knowledge, they were reluctant to participate.13 I will now reflect on the success of my aim to challenge students’ preconception of slavery as a solely transatlantic phenomenon. In the end of semester cohort feedback, the vast majority of students commented on enjoying studying something new. The module was new to them in terms of the content and the assessment design. But still well over half of the cohort chose to produce their assignment on the transatlantic slave trade rather than on one of the many other times and places where slavery or slavery-like systems of labour operated. When asked why this was, students’ answers varied. Some stated that they simply found the transatlantic slave trade the most interesting out of all the topics studied. Others suggested, justifiably, that more information was available on the transatlantic slave trade and that they knew they could easily find enough material to complete the assignment. Still others, more depressingly, claimed that they stuck with the ‘safe’ topic of the transatlantic slave trade because they had studied it before. A final challenge faced when teaching this module was that some students were left asking what they might do with this knowledge - they wanted to become activists. In future iterations of this module I would like to offer them an outlet to do this. This is developing Laura Brunell’s idea that even in a smaller community like Loughborough, as well as in cosmopolitan hubs like London or New York, students can become engaged in global issues as long as the teacher ‘creates space for action in class.’14 3. Plans for the Future Finally I will reflect on the ways that the module will be adapted in subsequent years. I hope to spend fewer sessions on the case study of the Atlantic world. Currently, we spend thirty hours out of a total of sixty-six covering transatlantic slavery and the antebellum United States. Perhaps this weighting of classroom time still gives the impression of the over-riding significance of this example of slavery. A changing of this weighting could allow more time for the discussion of contemporary slavery (currently three hours) or convict labour (one hour). The study in more depth of convict labour will allow students to explore issues of class and race more broadly and also to think about the militarization and commercialization of convict labour. But crucially I want to allow more room in the syllabus for developing and undertaking activism and for the discussions over the causes of the use of bonded labour over time and space. Another aspect of the module that I wish to enhance includes learning outside the classroom. As Jack Crittenden argues, engaged citizenship is developed best outside the classroom as students ‘do’ rather than just ‘learn.’15 There is an excellent resource for the study of transatlantic and contemporary slavery in the International Slavery Museum, Liverpool. Another option would be a closer trip to Bolsover Castle, Derbyshire, a Heritage England property with connections to

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__________________________________________________________________ slavery about which historians have written a report detailing the links between the family and its slave owning past. I would be very keen to learn of a site within easy traveling distance of the English Midlands where students might learn in situ about other sorts of slavery (outside the transatlantic realms), but thus far a search has failed to come up with any possibilities. 4. Conclusions Pedagogically, this module was a success and it has shown me that British undergraduate history students will engage with material that challenges and stretches them by forcing them to become engaged citizens and consider how their historical knowledge might trigger their activism. In feedback solicited after the module, the vast majority of students preferred this varied approach to the singletype of slavery approach of a module on transatlantic slavery. However, overcoming the challenges of familiarity with and availability of source material in order to encourage more students to undertake research on non-Atlantic topics will be difficult. Most English archives and sites relate to slavery in the Atlantic world. And of course, this slavery is an important part of the story of slavery as a whole and I would never want to exclude this. Given my American history background I see that transatlantic slavery is tremendously important, and as many students discovered, those personnel involved in slavery in one part of the world often had interests in another.

Notes 1

Bernard Bailyn, Atlantic History: Concepts and Contours (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2005); Alison Games, ‘Atlantic History: Definitions, Challenges, Opportunities,’ American Historical Review 111.3 (2006): 741-757; David Armitage and Michael Braddick, The British Atlantic World 1500-1800 (London, Palgrave, 2009). 2 Lawrence Blum, High Schools: Race and America’s Future (Cambridge, Harvard Educational Press, 2012). 3 Ibid., 44. 4 Peter Kolchin, Unfree Labour: American Slavery and Russian Serfdom (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1990) 5 Viewed on 25 June 2015, Historians Against Slavery website

6 Blum, High Schools, 80. 7 Laura Brunell, ‘Building Global Citizenship: Engaging Global Issues, Practising Civic Skills,’ Journal of Political Science Education, 9.1 (January 2013): 16-18. 8 Orlando Patterson, Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative History (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1990). I have since also located Jeremy

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__________________________________________________________________ Black’s textbook Slavery: A New Global History (London, Constable and Robinson, 2011), but it too, is limited in its coverage of some topics. 9 John Blassingame, ‘Using the Testimony of Ex-Slaves: Approaches and Problems,’ Journal of Southern History 41 (1975): 473-492. 10 Jay Rounds, ‘Doing Identity Work in Museums,’ Curator: The Museum Journal, 49 (2006): 133-150. 11 Geerte Savenije, Carla van Boxtel and Maria Grever, ‘Learning about Sensitive History: Heritage of Slavery as a Resource,’ Theory and Research in Social Education 42.4 (November 2014): 520. 12 Ibid., 517. 13 Allison Dorsey, ‘Black History Is American History: Teaching AfricanAmerican History in the Twenty –First Century,’ Journal of American History 93. 4 (March 2007): 1171-1177. 14 Brunell, ‘Building Global Citizenship,’ 19. 15 Jack Crittenden, Democracy’s Midwife: An Education in Deliberation (Lanham, Maryland, Lexington Books, 2002).

Bibliography Armitage, David and Michael Braddick. The British Atlantic World 1500-1800. London: Palgrave, 2009. Bailyn, Bernard. Atlantic History: Concepts and Contours. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005. Black, Jeremy. Slavery: A New Global History. London: Constable and Robinson, 2011. Blassingame, John. ‘Using the Testimony of Ex-Slaves: Approaches and Problems.’ Journal of Southern History 41 (1975): 473-492. Blum, Lawrence. High Schools: Race and America’s Future. Cambridge: Harvard Educational Press, 2012. Brunell, Laura. ‘Building Global Citizenship: Engaging Global Issues, Practising Civic Skills.’ Journal of Political Science Education 9.1 (January 2013): 16-33. Crittenden, Jack. Democracy’s Midwife: An Education in Deliberation. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2002.

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__________________________________________________________________ Dorsey, Allison. ‘Black History is American History: Teaching African-American History in the Twenty–First Century.’ Journal of American History 93.4 (March 2007): 1171-1177. Games, Alison. ‘Atlantic History: Definitions, Challenges, Opportunities.’ American Historical Review 111. 3 (2006): 741-757. Homburg, Leila. Teach about Slavery. Plymouth: University of Plymouth Press, 1992. Kolchin, Peter. Unfree Labour: American Slavery and Russian Serfdom. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990. Patterson, Orlando. Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990. Rounds, Jay. ‘Doing Identity Work in Museums.’ Curator: The Museum Journal 49 (2006): 133-160. Savenije, Geerte. Carla van Boxtel and Maria Grever. ‘Learning about Sensitive History: Heritage of Slavery as a Resource.’ Theory and Research in Social Education 52.4 (November 2014): 516-547. Catherine Armstrong is Lecturer in American History at Loughborough University. She is a specialist in colonial North America and its cultural and social relationship with England. She has previously worked on representations of landscape and place, and is currently developing a project challenging the traditional concepts of enslaved and slave holder experience.

Canada and the Legend of the Underground Railroad Eleanor Lucy Bird Abstract The story of the underground railroad is often used to tell the history of slavery in the United States. It is seen as a more attractive story in what is a difficult history. The underground railroad narrative typically presents Canada as the terminus of the underground railroad and the place in which the fugitive slave from the United States is able to enjoy freedom. In this paper I examine a board game produced in the United States for schoolchildren. This aims to teach young people about the history of slavery in the United States. I discuss how this board game presents Canada. I argue this game presents Canada as an anti-slavery haven and the endpoint of the underground railroad. I suggest that Canada functions in this game not as a place with a history or a narrative of its own but as a vehicle for telling the history of American slavery. Then I examine two contemporary texts produced in Canada which tell the narrative of the underground railroad. I argue that these texts borrow and shape American narratives of the underground railroad. They prioritise the narrative of the underground railroad over other less savoury parts of Canada’s history. The enslavement of Africans, and aboriginal persons, took place in colonial Canada and New France under the British rule (post 1760). The printed records for enslaved persons in colonial Canada become scarce in the early phase of nineteenth century. The black loyalists who travelled to Nova Scotia at the end of the American Revolution faced discrimination and were given poor plots of land, if any at all upon their arrival. This paper argues these Canadian texts recreate the image of Canada as a haven, and that this serves to silence Canada’s own history of slaveholding and its poor treatment of the black loyalists. Key Words: Canada, The Underground Railroad, Slavery, Slave Narratives, Board Games, Public History. ***** The story of the Underground Railroad is often used to tell the history of slavery in the United States. It is seen as a more attractive part of what is a difficult history. The underground railroad narrative typically presents Canada as the terminus of the underground railroad, and the place where the fugitive slaves from the United States were able to enjoy freedom. In this paper I examine a board game played in the United States by the schoolchildren. This aims to teach young people about the history of slavery in the United States. I argue and discuss that the board game presents Canada as an anti-slavery haven, and the endpoint of the underground railroad. I suggest that Canada functions in this game not as a place with a history or a narrative of its own, but as a vehicle for telling the history of

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__________________________________________________________________ American slavery. Further, I examine two contemporary texts produced in Canada which present the narrative of the underground railroad. I argue that these texts borrow and shape American narratives of the underground railroad. They prioritise the narrative of the underground railroad over other less savoury parts of Canada’s history. The enslavement of the Africans and aboriginal persons took place in colonial Canada and New France under the British rule (in post 1760 period). As far as the printed records for enslaved persons in colonial Canada are concerned, they became scarce in the early nineteenth century.1 The black loyalists who travelled to Nova Scotia at the end of the American Revolution faced discrimination and were given poor plots of land if any at all upon their arrival. This paper argues that these Canadian texts recreate the image of Canada as a haven, and that this serves to silence Canada’s own history of slaveholding and its poor treatment of the black loyalists. I will suggest that Christopher Leslie Brown’s concept of the ‘moral capital’ of abolitionism provides a way for thinking about why this image of Canada as an anti-slavery haven is such an attractive one for those producing histories of the Canadian nation.2 This image of Canada as an antislavery haven has a moral capital which can be saved and used for other reasons. The board game Freedom: The Underground Railroad tells the story of slavery in the United States.3 It is produced in the United States and aims to educate children in the United States. It is designed by Brian Mayer and produced by Academy Games who are a small start-up company based in Sandusky County Ohio. It has been designed with the intention to tell the story of slavery in the United States. It has won multiple awards acknowledging its importance in telling the story of American slavery. It is a strategy game in which ‘conditions for victory card’ must be drawn at the beginning of the game and this sets the conditions for victory for each game. The board game has been marketed towards schools and school children. It is marketed as aiming to educate children in the United States about the history of slavery in the United States. It has been marketed for ‘school systems to aid history classes’, and the company holds ambitions to distribute its games in schools via an educational publisher.4 The game is also sold outside the United States through international sellers such as amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. On these websites the game is presented as being desirable for use outside the classroom. It is described as a family-friendly game that is ‘Great fun for the entire family.’5 The reviews and comments on the websites show that even adults buy and play the board game. 6 This suggests that the game also interests adults apart from school children. The board game presents Canada as a non-slaveholding space and anti-slavery haven. The board is a map representing the United States and Canada. The map is divided into three colour zones; green for the plantation South, light blue for the Northern free states and territories and orange for Canada. The enslaved persons are represented by small wooden square cubes which are moved by players around the board. The game start off from the cubes placed on the plantations squares in

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__________________________________________________________________ the green-coloured zone, and are moved one square at a time by players. They move from the plantation South to free Northern States and lastly, Canada, where they can finally become free on the board. Canada is the only space on the board where enslaved persons represented by the cubes can become free. This exaggerates Canada as the only space where enslaved African Americans can become free, and the board does not present the free northern states as an alternate refuge. This image of Canada as a haven is reinforced through a number of rewards given to players once they have moved the enslaved persons to Canada. The players win points each time they successfully move a cube representing a fugitive slave over the border into Canada. Players have to move a certain number of fugitive slaves to freedom in Canada in order to win the game. The board game does not trace the developments in the lives of the enslaved persons once they reach Canada. The cubes representing enslaved persons are placed on a rectangular space representing Canada (colour-coded orange). Unlike the map of the United States which details rivers, cities and States, the map of Canada does not detail any place names or geographical features. The enslaved persons sit clustered in the rectangular holding space in small numbered boxes, which clearly detail for players the number of enslaved persons they had freed. This provides players with an easy reference point to see how well they are doing in the game. The trajectory of the enslaved persons’ lives stops once they reach Canada. In the game, Canada is represented as a symbolic space for freedom and refuge from slavery in the United States. The origins of the image of Canada as an anti-slavery haven can be linked to the antebellum slave narrative. In the slave narrative, Canada is often presented as a place of refuge for fugitive slaves from the United States. Canada features heavily in Henry Bibb’s slave narrative, Narrative of the Life of Henry Bibb (1849). Bibb recounts his life as a fugitive slave, and remembers that the idea of Canada provided him with solace whilst escaping from slavery in the United States. He remembers that as an enslaved man ‘every wave of trouble that rolled across my breast, caused me to think more and more about Canada, and liberty’. 7 But other slave narratives present Canada as an anti-haven. For example Austin Steward’s slave narrative, Twenty Two Years a Slave and Forty Years a Freeman (1857) presents Steward as leaving Canada and returning to the United States years before the American Civil War. Drew’s collection of narratives from fugitive slaves in Canada record many of the challenges involved in settling down on the land, and some former slaves preference for living in the United States. 8 Isaac Mason’s slave narrative presents Canada as an exploitative capitalist space where he was not paid his wages, and hence like Steward, he chose to leave Canada.9 Coming back to the board game, Canada is only presented as a haven for runaway slaves in it. It barely represents the fact that roughly half of the enslaved fugitives returned to the United States after the American Civil War10, or that some fugitive slaves such as Austin Steward and Isaac Mason left Canada and returned

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__________________________________________________________________ to the United States long before the Civil War. The slave narratives help to fill in some of the gaps in understanding as to what eventually happened to the fugitive slaves after their arrival in Canada. They nuance and problematise the image of Canada as an anti-slavery haven, and show alternatives that are available for representing Canada today. I now want to examine two contemporary Canadian texts which reproduce this image of Canada as an anti-slavery haven. The two texts are the printed guidebook to the newly renovated Canada House located in Trafalgar Square in London in the United Kingdom and the current immigration guidebook Discover Canada. This guidebook is provided by Citizenship and Immigration Canada to help immigrants prepare for their citizenship test, and is available to download online.11 Discover Canada reproduces the image of Canada as a haven for fugitive slaves from the United States. The immigration guidebook voices the history of slavery in the United States to silence the darker passages of Canadian history. The underground railroad is mentioned several times. Appearing in this context, it is presented as a history that the new Canadian citizens should know about, and as something which reflects Canadian values. The guidebook covertly evokes the period of the underground railroad and links it to the arrival of the black loyalists in Nova Scotia following the American Revolution. A caption accompanying a picture of the Olympian Marjorie Turner-Bailey states that she is: [from] Nova Scotia… a descendent of black loyalists, escaped slaves and freed men and women of African origin who in the 1780s fled to Canada from America, where slavery remained legal until 1863.12 The syntax of this long sentence creates an image of Canada as a nonslaveholding space. The last clause provides the date ‘where slavery remained legal [in the United States] until 1863’.13 This was the year Abraham Lincoln made his Emancipation Proclamation which freed enslaved persons in ten Confederate States. The effect of the phrasing is to emphasise that the United States is a space where slavery was legal until 1863. By contrast Canada is depicted as welcoming ‘escaped slaves and freed men and women of African origin’ since the 1780s. This implies a long history of Canada as a non-slave-holding space. It invites the reader to link the exodus of black loyalists after the American Revolution to the image of the United States as a slaveholding space. It produces an image of the United States as slaveholding to imply a history of Canada as a non-slaveholding space. The 1780s have been described by one scholar as ‘Nova Scotia’s age of slavery’14. The number of enslaved African Americans accompanying the Loyalists to Nova Scotia has been estimated at 1,300 people.15 This text silences that history. It misrepresents Canada as a non-slaveholding space during the peak of enslavement in Nova Scotia. This silencing is performed by voicing the history of slavery in the

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__________________________________________________________________ United States. The experience of enslavement in Canada is not explicitly denied, but its existence is wiped out by placing American history in its place. In addition to hiding the history of slavery in Nova Scotia this text subtly presents Canada as a haven for the black loyalists. They are described as ‘flee[ing]’ to Canada from the slaveholding United States. This implicitly presents Canada as a much coveted alternative for the black loyalists but it does not tell the story of what happened after their arrival in Nova Scotia. As critics have explored elsewhere, the black loyalists were unfairly granted poor plots of land, if any at all, and confronted with discrimination on their arrival.16 In fact Canada was not the end of the journey for 1,190 black loyalists who were so dissatisfied by their treatment in Nova Scotia that they relocated to Sierra Leone in 1792.17 The underground railroad narrative surfaces within a tourist discourse in the printed guidebook to Canada House. Canada House is located in Trafalgar Square in London, and is the base of the Canadian High Commission in the United Kingdom. It has recently been redecorated and a guidebook to the building has been produced. There are ten meeting rooms in Canada House. They each represent one of the ten Canadian provinces. The guidebook is available to visitors of the building and has text on the history of each province/room.18 There is also an online version which contains some elements from the printed guidebook.19 In the guidebook Nova Scotia is depicted using a tourist-discourse. It is described as having relaxing ‘wide sandy beaches’ that are perfect for exploring.20 Nova Scotia is described as a place where its rich traditions such as Gaelic music, First Nations and Acadian traditions ‘survive’21. The text presents Nova Scotia from the imagined audience of a tourist enjoying the collection of heritage and the sensory sights and sounds of an undiscovered space. The underground railroad features as part of this discourse. The text states that ‘Nova Scotia was one of the most active terminals of the underground railroad, the network of secret routes and safe houses that carried slaves to freedom from the US.’22 This is the only specific piece of history that is mentioned about Nova Scotia in the entire text. The short description of the underground railroad identifies the reader as an outsider who may not know this history. Like a travel guidebook the text explains this travel attraction for its reader. In this context, the underground railroad implicitly becomes another relic, curiosity and thing for the imagined audience of visitor (from Britain, Canada, or the US) to collect as an experience and take away with them. It also problematically obscures less savoury aspects of the history of Nova Scotia. For example, the poor treatment of the black loyalists, the experience of enslaved persons in Nova Scotia, and cultural tensions around Canada’s treatment of the Acadian and First Nations peoples. The image of Canada as an anti-slavery haven can be a source of moral capital for the nation. 23 According to Christopher Leslie Brown, anti-slavery activism could generate moral capital for individuals, groups and nations.24 Brown’s book focuses on the moral capital provided by abolitionism in Britain following the loss

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__________________________________________________________________ of the American colonies after the American Revolution. His concept of moral capital suggests that this capital can be generated by abolitionism, but then the person, group or nation can use this capital in other contexts, and invest it for other causes. In the immigration guidebook moral capital is generated by the portrayal of Canada as a welcoming refuge to the black loyalists, and as an anti-slavery haven. This capital becomes attached to the image of Canada as a nation, and it is employed for welcoming and creating a tolerant space for the immigrants. It serves to create a moral prestige for the idea of Canada itself. Included in a ten page synopsis of the nation’s history, Canada’s anti-slavery credentials are made to mean more than this one historical moment. Drawing on the ideas of John Kane, Brown gives his definition of moral capital: Moral capital…. is a resource…. moral capital, as capital, is employed in a way that sustains the moral prestige of the actor, that draws from the accumulated stock of moral credit without depleting it…. A cause that has earned moral capital becomes, itself, a source of moral capital for other causes; the association with people or causes that possess moral capital becomes a strategic benefit for those in search of moral standing or moral influence…. [moral capital] depends entirely on the perceptions of others. It accrues to those whose choices are not merely virtuous but appraised as virtuous by their contemporaries.25 Brown notes that a cause has to ‘earn’ moral capital. As he expounds further, causes such as abolitionism have to become invested with a positive image which come to mean things attractive to the public, and its activists, in order to ‘earn’ capital. Applying Brown’s concept we can conceptualise that Canada can earn moral capital from its image as an anti-slavery haven because the idea that a country did not practice slavery and was anti-slavery is seen as ‘virtuous’ by contemporaries today. This paper has explored a board game produced in the United States for schoolchildren. This version of slavery history in the United States posits Canada as an anti-slavery haven. This shows that American histories of the underground railroad create the image of Canada as an anti-slavery haven. Canada is presented as a space in which fugitive slaves could escape slavery and enjoy freedom. The underground railroad narrative resurfaces in Canadian nation-making discourse. Both of the Canadian texts attempt to represent the Canadian nation. Canada House is an iconic building in the heart of London which represents Canada on an international stage. The immigration guidebook attempts to make a collective history for newcomers to the nation. There are silences in these texts which represent the Canadian nation. Both texts obscure the existence of enslavement in Canada and the poor treatment of the black loyalists. Anti-slavery activism is a

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__________________________________________________________________ source of moral capital as Christopher Leslie Brown has shown. The image of Canada as an anti-slavery haven generates moral capital for the Canadian nation. One of the commonalities of the papers delivered at the Slavery Past Present and Future Conference (2015) is the observation that scholars and students are especially drawn towards studying and researching the history of transatlantic slavery and that in the United States. For example, Catherine Armstrong’s paper reflects on her experience of teaching an undergraduate module about ‘slavery in a global context’ at a British University. She notes that despite exposing her students to different types of slaveries in a world-wide context, most chose to develop museum exhibits about transatlantic slavery for their assessments. The high profile of the history of slavery in the United States and the plethora of cultural outpourings such as the film Twelve Years a Slave and games such as Freedom: The Underground Railroad speak of a dominance in telling this narrative. The texts producing the histories of Canada are in part shaped by this dominance. The Canadian texts retell the history of slavery in the United States and echo back the narrative of the underground railroad to produce the image of Canada as an antislavery haven.

Notes 1

Robin W. Winks, The Blacks in Canada: A History, 2nd ed. (Montreal: McGillQueen’s University Press, 1997), 105; Frank Mackey, Done with Slavery: The Black Fact in Montreal (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2010), 307. 2 Christopher Leslie Brown, Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006). 3 Brian Mayer, designer, Freedom: The Underground Railroad (Fremont Ohio: Academy Games, 2013). 4 John Chavez, ‘Ohio Company Making a Mark with Historical Strategy Games’, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 10 March 2014. Viewed 11 August 2015, http://www.post-gazette.com/business/2014/03/11/Ohio-company-making-a-markwith-historical-strartegy-games/stories/201403100130. 5 Amazon, ‘Academy Games Freedom the Underground Railroad Board Game’ (product description), Amazon. Com, Inc. Viewed 1 August 2015, http://www.amazon.co.uk/300/dp/B00HCHRGNI. 6 Dominic Henri ‘Complex and Engaging’ (customer review), 10 November 2014. Viewed 1 August 2015 http://www.amazon.co.uk/300/dp/B00HCHRGNI. 7 Henry Bibb, Narrative of the Life of Henry Bibb (1849 I was Born a Slave: An Anthology of Classic Slave Narratives: Volume Two 1849-1866 ), ed. Yuval Taylor (Edinburgh: Payback Press, 1999), 19. 8 Benjamin Drew, A North-Side View of Slavery: The Refugee: Or the Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada Related by Themselves with an Account of the History and Condition of the Coloured Population of Upper Canada (1856).

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__________________________________________________________________ 9

Isaac Mason, ‘Life of Isaac Mason as a Slave (1893)’, From Bondage to Belonging: The Worcester Slave Narratives, eds. B. Eugene McCarthy and Thomas L. Doughton (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007), 277. 10 Nancy Kang, ‘“As if I had Entered a Paradise’’: Fugitive Slave Narratives and Cross Border Literary History’, African American Review 39.3 (2005): 431-457, 434, viewed 12 August 2015, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40033673. 11 Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Discover Canada (Citizenship and Immigration Canada: n.p., n.p.), viewed 1 August 2015, http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/pub/discover.pdf. 12 Citizenship and Immigration, Discover Canada, 13. 13 Ibid. 14 Catherine M. A. Cottreau-Robins, ‘Searching for the Enslaved in Nova Scotia’s Loyalist Landscape,’ Acadiensis 43.1 (2014): 125-136, 125. 15 Maya Jasanoff, Liberty’s Exiles: The Loss of America and the Remaking of the British Empire (London: Harper Press, 2011), 358. 16 See for example Simon Schama, Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution (Vintage: London, 2009); James Walker, The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone (London: Longman, 1976). 17 Winks estimates 1,190-1,196 black people set out on the journey from Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone in 1792. Winks, The Blacks in Canada: A History, 73. 18 Canadian High Commission to the United Kingdom, Canada House: Trafalgar Square (London: Canadian High Commission to the United Kingdom, 2015). 19 Selected items from the printed guidebook are available to view online, Canadian High Commission to the United Kingdom, Canada House Collection, viewed 15 August 2015, http://www.canadahousecollection.co.uk. All references in this chapter are to the printed edition. 20 ‘Provinces: Nova Scotia’ in Canadian High Commission, Canada House, 46-47, 47. 21 Ibid. 22 Ibid. 23 The concept of the moral capital of abolitionism is taken from Christopher Leslie Brown, Moral Capital. 24 Ibid. 25 Moral Capital 457-8.

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Bibliography Amazon, ‘Academy Games Freedom The Underground Railroad Board Game’. Product description. Amazon. Com, Inc. Viewed 1 August 2015. http://www.amazon.co.uk/300/dp/B00HCHRGNI. Blight, David, ed. Passages to Freedom: The Underground Railroad in History and Memory. Washington DC: Smithsonian Books, 2004. Brown, Christopher Leslie, Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. Bibb, Henry. Narrative of the Life of Henry Bibb (1849) I was Born a Slave: An Anthology of Classic Slave Narratives: Volume Two 1849-1866, edited by Yuval Taylor. Edinburgh: Payback Press, 1999. Canadian High Commission to the United Kingdom. Canada House: Trafalgar Square. London: Canadian High Commission to the United Kingdom, 2015. Canadian High Commission to the United Kingdom, Canada House Collection. Viewed 15 August 2015. http://www.canadahousecollection.co.uk. Chavez, John. ‘Ohio Company Making a Mark with Historical Strategy Games’, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10 March 2014. Viewed 11 August 2015. http://www.post-gazette.com/business/2014/03/11/Ohio-company-making-a-markwith-historical-strartegy-games/stories/201403100130. Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Discover Canada. Citizenship and Immigration Canada: n.p., n.p.. Viewed 1 August 2015. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/pub/discover.pdf. Cooper, Afua. The Hanging of Angelique. Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2007. Cottreau-Robins, Catherine M. A. ‘Searching for the Enslaved in Nova Scotia’s Loyalist Landscape’. Acadiensis 43.1 (2014): 125-136. Drew, Benjamin. The Refugee, or the Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada. Boston: J P Jewett, 1856. Henri, Dominic. ‘Complex and Engaging’. Customer Review. 10 November 2014. Viewed 1 August 2015. http://www.amazon.co.uk/300/dp/B00HCHRGNI.

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__________________________________________________________________ Jasanoff, Maya. Liberty’s Exiles: The Loss of America and the Remaking of the British Empire. London: Harper Press, 2011. Kang, Nancy. ‘“As if I had Entered a Paradise”: Fugitive Slave Narratives and Cross Border Literary History’. African American Review 39.3 (2005): 431-457. Viewed 12 August 2015. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40033673. Mason, Isaac. Life of Isaac Mason as a Slave. Worcester Mass: n.p., 1893. From Bondage to Belonging: The Worcester Slave Narratives, edited by B. Eugene McCarthy and Thomas L. Doughton. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007. http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/mason/mason.html. Mayer, Brian. Freedom: The Underground Railroad. Fremont Ohio: Academy Games, 2014. Rushforth, Brett. ‘“A Little Flesh We Offer You”: The Origins of Indian Slavery in New France’. The William and Mary Quarterly 60.4 (2003): 777-808. Viewed 11 August 2015. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3491699. Schama, Simon. Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution. Vintage: London, 2009. Steward, Austin. Twenty-Two Years a Slave and Forty Years a Freeman. Rochester NY: William Alling, 1857. Viewed 1 August 2015. http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/steward/steward.html. Trudel, Marcel. Canada’s Forgotten Slaves: Two Hundred Years of Bondage. Translated by George Tombs. Montreal: Vehicule Press, 2013. Walker, James. The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone. London: Longman, 1976. Winks, Robin W. The Blacks in Canada: A History. 2nd ed. Montreal: McGillQueen’s University Press, 1997. Woods, Scott. ‘A Smart, Sensible and Engaging Game’. Customer Review. 14 April 2014. Viewed 1 August 2015. http://www.amazon.co.uk/300/dp/B00HCHRGNI. Eleanor Lucy Bird is a Collaborative Doctoral Award student with the British Library based in the School of English at the University of Sheffield, Her PhD

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__________________________________________________________________ explores slave narratives through the lens of the Canadian experience and involves archive-based research using early Canadian newspapers.

Making ‘Slavery’ Work Karen E. Bravo Abstract The term ‘slavery’ is proclaimed and heard everywhere: ‘modern slavery,’ ‘modern day slavery’, ‘modern forms of slavery’, and ‘contemporary forms of slavery.’ Uses of the term no longer arise from celebratory invocations of the 19th century legal prohibition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in Africans and of chattel slavery by the United Kingdom, the United States, and other Western powers. Instead, the popular contemporary use of the term is said to reflect the emergence of a ‘new’ form of exploitation that is similar to, yet different from, the slavery of the past. This paper will explore how ‘slavery’ works. The issues addressed include: (1) What are the origins of and reasons for the contemporary resurgence in the use of the term? (2) What goals are sought or achieved by ‘slavery’s’ use in the public sphere? (3) Identification of some contexts and mechanisms of the use. (4) Who benefits, and who loses, from the contemporary use. In exploring those issues, the paper addresses ‘slavery’ as a legal definition which is in the process of being re-worked into a concept which captures shock-inducing exploitation; and ‘slavery’ as tool of anti-trafficking and anti-exploitation activists. Key Words: Slavery, stigmatisation, human trafficking, migrant workers, exploitation, victimisation, trans-Atlantic slavery. ***** 1. Introduction In the global fight against human exploitation, the misuse of the term ‘slavery’ detracts from understanding of both contemporary and past exploitation, and undermines the potential effectiveness of anti-exploitation initiatives. In identifying an ‘evil’ we fail to perceive the elephant in the room – namely, the mundanity of the exploitation, as well as the invisible participation of governments, vested interests, and average persons, all of whom are beneficiaries. Today, the term ‘slavery’ is proclaimed and heard everywhere: ‘modern slavery’, ‘modern day slavery’, ‘modern forms of slavery’, and ‘contemporary forms of slavery.’ Uses of the term no longer arise within the context of celebratory invocations of the 19th century legal prohibition of chattel slavery and of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in Africans by the United Kingdom, the United States, and other Western countries. Instead, the contemporary uses of the term attempt to ‘name’ the emergence of a ‘new’ form of exploitation that is similar to, yet different from, the slavery of the past.1 There are many examples of this trend.

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__________________________________________________________________ Pope Francis, in his first message to the world in 2015, condemned modern slavery.2 The Pontiff stated that: Today, as in the past, slavery is rooted in a notion of the human person which allows him or her to be treated as an object…. Whether by coercion or deception, or by physical or psychological duress, human persons created in the image and likeness of God are deprived of their freedom, sold and reduced to being the property of others. They are treated as means to an end.3 Among the types of ‘slavery’ listed by the Pontiff in that message were: forced prostitution, coerced or exploitative labor, migrant workers, child soldiers, individuals trafficked for organs, and persons held and exploited by terrorist groups.4 The activist community also makes frequent use of the word. For example, Walk Free Foundation, a well-funded international NGO,5 in its 2014 Global Slavery Index, announced that: ‘Around the world today, there are an estimated 35.8 million men, women and children trapped in modern slavery.’6 The language of slavery is also used in contemporary legislation: For example, in 2015, the United Kingdom enacted the Modern Slavery Act 2015.7 The Modern Slavery Act creates an Anti-Slavery Commissioner, whose duties include, among other things, ‘the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of slavery and human trafficking offences.’8 Lastly, the news media also freely uses the term ‘slavery’ to refer to the types of exploitation that fall within the international definition of ‘human trafficking’ which was adopted in 2000.9 For example, CNN and NPR, the U.S. news media outlets, have described as ‘slavery’ the exploitation of workers discovered on a remote Indonesian island and held in exploitative conditions without freedom of movement.10 The CNN report noted ‘the problem of modern day slaves fishing for seafood that ends up on dinner plates on the other side of the world ….’11 ‘Slavery’ is a loaded term. Is it possible to use ‘slavery’ in a way that is not exploitative of: (i) contemporary victims, by stigmatizing them with the status of ‘slave;’ (ii) descendants of historic slavery by undermining, minimizing, or losing sight of their ancestors’ exploitation and the contemporary descendants’ ongoing experiences of inequality;12 (iii) civil society, if resources are steered toward or dedicated only to the most egregious or eye-catching forms of exploitation, leaving unaddressed potentially more prevalent forms? So, how does ‘slavery’ work? And can we improve the effectiveness of ‘slavery?’ The exploration undertaken for this paper distinguishes between ‘slavery,’ the act, system, and status, versus the term ‘slavery.’ In this paper I focus

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__________________________________________________________________ on the work performed and the uses made of the term, not on the status or relationship of enslavement. Part 2 of this paper discusses the contemporary re-emergence of ‘slavery’, summarizing the goals of the contemporary use, and giving examples of the contexts and mechanisms of contemporary use. Part 3 explores the harms and benefits of the new practice, while Part 4 offers conditions pursuant to which ‘slavery’ can ‘work’ more effectively. 2. The Contemporary Re-Emergence and Evolution of Slavery Until only little more than a decade ago, uses of the word ‘slavery’ referred to previous eras’ exploitative relationships and legal systems. Such references were accompanied by conventional confidence about the triumphal progress in human conditions which had eliminated such shameful acts from the contemporary era. At most, recognised forms of exploitation were spoken of in terms of ‘slavery-like’ conditions and/or of individual bad actors who operated under cloak of secrecy away from the public gaze and from the reach of the law. So strong is the prohibition against slavery, that the prohibition has attained the status of ius cogens norm in the international sphere.13 The prohibition against slavery is contained in international treaties, international customary norms, and domestic legislative prohibitions.14 This means that states attempting to create or re-create a system of slavery through treaty or other instruments, would be unable to do so as a legal matter. Today, ‘slavery’ is used to label widespread and omnipresent systems of exploitation. These appear to exist, in a fraught duality of openness and secrecy: ‘hidden’ from the eyes of society, yet existing in plain sight.15 The inherently contradictory result is that, although slavery is prohibited pursuant to international law, and under the domestic laws of the majority of countries, it is seen and known to exist everywhere.16 A. Reasons for Re-emergence of the Term I have written of the nature of the use of trans-Atlantic slavery in the antitrafficking fight, and of the powerful emotions and reactions the analogy evokes. 17 The images of historic slavery offered a natural analogy,18 one that could prove very useful in the anti-exploitation cause. As such, ‘slavery’ began to appear in publications, the media, and everyday conversation. Users of the word ‘slavery,’ sometimes cautiously couched their usage in the language of ‘modern forms of’ or ‘modern’ or ‘contemporary forms of’ to refer to the types of contemporary exploitation targeted by the user. The new use stems from (1) the shock of ‘first responders’ who became newly aware of the existence and widespread nature and severity of contemporary forms of exploitation and for whom readily accessible images of the most exploitative relationship were the mental images of the trans-Atlantic trade and New World

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__________________________________________________________________ slavery, and (2) the instrumentalist reality that the shock and revulsion evoked by the term ‘slavery’ and the imagery of slavery offered a powerful, if crudely formed, tool for anti-exploitation efforts. It seems a perfect pairing: the first responders harnessed their shock and, determined to combat the exploitation they had witnessed, brought to bear the most powerful tools at their command: the label ‘slavery.’ Users resort to the term because of a sense of outraged recognition and shock about the contemporary existence and re-emergence of such types of exploitation, especially as more shocking and sensationalist details emerge; desire to harness the power of the term and to direct it against exploiters; and to express disapprobation and outrage against both the exploiters and the complacency of the public. As a result, the contemporary references to ‘slavery’ target domestic servitude, sex trafficking, migrant workers, and other similar types of exploitation.19 However, these types of exploitation differ in fundamental respects from the slavery to which the term has traditionally referred. Therefore, ‘slavery’ today appears to refer to something different from the slavery of the past and, moreover, the term ‘slavery’ is in the process of a conceptual evolution or transformation into other meanings. B. ‘Slavery’ Evolves How did a term which referred to a corrosive property relationship founded in, created and enforced by legal, social, and cultural institutions, and which was believed to be extinct, come to apply to the often illegal and, for the most part, sub rosa exploitative relationships that users of the term address today? Review of existing definitions and comparison of contemporary uses demonstrate that change. Although attempts to define slavery can lead to heated debates,20 there is general consensus that traditional slavery was ‘chattel slavery.’21 That slavery shared a number of characteristics: Firstly, traditional slavery existed within a temporal framework during which the exploitation referred to was openly framed and enforced by institutions of the society. Slaveries of the past were created and structured by positive law, and were enforceable pursuant to law and by the legal and governmental institutions such as law enforcement, and the judiciary. Secondly, traditional ‘slavery’ referred to a status and system arising from a property relationship involving the slaveholder, the slave, and the society. The slaveholder had absolute property rights in the physical person of the slave; and those property rights had priority over the rights of the slave or of the society. That is, the slaveholder, pursuant to law, owned the slave with priority of claim (extending to the right to terminate the slave (commit homicide) without legal penalty) over the slave’s interest in herself or of the society’s interest (if any) in the slave. With the exception of capital punishments for crimes against the state – plotting rebellion, for example - the society could assert no interest in the slave that could be enforced against the slaveholder’s own ownership interest. The slave,

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__________________________________________________________________ likewise, could not assert legally cognizable interests, needs or wants which contradicted her master’s. International legal definitions of ‘slavery’, have similarly hinged upon the chattel-property relationship between slaveholder and slave. For example, the League of Nations’ Slavery, Forced Labor and Similar Institutions and Practices Convention of 1926,22 containing perhaps the most influential international law definition of the term,23 also exemplifies the property-centered definition. The Convention’s Article 1 declares that: ‘Slavery is the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised.’24 Sociologist Orlando Patterson’s definition is more interior to the relationship between master and slave: His definition focuses on the interpersonal relationship and psychological benefits and detriments accruing to master and slave.25 However, despite its interiority, there is a sense that surrounding cultural, social, political, and legal systems act as background reinforcement of the master-slave relationship of power and powerlessness. ‘Slavery’ now seems to be everywhere, as the term evolves away from the traditional property relationship to encompass exploitation previously described as ‘slavery-like’ and to express disapproval of exploitative relationships that shock the contemporary conscience. But there is grave, yet seemingly unacknowledged danger in this lack of rigor. Despite cautionary words regarding use of the term in the anti-human trafficking and anti-exploitation realms,26 ‘slavery’s’ use continues unabated. Does it work? 3. Benefits and Harms of ‘Slavery’ Does ‘slavery’ work? For victims of contemporary exploitation? For ‘activists’ against these contemporary types of exploitation? For civil society? On the one hand, in light of the extent and nature of the exploitation uncovered, the use of the term may appear to be both reasonable and apposite. On the other hand, the use appears to be fraught with danger. A. Benefits to Victims and Civil Society The benefits derived from use of the term are: greater attention to contemporary exploitative circumstances; the galvanisation of actors from disparate parts of the society, including governmental institutions, and private corporate actors.27 The outrage evoked from these disparate actors can be channelled into action. Victims, therefore, may benefit from the label. Their until-then-invisible exploitation and experiences are identified, named and analysed, so that their suffering becomes observable, possibly measureable, and part of the society’s understanding and depiction of itself. In addition to these psychic and psychological benefits, legislative initiatives may trigger tangible and legally enforceable benefits for some victim, including

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__________________________________________________________________ protection from their exploiters and potentially permanent rescue from their situations of exploitation.28 B. Harms However, countervailing considerations suggest the folly of a profligate use of the term ‘slavery.’ The potential harms include victim stigmatisation and revictimisation, damage to the descendants of past slaves, and harm to the antihuman trafficking and anti-exploitation campaigns. 1. Stigmatisation and Revictimisation The very power of the term ‘slavery,’ so readily accessible and able to stimulate action from the civil society and other actors, extends its emotive aura to the label of ‘slave.’ The term ‘slave’ reinforces the enslaved persons own psychic understanding of her debasement. ‘Naming’ can become a revictimisation, one that is enhanced by the stigmatisation resulting from the surrounding society’s perception of the nature and depth of the exploited person’s debasement. Where that contemporary exploitation was not openly supported by legal and governmental institutions, and are perceived to be the result of mere misguided choices made by the exploited person, a certain quantum of ‘blame the victim’ may emerge and may undermine movements toward restitution. 2. Slave Descendants The over-use of ‘slavery’ undermines and harms communities of descendants of past slaves. This harm is effectuated as much through the bandying about of the term (each hearing being a small cut that evokes the shame of ancestral exploitation and subhuman status) as by the incorrect usage. By labelling as ‘slavery’ exploitation that is not traditional slavery, the users risk creating misunderstanding of the nature and extent of the exploitation to which past slaves were subjected and of their enduring present day legacies. 3. Harms to the Cause? The harm to the anti-trafficking and anti-exploitation campaigns stem from a similar dynamic: over- and inapt use leads to widespread ignorance and failure of understanding of the nature of slavery – both past and present. This ignorance and failure to understand extends to the structural causes of and supports for past slavery and contemporary exploitation.

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__________________________________________________________________ That harm is, perhaps, the most damaging one. Where resources are not devoted to structural responses to the inequality and sources of vulnerability that give rise to the exploitation targeted by the term’s users, the resources, efforts and initiatives will function as mere Band-Aid, without affecting root causes of the exploitation. A failure to address structural causes and supports of contemporary exploitation means that today’s activists and their initiatives are consigned to a fruitless exercise of bailing out a leaky boat – without first finding out why the water is coming in or why attempts to stem the flow fail. The water, by which I mean the victims, will continue to come in a ceaseless upwelling flow. Anti-trafficking and anti-exploitation efforts will succeed in maintaining an even yet treacherous keel on a temporary basis. All too soon, however, by failing to address foundational and supportive structure, the water will be chest high, the boat will go under and the ineffectiveness of the efforts will be such that there is no recover. 4. Making ‘Slavery’ Work In view of these identified harms and benefits, how do we make ‘slavery’ work? Can we or should we make it work better? Do we want it to work? I admit to queasiness about use of the word and to substantial ambivalence regarding getting slavery to ‘work.’ My unease springs from (1) belief in the need to safeguard rigorous definitions and definitions’ important role in ‘naming’ reality;29 (2) concern about a contemporary dissipation of the meaning and understanding of slavery, both historic and contemporary; and (3) apprehension that ‘slavery’ is mis-used to the detriment of the victims and causes for whom the users claim to advocate. Although I object to the ways in which ‘slavery’ is used and believe that its great potential to deepen knowledge of systems of exploitation is insufficiently recognised,30 I wonder whether the time may be past for stemming the tide. If that is the case, and ‘slavery’ is and will be used in anti-exploitation efforts, how to make sure that ‘slavery’ ‘works’? That is, how to ensure that its use is effective in anti-trafficking initiatives and campaigns against other abhorrent forms of exploitation? ‘Works’ in the context of ‘slavery’ means the effective use of the term. Such use would stem from contextual understanding that ‘slavery’ was not aberrational in previous eras and is not aberrational now. ‘Slavery’ works if structures of subordination and exploitation and their roles are identified and targeted in the anti-exploitation efforts. ‘Slavery’ does not work with an almost exclusive and obsessive egregiously prurient focus on sensation-causing examples of exploitation. Therefore, activists, policymakers, legislators and scholars must renounce a decontextualised use of the term and must invoke it only having mastered and while referring to the interrelationships among different types and periods of

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__________________________________________________________________ exploitation, including their manifestations and legacies today. This contemporary era and type of exploitation must be linked to and understood in light of the exploitation of prior eras. Exploitation must be understood in terms of its mutability and adaptability, as well as in terms of fundamental similarities across time and geographic space. Secondly, if ‘slavery’ is to be used because of the attractiveness and effectiveness of its power, users must openly acknowledge that ‘slavery’ does not mean ‘slavery’ as traditionally understood or legally defined. Instead, ‘slavery’ has become a shorthand reference for forms of exploitation which are widely condemned forms today. 5. Conclusion ‘Slavery’ can work, but the standard for appropriate and effective use is high. It requires understanding of slavery’s structural nature and institutional supports, and identification and recognition of disparate (even unknowing) beneficiaries of the exploitation. It also demands identification of the participants and forces who create and police the vulnerabilities that give rise to extreme forms of exploitation.31 ‘Slavery’ does not work when it evokes strong and passionate reactions, but does not channel them against the structural causes of this extreme exploitation. Passionate but ignorance-laced ineffective do-gooding, no matter how many are the do-gooders or plentiful the resources at their disposal, cannot make slavery ‘work’ to effectively combat the targeted forms of exploitation.

Notes 1

See, e.g., Kevin Bales, Ending Slavery: How We Free Today’s Slaves (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2008). Bales diagnoses modern slavery which, in his view, is characterised by the cheapness and disposability of today’s slaves. Ibid. at 12. 2 See Message of His Holiness, Pope Francis, for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace, ‘No Longer Slaves, But Brothers and Sisters’, Jan. 1, 2015, viewed August 8, 2015, https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/peace/documents/papafrancesco_20141208_messaggio-xlviii-giornata-mondiale-pace-2015.html. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. (emphasis added) 5 The organisation was founded by Australian billionaire Andrew Forest. See Janie A. Chuang, ‘Exploitation Creep and the Unmaking of Human Trafficking Law’ 108 American Journal of International Law 108 (2014): 609-649, 627. 6 See Walk Free Foundation, ‘2014 Global Slavery Index’, November 2014, Viewed August 8, 2015,

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__________________________________________________________________ http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/findings/. 7 The text of the legislation is available here: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/30/contents/enacted/data.htm. The legislation was first introduced in the House of Parliament in 2013; it became law on March 1, 2015. See http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2014-15/modernslavery.html (U.K. House of Parliament website that tracks the status of legislation across time.) 8 See ‘Modern Slavery Act 2015’, Sections 40 and 41(1)(a) (emphasis added). Note that the legislation distinguishes between human trafficking and slavery. 9 See Article 3(a) of the ‘United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, United Nations, supplementing the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organised Crime’, United Nations Treaty Series, vol. 2237, p. 319; Doc. A/55/383 (hereinafter, ‘the UN Trafficking Protocol’), defining ‘human trafficking’ as: [T]he recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. 10 See Dean Irvine, Saima Mohsin, and Kocha Olarn, ‘Seafood from slavery: Can Thailand tackle the crisis in its fishing industry?’, CNN, May 11, 2015, viewed on August 6, 2015, http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/11/asia/freedom-project-thailandfishing-slave-ships/; ‘Was Your Seafood Caught By Slaves? AP Uncovers Unsavory Trade’, National Public Radio, March 27, 2015, viewed on August 6, 2015, http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/03/27/395589154/was-your-seafoodcaught-by-slaves-ap-uncovers-unsavory-trade. 11 ‘Was Your Seafood Caught by Slaves?’. 12 Kevin Bales, Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2004) 9 (‘There are more slaves alive today than all the people stolen from Africa in the time of the transatlantic slave trade.’). This potential for exploitation is particularly relevant in cases of racebased slavery, where group stigmatisation may continue and may be the foundation of a global racial hierarchy, where use of ‘slavery’ may end the conversation, not leaving open avenues for redress. 13 A ius cogens norm is one which permits of no derogation by states. 14 See, e.g., Universal Declaration of Human Rights, GA res. 217A (III), UN Doc A/810 at 71 (1948); International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, GA res.

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__________________________________________________________________ 2200A (XXI), 21 UN GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 52, UN Doc. A/6316 (1966); 999 UNTS 171; 6 ILM 368 (1967). 15 See Sarah Maslin Nir, ‘The Price of Nice Nails’, The New York Times, May 7, 2015, Viewed on 8 August 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/nyregion/at-nail-salons-in-nyc-manicuristsare-underpaid-and-unprotected.html (describing the exploitation of nail salon workers in New York City). 16 See Walk Free Foundation, 2014 Global Slavery Index, supra note 6. 17 See Karen E. Bravo, ‘Exploring the Analogy between Modern Trafficking in Humans and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade’, 25 Boston University International Law Journal (2007): 207 and Karen E. Bravo, ‘The Role of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in Contemporary Anti-Trafficking Discourse’, Seattle Journal for Social Justice 9 (2011): 555 (each challenging the superficiality and emotional exploitation of these uses). 18 See Yuen Foon Khong, Analogies at War: Korea, Munich, Dien Bien Phu, and the Vietnam Decisions of 1965 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), 14, 262 (identifying and analysing the use and misuse of historical analogies). 19 See, e.g., the situations described in Part 1 supra. See also Bales, Ending Slavery; E. Benjamin Skinner, A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face With ModernDay Slavery (New York: Free Press, 2008); Susan Tiano and Moira MurphyAguilera with Brianne Bigej, eds., Borderline Slavery: Mexico, United States, and the Human Trade (Burlington: Ashgate, 2012). 20 See, e.g., Kevin Bales, ‘Professor Kevin Bales’s Response to Professor Orlando Patterson’, The Legal Understanding of Slavery: From the Historical to the Contemporary, ed. Jean Allain (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 36072; and Orlando Patterson, Rejoinder: Professor Orlando Patterson’s Response to Professor Kevin Bales, The Legal Understanding of Slavery: From the Historical to the Contemporary, ed. Jean Allain (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012): 373-74. 21 For example, influential historian David Brion Davis notes that, ‘[t]raditional definitions of slavery have stressed that the slave’s person is the chattel property of another man or woman, and thus subject to sale and other forms of transfer . . .’ See David Brion Davis, Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006): 30. 22 League of Nations’ Slavery, Forced Labor and Similar Institutions and Practices Convention of 1926, Art. 1(1), 60 L.N.T.S. 253, entered into force March 9, 1927. 23 Kevin Bales and Peter T. Robbins, ‘“No One Shall Be Held in Slavery or Servitude:” A Critical Analysis of International Slavery Agreements and Concepts of Slavery’, Human Rights Review Jan.–March (2001): 18. 24 Slavery Convention, Art. 1(1).

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__________________________________________________________________ 25

Based on Patterson’s review and analysis of examples of slavery among a variety of cultures throughout human history, he defines slavery as ‘the permanent, violent domination of natally alienated and greatly dishonored people.’ See Orlando Patterson, Slavery and Social Death (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982): 13. Patterson continues ‘[s]lavery is one of the most extreme forms of the relation of domination, approaching the limits of total power from the viewpoint of the master, and of total powerlessness from the viewpoint of the slave.’ Ibid. at 1. Offering additional context, Patterson notes that ‘[w]hat was universal in the master-slave relationship was the strong sense of honour the experience of mastership generated, and conversely, the dishonouring of the slave condition.’ Ibid. at 11. 26 See, e.g., Bravo, ‘Exploring the Analogy’; and Karen E. Bravo, On Making Persons: Legal Constructions of Personhood and Their Nexus with the Traffic in Human Beings, Northern Illinois Law Review 31 (2011): 467; Chuang, Exploitation Creep. 27 Examples include the formation and activities of anti-slavery and anti-trafficking NGOs; legislative initiatives and international collaborations by governments; and corporate anti-trafficking policies, initiatives, and best practices. 28 For example, the U.S. anti-trafficking legislation provides for the issuance of special visas to victims of human trafficking who meet certain criteria. 29 Only from ‘accurate’ naming that reflects reality can we achieve understanding of events and phenomena so as to effectively respond to them. 30 Karen E. Bravo, ‘A Crossroads in the Fight Against Human Trafficking? Let’s Take the Structural Route: A Response to Janie Chuang’, American Journal of International Law Unbound (blog), June 11, 2015, Viewed on 5 August 2015, http://www.asil.org/blogs/crossroads-fight-against-human-traffickinglet%E2%80%99s-take-structural-route-response-janie-chuang 31 See Karen E. Bravo, ‘Interrogating the State's Roles in Human Trafficking’, Indiana International and Comparative Law Review 25 (2014): 9-xx.

Bibliography Bales, Kevin. Ending Slavery: How We Free Today’s Slaves. Berkley, California: University of California Press, 2007. Bales, Kevin. Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. Berkley, California: University of California Press, 2004. Bales, Kevin. ‘Professor Kevin Bales’s Response to Professor Orlando Patterson’. The Legal Understanding of Slavery: From the Historical to the Contemporary, edited by Jean Allain, 360-72. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

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__________________________________________________________________ Bales, Kevin and Peter T. Robbins, ‘“No One Shall Be Held in Slavery or Servitude:” A Critical Analysis of International Slavery Agreements and Concepts of Slavery’. Human Rights Review Jan.–March (2001): 18-45. Bravo, Karen E. ‘Interrogating the State's Roles in Human Trafficking’. Indiana International and Comparative Law Review 25 (2014): 9-31. Bravo, Karen E. ‘Exploring the Analogy between Modern Trafficking in Humans and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade’. Boston University International Law Journal 25 (2007): 207-295. Bravo, Karen E. ‘The Role of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in Contemporary Anti-Trafficking Discourse’. Seattle Journal for Social Justice 9 (2011): 555-597. Bravo, Karen E. ‘On Making Persons: Legal Constructions of Personhood and Their Nexus with the Traffic in Human Beings’. Northern Illinois Law Review 31 (2011): 467-500. Bravo, Karen E. ‘A Crossroads in the Fight Against Human Trafficking? Let’s Take the Structural Route: A Response to Janie Chuang’. American Journal of International Law Unbound (blog), June 11, 2015. Viewed on 8 August 2015. http://www.asil.org/blogs/crossroads-fight-against-human-traffickinglet%E2%80%99s-take-structural-route-response-janie-chuang Chuang, Janie A. ‘Exploitation Creep and the Unmaking of Human Trafficking Law’. American Journal of International Law 108 (2014): 609-649. Davis, David Brion. Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, GA res. 2200A (XXI), 21 UN GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 52, UN Doc. A/6316 (1966); 999 UNTS 171; 6 ILM 368 (1967). Irvine, Dean., Saima Mohsin, and Kocha Olarn. ‘Seafood from slavery: Can Thailand tackle the crisis in its fishing industry?’. CNN, May 11, 2015. Viewed on 6 August 2015. http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/11/asia/freedom-project-thailand-fishing-slaveships/.

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__________________________________________________________________ Khong, Yuen Foon. Analogies at War: Korea, Munich, Dien Bien Phu, and the Vietnam Decisions of 1965. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. ‘League of Nations’ Slavery, Forced Labor and Similar Institutions and Practices Convention of 1926’, Art. 1(1), 60 L.N.T.S. 253, entered into force March 9, 1927. Message of His Holiness, Pope Francis, for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace, ‘No Longer Slaves, But Brothers and Sisters’, Jan. 1, 2015. Viewed 8 August 2015, https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/peace/documents/papafrancesco_20141208_messaggio-xlviii-giornata-mondiale-pace-2015.html Modern Slavery Act 2015. Viewed 8 August 2015 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/30/contents/enacted/data.htm Nir, Sarah Maslin. ‘The Price of Nice Nails’, The New York Times, May 7, 2015. Viewed on 8 August 2015. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/nyregion/at-nail-salons-in-nyc-manicuristsare-underpaid-and-unprotected.html Patterson, Orlando. Slavery and Social Death. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982. Patterson, Orlando. ‘Rejoinder: Professor Orlando Patterson’s Response to Professor Kevin Bales’. The Legal Understanding of Slavery: From the Historical to the Contemporary, edited by Jean Allain, 373-74. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Skinner, E. Benjamin. A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face With Modern-Day Slavery. New York: Free Press, 2008. Tiano, Susan and Moira Murphy-Aguilera with Brianne Bigej, editors. Borderline Slavery: Mexico, United States, and the Human Trade. Burlington: Ashgate, 2012. United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, United Nations, supplementing the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organised Crime’, United Nations Treaty Series, vol. 2237, 319; Doc. A/55/383. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, GA res. 217A (III), UN Doc A/810 at 71 (1948).

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__________________________________________________________________ Walk Free Foundation. 2014 Global Slavery Index, November 2014. Viewed 8 August 2015. http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/findings/. ‘Was Your Seafood Caught By Slaves? AP Uncovers Unsavory Trade’. National Public Radio, March 27, 2015. Viewed on 6 August 2015. http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/03/27/395589154/was-your-seafoodcaught-by-slaves-ap-uncovers-unsavory-trade Karen E. Bravo. Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and International Affairs, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, Indianapolis, Indiana. A graduate of the University of the West Indies, Columbia University School of Law, and New York University School of Law, Bravo is a leading expert on human trafficking and its relationship to slavery.

The Slave Narrative that Freed Me Regina E. Mason Abstract Growing up I felt that I lacked a history worth trumpeting. Like generations of African-American families in the shadow of slavery, its legacy cast shame over me and had left gaping holes in my family tree. An indescribable emptiness from the lack of roots permeated my being and threatened to repeat itself in my children— the next generation. Everything changed when I dove head-first into genealogy and, after a few years of searching, discovered an ancestor who had written a precedent-setting memoir, Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave, which he published himself in 1825. I further learned that his was the first fugitive slave narrative written in America. My life would never be the same. His extraordinary example gave me permission to succeed. My essay will summarize William's life, the importance of his book and my journey to reclaim my heritage. Key Words: Slave narrative, history, memory, ancestors, descendants, film. ***** In my younger years, up to age thirty-three, I felt that I lacked a history worth trumpeting. I certainly did not feel confident in articulating family stories to my children beyond their maternal great-grandparents. Like generations of AfricanAmerican families in the shadow of slavery, its legacy cast shame over me and had left gaping holes in my family tree. An indescribable emptiness from the lack of roots permeated my being and threatened to repeat itself in my children—the next generation. At a time in my life, when I strove to gather roots for my two young daughters, I happened on the book America is Me, by Stanford University Professor Kennell Jackson, that validated an internal struggle that I had assumed only lived in me. By this time, I had been five years deep into my quest for roots, but up to that point I had not found anything that addressed how the subject of slavery manifests itself into the minds of black children who do not have the luxury of living in denial about it. ‘American parents today are groping for a way to educate their children about [slavery] in American history,’ Jackson wrote. ‘How do we explain to our children that slavery existed within freedom-loving America?’ Once during a Black History Month talk a parent pointedly asked Dr Jackson, ‘Will talking about slavery depress the spirit of our children?’ 1 Depress the spirit of our children…Those words struck a nerve in me that had been buried deep—ever since the spring of 1971 while I was in fifth grade—when a class assignment on ‘origins’ and ‘ancestry’ shifted the trajectory of American

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__________________________________________________________________ slavery in my mind from abstract to personal when it showed up in my family tree. I can still feel my mother’s uneasiness and discomfort in talking about her enslaved grandfather, Grandpa Fuller, a man she had actually known, who was the product of a taboo interracial union between master and slave, born in Virginia in the1850s. Mom could only speculate about that forbidden union, and even now, I wonder what secrets Grandpa Fuller took to his grave. 2 To learn, as a child, I stemmed from an enslaved heritage was not a badge of honour or a source of pride. Instead, it conjured feelings of anger, shame, resentment and, yes, even a depression of spirit—or at least a momentary one. It was just too much to overcome in one sitting. Unfortunately, whatever inspiring details my mother tried to relay to me about our past were overshadowed by the inherent complexities of my newly revealed enslaved heritage. About a week after the class assignment, my mother took me to see Aunt Katherine the family historian. Aunt Katherine was a gifted storyteller who loved to talk about family lore. However, the story that intrigued me the most was the one she knew the least about. She said someone in our family by the surname of Grimes from New Haven, Connecticut had a connection to the Underground Railroad. As a 10-year old learning about American History, slavery in America, and the Underground Railroad, the clandestine network that helped runaway slaves escape to the North and Canada, fascinated me. I begged my aunt for more information about this Grimes person, but she had given me all she knew. As I grew up, Aunt Katherine’s story about Grimes played on and off again in my mind until one day I decided to see if I could find him. By this time, I was a young wife and mother, with a need to give my girls a sturdier familial foundation to draw from than the weakened one I stood upon as a kid. In 1991, I took up genealogy and after a measure of success I began pairing its process with books on abolition and Underground Railroad. I was hoping to find mention of a man named Grimes from New Haven with an Underground Railroad connection that might authenticate the family lore. I began my search with a sense of possibility, but after months of dead ends and disappointments, the reality of how big my task was began to set in. Just when I was ready to abandon the silly idea of ever finding Grimes, life unwittingly set me on a course of discovery. One day, as I gathered library books that were due, I thumbed through a title I had not read. It was Charles L. Blockson’s book The Underground Railroad. Within the first few pages of the Free New England chapter, Blockson described how a fugitive slave by the name of William Grimes from Savannah, Georgia escaped that southern city with the help of seamen who hid him among bales of cotton on a vessel bound for New York. While in New York, Grimes became connected with Underground Railroad workers who directed him on foot toward Connecticut. Trudging mile after mile through Greenwich and other coastal towns, he arrived in New Haven.3 Blockson’s bibliography revealed that William Grimes had written his life story

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_______________________________________________________ and published it himself. I further learned that the Grimes narrative had been republished in 1971 in the anthology Five Black Lives. This compilation consisted of five autobiographies written by ex-slaves from Connecticut. Included was: Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave Brought Down to the Present.4 Cody’s Bookstore in Berkeley had three copies for sale. With nothing more than a feeling deep down, I bought all three. As I delved into this man’s story, the language astonished me. The slave system that William Grimes described was far more cutthroat than anything I could have imagined. He was ten years old when he was sold away from the arms of his grieving mother to a far off plantation. He grew up like a wild weed, friendless and motherless, with apparently no surrogate enslaved family or loved one to embrace him. Defenceless, he was repeatedly forced outside of the house servants’ circle by other slaves looking out for their own interest. I was numb and clueless too—was this man my ancestor? A sign leapt out at me near the end of the book when William Grimes described his wife as ‘the lovely and all accomplished Clarissa Caesar.’ Immediately I phoned Aunt Katherine. ‘Is Caesar a family name?’ I asked. ‘Hmmm,’ she said, searching her mind. ‘I think it is —but I’m not sure.’ Her next comment brought me to my feet. ‘Oh Gina, I’ve got to get you the family Bible. All of the family names are written in it.’ A Bible?’ I exclaimed, ‘who has it? Where is it? And why hadn’t I heard about this before? Oh, we do have a family Bible,’ My aunt assured me, ‘and when the weather gets better, I’m going to Portland to see if it’s tucked away in my sister’s attic. ‘Better weather’ for Aunt Katherine was nearly a year away and I could not wait that long. I needed answers now. I decided, instead, to take the paper trail to William Grimes the writer. I wanted to see how names in his family would compare with names in my family. I was hoping to find a common denominator that might instantly link the past to the present. Up to the Family History Centre, high in the hills of Oakland, California on the grounds of the Mormon Temple I went, where family names and histories unfolded in microfilm and microfiche and in books and periodicals. I was no stranger to this place; visits to its data collections had now become routine. I began my search for William Grimes with the 1850 federal census in so-called free Connecticut because I learned that this was the first national census to name each individual in a given household. After reeling through sheets of script, I happened on the name William Grimes; the man I now knew had authored a pioneering fugitive slave narrative. In 1850, he was living in New London with

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__________________________________________________________________ five people in his household. I then advanced my search to the 1860 census. This time I found eight in the household of William Grimes. However, not one name from either of those years crossed referenced with names in my family tree. By 1870, William Grimes had either vanished or died. Although I was discouraged, I was not yet defeated. You see I had done what the genealogy guidebooks tell you not to do which was going back too far too fast. I then turned my attention to another aspect of the Grimes narrative. I had long been curious about the identity of William Grimes’s white father, a wealthy planter who, according to Grimes’s own narrative, shot a ‘Mr Gallava’ dead on his plantation. Could I somehow identify the violent slaveholder whose name had been purposely concealed in the book? My first thought was to pour over microfilms of old newspapers of the region, which would have taken months of dedication, if not years. However, one day, I got lucky. Sutro Library in San Francisco had a title on their shelf called Genealogical Abstracts from 18th Century Virginia Newspapers by Robert Headley, Jr. I scooped it up with the intent of thumbing through it in the car as my husband, Brandon, drove us home across the San Francisco Bay. We had not gone two blocks before my husband must have thought I had completely lost my mind. I found it! I yelled tears streaming down my face! A citation emerged that confirmed William Grimes’s story. ‘Robert Galloway a merchant from Fredericksburg, shot and killed by Benjamin Grymes of Eagle’s Nest, King George County,’ As reported in the Virginia Herald on August 7, 1794. Although I was no closer to establishing William Grimes as my ancestor, I had now begun the process of taking his narrative to an exciting new level—a task no other scholar had attempted to do. The history of the plantation Eagle’s Nest, which still stands, can be traced to Benjamin Grymes’s third maternal grandfather, William Fitzhugh, who was, in the late seventeenth century, one of the wealthiest men in Virginia. By 1674, he had built Eagle’s Nest. The estate remained in the family for 300 hundred years when it was sold to outsiders in 1974, the year I began high school.5 Aside from marrying into wealth, Fitzhugh built a fortune as both lawyer and tobacco planter long before cotton became king in the south. When he died in 1701 at age 50 he left his heirs well over fifty-four thousand acres of land and assured social access into other influential ‘first families’ of Virginia. As for William Grimes’s white father, Benjamin Grymes, it is written that he was ‘five-feet ten inches tall, handsome and well made.’6 He volunteered for Grayson’s continental line regiment and was granted the rank of Lieutenant. Soon after, he was selected as one of General George Washington’s bodyguards.7 There were days when I knew with conviction that I had been trailing the right family lines. But sometimes, doubt made me think that I was wasting my time, if not my life, on this project. There were times when I wasn’t so sure I wanted to claim William Grimes as my own. His was a bizarre unfathomable world I could hardly comprehend. He was a highly superstitious man; he believed in witchcraft

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_______________________________________________________ and was convinced that an old slave named Frankee was a witch. He often sought out fortune-tellers for a preview of his fate. The pages of his book reeked of blood and gore from knock-down-drag-out fights he had engaged in with other slaves. He had also been subjected to such horrible violence at the hands of those wicked slave drivers who were often black. Naïve about the structure and function of the slave narrative, I turned to the works of scholars to discern even a basic understanding of this unusual genre of literature. I needed someone or at least a body of text to help me make sense of the book authored by Grimes. Through the experts, I learned that Grimes had actually published his narrative twice in his life, first in 1825 with Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave, and a somewhat expanded version of the same book in 1855 entitled Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave Brought Down to the Present, which included an additional chapter outlining his life in old age.8 One scholar in particular, Dr William L. Andrews, an expert on early black autobiography from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, took me under his wing and taught me the historical significance of the Grimes narrative. I learned that most of the famous fugitive slave narratives of the 1840s and 50s that were trademarks of the Abolitionist Movement were amended and sponsored by white people. In contrast, Grimes was beholden to no one. His is an ‘unedited, authentic voice of literary independence,’ as William L. Andrews wrote in our coauthored introduction to our extensively-research edition of Life of William Grimes.9 I also learned from Dr Andrews just how precedent-setting the Grimes narrative is. At the time the Grimes narrative appeared, the famous abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison had not even publicly declared himself an abolitionist. His newspaper, the Liberator was only a dream and Freedom’s Journal, the first black newspaper, appeared in New York two years after the Grimes narrative. Moreover, William Grimes was the first person to go through slavery in the South and write about it. This meant people got to see, for the first time, southern slavery through the eyes of an ex-southern slave. William Grimes was also the first in this genre of literature to write about how hard it was for a black man to survive in the so-called free north. He wrote about constantly being cheated out of money and he lived under constant threat of being shut out of business. Frederick Douglass, the most famous fugitive slave writer was only seven years old when the Grimes narrative appeared.10 As I dug deeper into the lives of the white Grymeses and Fitzhughs whose records were everywhere, I remained at a stalemate with the mulatto Grimes, unable to move forward into his genealogy. I found myself growing increasingly resentful at the way black lives were historically obliterated from life records! Then something remarkable happened. My mother phoned to announce that Aunt Katherine was en route home from Portland, Oregon with important pages she had found tucked inside the family Bible. I was floored! So engrossed was I in my

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__________________________________________________________________ search that I had forgotten my aunt’s promise to me nearly one year before. It was Memorial Day weekend of 1993, and a family barbeque was planned in honour of her fruitful homecoming. I was the first to study the aging pages that had, over the years, completely separated from the original spine of the book. As generations of names stared back at me, the awe of the moment struck me in such a way I could hardly speak. For in my hands, on paper so fragile and crumbly, blotted and stained, I held a large piece of my heritage. For the first time in my life, I felt like I had roots. Not just spindly roots—easily upturned—but anchored roots as solid as the mighty Redwood tree. In all there were two front and back pages of script spilling to the edges where portions of names and dates had crumbled to dust. As my eyes skimmed the frail pages, I came across a host of names, many familiar; many unknown. There were the Fullers, the Williamses, the Caesars, and the Grimeses. As I skimmed further down the page, there was the name William Grimes followed by the death date of August 21, 1865. Undeniable, William Grimes—author of the first fugitive slave narrative published in America—was my great-great-great-grandfather!11 William Grimes was an ordinary man who did an extraordinary thing. He defied the will of his master and the power of slavery itself. By writing his story, he boldly claimed a free identity and brazenly challenged a new democracy: If it were not for the stripes on my back which were made while I was a slave, I would in my will leave my skin as a legacy to the government, desiring that it might be taken off and made into parchment, and then bind the constitution of glorious happy and free America. Let the skin of an American slave bind the charter of American liberty!12 The story of William Grimes was my birthright and recovering it for my family has been the greatest gift. Inspiration is a powerful thing. It can ignite a passion or fuel a cause. The only thing you have to do—just as my great-great-greatgrandfather did—is give yourself permission, which is a virtue I now live by. Genealogy, for many African-Americans, has the power to reclaim what was once denied. By recovering the lives of a people deemed marginal and insignificant, we give voice and honour to our ancestors and by extension they fortify us and help make us whole.

Notes 1

Kennell Jackson, America Is Me (New York: HarperCollins, 1996), 93-94.

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See Regina E. Mason’s My Long Road Back to William Grimes in the Afterword of Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave, which chronicles Mason’s journey to recover the narrative of William Grimes. 119-138. 3 Charles L. Blockson, The Underground Railroad: Dramatic Firsthand Accounts of Daring Escapes to Freedom (New York: A Berkley Book, 1989), 238. 4 Blockson’s bibliography lead me to the somewhat expanded 1855 narrative, Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave, Brought Down to the Present published in New Haven, Connecticut as featured in the anthology Arna Bontemps ed., Five Black Lives (Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1971). 5 Richard Beale Davis, ed., William Fitzhugh and His Chesapeake World (Chapel Hill: UNC P, 1963), 6. 6 Liza Lawrence, The Vistas at Eagle’s Nest (Fredericksburg, VA: Fredericksburg Press, 1969), 8. 7 Ibid., 8. 8 Charles T. Davis and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., eds., The Slave’s Narrative (New York: Oxford UP, 1985), 321, 326. 9 See William L. Andrews’s ‘Introduction’ to Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave (Oxford University Press, 2008), 3-26, on how precedent setting the Grimes narrative is. 10 Ibid. to further explore how the Grimes narrative stood alone see the extensive Chronology, 113-117. 11 Ibid. See image 5C Family Bible of the African American Grimes clan. Death record illustrates the death of William Grimes as August 21, 1865. 12 Ibid., 103.

Bibliography Andrews, William L. and Regina E. Mason, eds. Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave. New York: Oxford UP, 2008. Ashton, Susanna. ‘Slavery, Imprinted: The Life and Narrative of William Grimes.’ Early African American Print Culture, edited by Lara Langer Cohen and Jordan Alexander Stein, 127-139. Philadelphia: UP of Pennsylvania, 2012. Davis, Charles T. and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., eds. The Slave’s Narrative. New York: Oxford UP, 1985. Davis, Richard Beale, ed. William Fitzhugh and His Chesapeake World. Chapel Hill: UNC P, 1963.

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__________________________________________________________________ Lawrence, Liza. The Vistas at Eagle’s Nest. Fredericksburg, VA: Fredericksburg Press, 1969. Regina E. Mason, Independent Researcher, is the third great maternal granddaughter of William Grimes. She, along with William L. Andrews, is coeditor of the authoritative edition of Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave, and is Executive Producer of the impending documentary Gina’s Journey: The Search for William Grimes.

Misunderstanding Slavery of the Past, Misunderstanding Slavery Today David Wilkins Abstract This chapter argues that historical memory of transatlantic slavery and its abolition have been distorted by both Eurocentric prejudices and racism and by panAfricanist revisions of Eurocentric historiography. This has caused important aspects of the history of transatlantic slavery’s rise, development and abolition to be overlooked and for this history and its ties to present-day injustices to be misunderstood. In particular the chapter highlights how transatlantic slavery emerged because of a wider history of slavery and because of wider systems of inequality, othering and exploitation. It also notes how the abolition of slavery has been attributed in biased Eurocentric historiography to elite white men, thereby validating their privilege and the wider inequalities and attitudes which helped create the space for transatlantic slavery to develop. In seeking to learn lessons from this past in order to address issues of modern-day slavery, the importance of wider systemic inequality and prejudice in the past is often overlooked. This in turn encourages modern-day abolitionist campaigns to also ignore the wider issues of inequality and prejudice that creates space for slavery today. Modern-day abolitionists, therefore, are often over confident in their potential to address problems of modern-day slavery in part because of how the history of slavery has been misunderstood. Understanding slavery and abolition past is, therefore, key to tackling issues surrounding modern-day slavery. Key Words: Transatlantic slavery, modern slavery, abolitionism, historical memory, misunderstanding history, learning from the past. ***** 1. Introduction In Britain, commemoration of the 2007 Bicentenary of the Abolition of the British slave trade provided an opportunity to bring the problem of modern-day slavery to public attention. Many activists and politicians highlighted the abolitionist campaign against the transatlantic slave trade as an example to be followed in the battle against modern-day slavery; a narrative trend that has continued. But such rhetoric often relied on an oversimplified historical narrative, undermining the ‘lessons’ of this past. In 2007 the dominant themes of the remembering of transatlantic slavery were of the abolitionist campaign as a moral crusade and of the barbarity and racial dimensions of transatlantic slavery. This in turn sidelined considerations such as the financial rationale and economic reasoning behind the slave trade, slavery and

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__________________________________________________________________ abolition; forces also behind indentured labour, class exploitation, racial discrimination and inequality. Politicians and antislavery campaigners utilise the narrative of abolitionist heroes to suggest that the fight against slavery today is one of good versus evil and that new legislation and national and international policing efforts can end slavery in our life time. Again the economic foundations of slavery are overlooked. Slavery and human trafficking exist today because national and international economic policy has exacerbated inequality and labour rights have been curtailed. This has created vulnerable and exploitable people. Vulnerability is further increased in a globalised economy by limits on migrant rights as othering remains central to the mechanics of exploitation. Unfortunately, this more complex problem requires more complex solutions that are both harder to mobilise public opinion around and which deny western politicians the opportunity to pose as abolitionist heroes and instead highlights their complicity in creating the conditions for modern-day slavery to thrive. Misunderstandings about the causes of historical slavery contribute to misunderstandings about the causes of slavery today. This undermines the fight against slavery today. Overcoming slavery in the present and the future therefore relies on more fully understanding the forces and conditions that have enabled slavery to flourish in both the past and the present. These are forces that tolerate and accept inequality and social hierarchy, which accept and expect border controls, national citizenship and corresponding processes of othering and that curtail responsibilities towards others. The chapter is organised in two main sections. The first section considers the rise and abolition of transatlantic slavery and how this history has often been selectively remembered. This section emphasises the economic motives of this history, how prejudice aided economic motive, and how slavery’s abolition was more symbolic than real. The second section considers how issues of modern-day slavery reflect this history. It notes how the rise in awareness of modern-day slavery has been attached to increasing concerns about migration and also how the rise in modern-day slavery has mirrored increased global interconnections and the undermining of global labour rights. The chapter argues that to end slavery in our lifetime, more dramatic policies that challenge wider inequality and prioritise human rights, such as establishing a global minimum income, are needed. 2. Misleading Memories of Slavery and Abolition Past Misunderstandings about the history of slavery reflect how the dominance of transatlantic slavery within historical consciousness overshadows the ubiquity of slavery throughout history. This bias is particularly the case in the west and reflects two important factors. Firstly, the abolition of transatlantic slavery was conscripted by Europeans (particularly the British) as a means of celebrating their self-declared moral enlightenment and superior civilisation in order to defend colonialism.1

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__________________________________________________________________ Historians have only recently begun to unpick the importance of this selective remembering and to highlight this narrative’s silences. It was not until the 1960s that the majority of (white) historians started to recognise things such as the legitimacy of slave rebellion and the importance of resistance to bringing about the end of slavery across the Americas (themes African American and African Caribbean historians had long recognised and promoted).2 Despite the deconstruction of this Eurocentric narrative, it remains highly popular. During 2007 politicians emphasised British abolitionism as a tool of national propaganda. The British Council even funded screenings of the film Amazing Grace for Ghanaian school children whilst Gordon Brown argued that Britain must seek to ensure all children across the globe receive an education in order to help in the fight against modern-day slavery.3 Secondly, many identify transatlantic slavery as the cause of racially defined prejudices and inequalities at national and international levels. This view reflects the arguments of pan-Africanist historiography that has helped to deconstruct the Eurocentric historiography of slavery and abolition and which provides the basis of calls for reparations for transatlantic slavery.4 This pan-African narrative also contains silences and oversimplifies the history of transatlantic slavery. Where the Eurocentric narrative forgets slavery and celebrates abolition, the pan-African isolates transatlantic slavery from a wider historical context of slavery and inequality. Both, therefore, undermine the insight this history could offer into the causes of modern-day slavery. Transatlantic slavery arose because Europeans needed a supply of labour for the development of their American colonies. European diseases had caused the indigenous populations to collapse and European labour could not meet demand despite the indenture system and export of prisoners.5 Enslaved Africans provided a convenient source of labour to meet this demand. A coastal slave trade existed in West Africa which the Europeans easily entered.6 That they did so is unsurprising as slavery was still common in Southern Europe in the fifteenth century.7 Instead of being motivated by racism, the origin of transatlantic slavery lay in economic pragmatism. This is not to deny that European anti-black prejudice existed at this time and that the development and entrenchment of European anti-black racism was aided by transatlantic slavery – or that transatlantic slavery has not had a racially codified harmful legacy. Rather, it is to suggest that transatlantic slavery was only possible because of the actions and attitudes of people in both Africa and Europe.8 Racism developed as a tool to justify a system of economic exploitation and social inequality. Its development was in part enabled by its evolution within a climate that already used prejudice and othering (for example, of the poor or religious minorities) to legitimise exploitation and inequality. This emphasises that racism is a construct not a natural state. In short, racism has been learnt and can be unlearnt.

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__________________________________________________________________ Slavery was common in Africa during the period of transatlantic slavery, although it differed to the institution in the Americas and differed over time and from place to place.9 Constant, however, was its degrading nature and exploitation of vulnerability. Most vulnerable were those guilty of criminal offences, those captured in war or other outsiders captured or kidnapped for economic motives or those suffering from poverty and famine.10 As an institution, slavery in Africa lasted for much longer than in Europe and there has been much debate as to why. Some have argued that it reflects how a surplus of land in Africa meant owning people rather than property was the key to prosperity and power.11 John Thornton disputes this analysis and argues that the slavery persisted in Africa due to ‘legal divergence’ that resulted in slavery being central to economic development.12 Once again, economic pragmatism and self-defending ideologies and prejudices enabled slavery to occur. This idea of legal divergence is further supported by the centrality of inequality, exploitation, coercion and violence within European social and economic relations and how these were also justified by prejudice. Furthermore, the exploitation of the poor in Europe helps explain the violence and barbarity of chattel slavery in European colonies in the Americas. In European society, violence was a tool of discipline and social control.13 Violence on-board slave ships, on plantations and within African slave systems served a similar purpose.14 Social and economic inequality and injustice in Europe was also defended by religious and pseudoscientific theories similar to those used by defenders of chattel slavery. Factory owners argued that they could only pay subsistence wages as the working class were innately incapable of self-betterment and would not turn up to work once paid enough to survive.15 Such prejudices enabled exploitative legal tools as vagrancy laws, combination acts, token pay, debtors’ prison and the workhouse.16 These tools were similar to those used to re-enslave the African American population of the US south following the collapse of Reconstruction.17 As Rousseau noted ‘the justifications of slavery were no more absurd than the justifications for all forms of privilege and inequality.’18 Marx later echoed this sentiment through the use of the phrase ‘wage-slavery.’ It was out of recognition of shared plight that Manchester textile workers supported the Union forces during the US Civil War despite their suffering from the Lancashire Cotton Famine. In the city’s workers’ letter to congratulate Lincoln on the Union’s victory in the Civil War they stated their hope that the revolution against slavery would continue as a revolution against wageslavery.19 Such hopes went unfulfilled. Racial and class prejudice survived the abolition of the slave trade and slavery partly because abolitionists often shared the racist assumptions of proslavery advocates, albeit in a more paternalistic manner.20 Furthermore, the collapse of the British sugar islands following abolitionism was widely interpreted in European society as confirming the arguments of proslavery interests regarding the inferiority of Africans.21 The supposed economic harm of abolition also

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__________________________________________________________________ contributed to the representation of abolitionism as an enlightened moral gift. As abolition spread throughout the Americas, abolitionism was increasingly adopted as a sign of progress and of European moral superiority, thereby helping present colonial expansion as a beneficent endeavour.22 This self-congratulatory Eurocentric narrative depended upon the deliberate denying that abolition amounted to little more than a change in the legal status of the formerly enslaved. Likewise, the exclusion of the role of slave rebellions and resistance in achieving abolition was used to deny that former slaves deserved full citizenship.23 Similarly, by celebrating the leadership of elite white men and ignoring the important campaigning by women and the working class, the supposed benevolence of elitist and patriarchal class structures, particularly in Britain, were reinforced.24 That this Eurocentric narrative of enlightened abolitionism remains popular, as seen during 2007, is problematic. The association of abolitionism with progress and modernity and of slavery with backwardness encourages the popular assumption that slavery is the antithesis to current social, political and economic practices.25 This suggests that the harms of transatlantic slavery are firmly situated in the past and that claims for reparations for transatlantic slavery are misguided and that that instances of slavery that emerge in the present are aberrations that conflict with modern western socioeconomic values. By misunderstanding slavery in the past the fight against slavery today and for wider socioeconomic justice is undermined. 3. Slavery and Abolition Today Modern-day abolitionists present slavery as something that can be ended within our lifetime.26 Whilst slavery may be a multibillion dollar business that traps millions of people, relatively speaking, slavery is smaller than ever.27 If only we can ‘find our inner Wilberforce,’ modern-day abolitionists insist, we can end slavery.28 This claim relies on the idea that slavery is a criminal aberration that runs counter to modern values and that the ‘we’ who can help end slavery are not responsible for its existence. But modern-day slavery, like slavery in the past, exists because of wider societal attitudes and economic policy. Slavery arises today because there are vulnerable people whose exploitation is enabled by the values, attitudes and practices of the international community. Western campaigners against human trafficking often call for stricter policing of immigration yet the existence of border controls helps enable much modern-day slavery by creating illegality which exacerbates vulnerability created by global inequality.29 During the transatlantic slave trade, ideas of religious, national and racial difference were appealed to in order to justify the different treatment of people. These practices remain although their form has changed with the arbitrary construct of citizenship and its associated rights within the current global system.30 Furthermore, just as the exploitation of ‘others’ during transatlantic slavery was in part enabled by the tolerance of inequality and exploitation of fellow nationals at

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__________________________________________________________________ home, so it is today. The last four decades have witnessed a global trend towards increased inequality within and between nations.31 As capital has become increasingly global it has exploited international competition for jobs to erode wages and workers’ rights and shift the tax burden onto the poor.32 For the working class across the world work has become increasingly precarious and poorly paid.33 In the West, jobs have been lost to cheaper overseas competition whilst the decline of traditional industries with strong unions has contributed to ballooning income inequality.34 The import of manufactured goods from cheaper producers in developing nations with even harsher labour laws and working conditions has, however, helped disguise the impact of growing inequality on living standards.35 Western nations thus remain desirable for their economic opportunities and political freedoms resulting in increased legal and illegal migration. Legal and illegal migrants are of course made more vulnerable to exploitation in industries and agriculture where unions have been neutered, where regulation is minimal and where there is competition with overseas producers with lower labour costs.36 Even the continuation of traditional forms of slavery, such as hereditary slavery in Mali or the influence of caste in the debt bondage amongst brick makers in India, are arguably influenced by such factors as inequality and poverty remain the root cause of these slaveries.37 To end slavery in all its forms requires that issues of poverty and inequality are addressed.38 Tackling poverty and inequality has been a stated goal of international development projects, charity and aid for many years, as encapsulated in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. However, the dominant global economic model of neoliberalism argues that economic growth inequality is more important than tackling inequality when seeking to address poverty as a rising tide lifts all boats. Yawning rates of national and international inequality suggest this ideology is flawed.39 Tackling persistent inequality calls for more dramatic intervention than current policy offers. Arguably the best solution would be the introduction of some sort of internationally financed but nationally variable (reflecting the cost of living) guaranteed basic income.40 This would redistribute wealth and reduce the levels of poverty and vulnerability that facilitate modern-day slavery, including the push and pull factors behind illegal migration. Unfortunately, mobilising popular support for a global minimum basic income is not as easy as it is to mobilise people in a campaign promise to end slavery in our life time. Social movement theorists argue that for a campaign to be successful in developing mass support it needs to speak to a personal sense of right, offer success and meet self-interest.41 The campaign to end slavery in our lifetime hits these criteria. Like charitable giving it offers moral gratification (find your inner Wilberforce) and validates the privileged position of those able to give to help.42 Such theories help to explain why western nations congratulate themselves on their charitable donations and aid to Africa whilst failing to address the financial

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__________________________________________________________________ structures which see international tax avoidance and evasion by multinational corporations take from Africa ten times the amount Africa receives in charity and aid (structures and policies which reflect tax avoidance and evasion in developed nations).43 As in the time of transatlantic slavery, African leaders are complicit in and personally benefit from this arrangement.44 Campaigns for guaranteed basic income meanwhile encounter paternalistic prejudice and run against national parochialism and the conceived wisdom of current dominant economic and political ideology. Opponents of basic minimum incomes claim that they are too expensive and would and deter hard work and self-reliance, undermining economic growth and general living standards.45 However, evidence from trials of guaranteed basic incomes, or similar policies such as the introduction of minimum wages, suggests that such fears are baseless.46 Yet, because the evidence from these trials runs counter to the perceived economic wisdom and the self-justifying prejudices of elites, it is dismissed and ignored in political policy decisions – as illustrated by the growing punitive nature of welfare provision across the developed world.47 Campaigns for a basic minimum income also suggest that, far from benefitting all individuals, the current economic model developed and promoted by political and business leaders is unjust, harmful and morally bankrupt – an argument politicians and business leaders unsurprisingly refute. Far from being a benevolent enlightened act, modern-day abolition is a moral duty which all privileged individuals, not just those in positions of power and influence, are bound by as they have been part of and wrongly benefitted from a system of harm. Furthermore, abolition cannot be attained without addressing wider national and international inequalities and divisions. This denunciation of modern-day society and the leadership of politicians and business leaders are in stark contrast to the moral vindication offered by modern-day abolitionists who often detach modern-day slavery from wider inequality in a ‘process of depoliticization that serves a more conservative and statist agenda.’48 4. Conclusion The modern-day abolitionist movement is important for raising awareness of some of the worst forms of human rights violations and labour exploitation that occurs in the world today. However, by taking the historical movement as an inspiration, modern-day abolitionists overlook the historical complexity of slavery and the failure of abolition to address inequality. By doing so they endorse a historical narrative that excuses the powerful elites who profited from slavery in the past and turn a blind-eye to the wider systems of inequality that create the conditions for slavery today. Ignorance of the history of transatlantic slavery and its abolition, either wilful or not, helps provide moral cover to a system of global governance which enables exploitation on a massive scale. This ignorance blinds the modern world to how the structural forces and inequalities that helped create the transatlantic slave system remain largely in place, albeit mutated to reflect

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__________________________________________________________________ modern business interests and to allow for postcolonial era political changes, (notably the development of a global elite). By suggesting modern-day slavery can be ended without addressing wider socioeconomic systems of hierarchy and inequality, modern-day abolitionists (like elitist abolitionists of the past such as William Wilberforce), problematize merely the most serious and visible abuses of system that is inherently unjust. By doing so they defend a system that creates the injustice they claim to seek to end. That they do so is arguably because this helps to assuage their guilt at being beneficiaries of this unjust system. History teaches that unless we seek to address the forces that enable slavery to occur, the forces of poverty, exclusion and othering, the most modern-day abolitionists can hope to achieve is to cause slavery to change its guise.

Notes 1

Robin Blackburn, The American Crucible: Slavery Emancipation and Human Rights (London: Verso, 2011), 475. 2 David Brion Davis, Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 157-174, 205-230. 3 Marcus Wood, The Horrible Gift of Freedom: Atlantic Slavery and the Representation of Emancipation (Athens, GA.: University of Georgia Press, 2010), 352-353; Gordon Brown, ‘Our 2p Pledge to All Children,’ The Guardian, 4 January 2007, Accessed 19 May 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/jan/04/comment.internationalaid anddevelopment. 4 C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (New York: The Dial Press, 1938); Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1944); Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (London: Bogel-L’Ouverture Publications, 1973); Hilary McD. Beckles, Britain’s Black Debt: Reparations for Caribbean Slavery and Native Genocide (Jamaica, University of West Indies Press, 2013). 5 John Thornton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 14001680 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 133; Don Jordan and Michael Walsh, White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America (Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 2007), 160-161. 6 Thornton, Africa and Africans, 111; Hugh Thomas, The Slave Trade: The History of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1440-1870 (London: Picador, 1997), 51-52; Stephanie E. Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery: A Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora (London: Harvard University Press, 2007), 15; J. D. Fage, ‘Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Context of West African History,’ The Journal of African History 10.3 (1969): 398. 7 Davis, Inhuman Bondage, 49.

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David Northrup, Africa’s Discovery of Europe: 1450-1850 (Oxford: Oxford University Press: 2002), 50-51. 9 Fage, ‘Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Context of West African History,’ 394. 10 Orlando Patterson, Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study (London: Harvard University Press, 1982), 64; Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship: A Human History (London: John Murray, 2007), 75-77; Paul E. Lovejoy, Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 3-4. 11 J.D. Fage, ‘Slaves and Society in Western Africa, c. 1445-c. 1700,’ The Journal of African History 21.3 (1980): 309. 12 Thornton, Africa and the Africans, 76. 13 David Garland, The Peculiar Institution: America’s Death Penalty in the Age of Abolition (Cambridge, MA.: Belknap Press of University of Harvard Press, 2010), 24-27; David Philips, ‘Crime, Law and Punishment in the Industrial Revolution,’ The Industrial Revolution and British Society, ed. Patrick O’Brien and Ronald Auinault (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 156; Lovejoy, Transformations in Slavery, 180; Robin Law, Ouidah: The Social History of a West African Slaving ‘Port,’ 1727-1892 (Oxford: James Currey, 2004), 139; Vincent Brown, The Reapers Garden: Death and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery (Cambridge, MA.: University of Harvard Press, 2008), 39-40. 14 Patterson, Slavery and Social Death, 2-4; Rediker, The Slave Ship, 240; Ira Berlin, The Making of African America: The Four Great Migrations (New York: Viking, 2010), 60. 15 Joel Mokyr, ‘Editors Introduction,’ The British Industrial Revolution: An Economic Perspective, ed. Joel Mokyr (Oxford: Westview Press, 1993), 54-112; Sidney Pollard, ‘Factory Discipline in the Industrial Revolution,’ Essays on the Industrial Revolution in Britain, ed. Sidney Pollard and Colin Holmes (Aldershot: Ashgate, Variorum, 2000), 98-116. 16 Davis, Inhuman Bondage, 233; Julia O’Connell Davidson, ‘New Slavery, Old Binaries: Human Trafficking and the Borders of “Freedom”,’ Global Networks 10.2 (2010): 246-248. 17 Berlin, The Making of African America, 143; Douglas A. Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II (New York: Anchor Books, 2009). 18 David Brion Davis, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770-1823 (London: Cornell University Press, 1975), 467-468, 489; Malcolm I. Thomis, Responses to Industrialisation: The British Experience 1780-1850 (London: Archon Books, 1976), 85. 19 Robin Blackburn, An Unfinished Revolution: Karl Marx and Abraham Lincoln (London: Verso, 2011), 40.

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Christopher L. Brown, ‘From Slaves to Subjects: Envisioning an Empire Without Slavery, 1772-1834,’ Black Experience and the British Empire, ed. Philip D. Morgan and Sean Hawkins (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 135-136; Andrew Porter, ‘Trusteeship, Anti-Slavery, and Humanitarianism,’ The Oxford History of the British Empire: The Nineteenth Century, ed. Andrew Porter (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 209; William A. Green, ‘Emancipation to Indenture: A Question of Imperial Morality,’ Journal of British Studies 22.2 (1983): 98-121; Patrick Brantliner, ‘Victorians and Africans: The Genealogy of the Myth of the Dark Continent,’ Critical Inquiry 12.1 (1985): 166-203; Brian Stanley, ‘“Commerce and Christianity”, Providence Theory, the Missionary Movement, and the Imperialism of Free Trade, 1842-1860,’ The Historical Journal 26.1 (1983): 77-94; J. Gallagher, ‘Fowell Buxton and the New African Policy, 1838-1842,’ Cambridge Historical Journal 10.1 (1950): 36-58. 21 Davis, Inhuman Bondage, 73-74, 189. 22 Catherine A. Reinhardt, Claims to Memory: Beyond Slavery and Emancipation in the French Caribbean (New York: Berghahn Books, 2006), 9; Ariela J. Gross, ‘All Born to Freedom? Comparing the Law and Politics of Race and Memory of Slavery in the US and France Today,’ University of Southern California Legal Studies Working Paper Series, Paper 82 (2011), 8; David W. Blight, Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory and the American Civil War (Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2002), 122. 23 Blackburn, American Crucible, 433-446, 475. 24 There has been much debate over the importance of the role of the Central Abolitionist Committee in London versus the provincial committees, working class petitioning and the role of women. See for example: Seymour Drescher, Capitalism and Anti-Slavery: British Mobilization in Comparative Perspective (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987); Clare Midgley, Women Against Slavery: The British Campaigns, 1780-1870 (London: Routledge, 1992); John Oldfield, Popular Politics and British Anti-Slavery: The Mobilisation of Public Opinion against the Slave Trade, 1781-1807 (London: Frank Cass, 1998); John Oldfield, ‘Chords of Freedom’: Commemoration, Ritual and British Transatlantic Slavery (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007). 25 O’Connell Davidson, ‘New Slavery, Old Binaries,’ 245-246. 26 For example see the campaigns by Not for Sale, Accessed 20 May 2015, http://twitchange.com/not-for-sale-nfs-the-movement-to-re-abolish-slavery/ and http://jp.notforsalecampaign.org/action/modern-day-abolitionist/. See also the campaign by Walk Free, Accessed 20 May 2015, http://www.walkfreefoundation.org/. 27 Kevin Bales, Ending Slavery: How We Free Today’s Slaves (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), 321-322.

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Kevin Bales, Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), 29-31, 263-264; Michelle C. Rickert, ‘Wilberforce’s Work Is Not Done: Ending Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery,’ Helms School of Governance, Liberty University: Faculty Publications and Presentations, Paper 89 (2009), 46. 29 Bridget Anderson, ‘Migration, Immigration Controls and the Fashioning of Precarious Workers,’ Work, Employment and Society 24.2 (2010): 300-317; Bridget Anderson, Matthew J. Gibney and Emanuela Paoletti, ‘Citizenship, Deportation and the Boundaries of Belong,’ Citizenship Studies 15.5 (2011): 548552. 30 O’Connell Davidson, ‘New Slavery, Old Binaries,’ 253-255. 31 Lawrence H. Summers et al, Report of the Commission on Inclusive Prosperity (Washington D.C.: Centre for American Progress, 2015), 8. 32 Alex Cobham, ‘Tax Evasion, Tax Avoidance and Development Finance,’ QEH Working Paper Series, 129 (2005), 9; Franz Traxler and Birgit Woitech, ‘Transnational Investment and National Labour Market Regimes: A Case of “Regime Shopping”?,’ European Journal of Industrial Relations 6.2 (2000): 141159; Christian Aid, Africa Rising: Inequalities and the Essential Role of Fair Taxation (London: Christian Aid, 2014), 39-54; Summers et al, Report of the Commission on Inclusive Prosperity, 12. 33 Raymond Torres et al, World Employment and Social Outlook: The Changing Nature of Jobs (Geneva: International Labour Organization, 2015); Ana Jeanette et al, Policies and Regulations to Combat Precarious Employment (Geneva, International Labour Organization, 2011). 34 Bruce Western and Jake Rosenfeld, ‘Unions, Norms, and the Rise in U.S. Wage Inequality,’ American Sociological Review 76.4 (2011): 513-537. 35 Summers et al, Report of the Commission on Inclusive Prosperity, 11. 36 Anderson, ‘Migration, Immigration Controls and the Fashioning of Precarious Workers.’ 37 Bales, Disposable People, 31-32, 232. 38 Bales, Ending Slavery, 213-228. 39 OECD, Divided We Stand: Why Inequality Keeps Rising (Paris: OECD, 2011); Summers et al, Report of the Commission Inclusive Prosperity, 17. 40 Gijs Van Donselaar, The Right to Exploit: Parasitism, Scarcity, Basic Income (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009); Philippe van Parjis, Real Freedom for All: What (If Anything) Can Justify Capitalism? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), 30-57. 41 David A. Snow et al, ‘Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation,’ American Sociological Review 51 (1986): 464-481. 42 O’Connell Davidson, ‘New Slavery, Old Binaries,’ 256.

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Cobham, ‘Tax Evasion, Tax Avoidance and Development Finance’; Christian Aid, Africa Rising, 28-36. See also: IMF, Spillovers in International Corporate Taxation (Washington D.C.: International Monetary Fund, 2014); Richard Murphy, Missing Billions: The UK Tax Gap (London: Trade Unions Congress), 44-45. 44 Martin Meredith, The State of Africa (London: Free Press, 2006), 162-178; Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, Reparations to Africa (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008), 116. 45 Noah Gordon, ‘The Conservative Case for a Guaranteed Basic Income,’ The Atlantic, 6 August 2014, Accessed 20 May 2015, http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/08/why-arent-reformiconspushing-a-guaranteed-basic-income/375600/; Brian Barry, ‘Equality Yes, Basic Income No,’ Arguing for Basic Income: Ethical Foundations for a Radical Reform, ed. Philippe van Parijs (London: Verso, 1992), 128-140; The objections to a minimum basic income are considered and dismissed in Donselaar, The Right to Exploit, 100-143. 46 Sarath Davala et al, Basic Income: A Transformative Policy for India (London: Bloomsbury, 2015); OECD, Divided We Stand: Why Inequality Keeps Rising, 75. See also Neil Howard, ‘Basic Income and the Anti-Slavery Movement,’ Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, OpenDemocracy.Net, 12 March 2015, Accessed 15 July 2015, https://www.opendemocracy.net/beyondslavery/neil-howard/basic-incomeand-antislavery-movement. 47 Tricia Zipfel et al, Our lives: Challenging Attitudes towards Poverty in 2015 (London: Trade Union Congress, 2015), 6-7. 48 O’Connell Davidson, ‘New Slavery, Old Binaries,’ 256.

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