I have read books of history, and one thing that has always fascinated me is how human beings have struggled for freedom throughout the centuries. History tells us that slavery was once an accepted institution in many societies. Human beings were bought and sold like merchandise. Some were captured during wars, others were taken from their homes, while many were born into families whose lives had already been defined by bondage. They worked for masters who controlled almost every aspect of their existence. They had little say over where they lived, what they did, or how they spent their lives.
Interestingly, the world eventually began to recognize the injustice of owning another human being. Laws were enacted, revolutions were fought, and movements emerged to challenge the institution of slavery. Different countries took different paths towards abolition, and the process stretched across several centuries.
Vermont took an early step in 1777 by including provisions against slavery in its constitution. Haiti made history in 1804 when it gained independence following a successful revolution against slavery. The United Kingdom passed the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833, bringing an end to slavery across most of its empire. France followed in 1848 by permanently abolishing slavery in its colonies. In the United States, the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in 1865, formally abolishing slavery, except as punishment for a crime. Brazil became the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery in 1888 through the Golden Law.
However, the journey towards abolition was not completed in the nineteenth century. Saudi Arabia and Yemen abolished slavery in 1962, while Oman followed in 1970. Mauritania became the last country to officially abolish slavery in 1981, although it took another twenty-six years before the country specifically criminalized the practice in 2007.
When I look at this history, I find myself asking an uncomfortable question: Did humanity abolish slavery, or did it simply change the way slavery operates? Today, almost every country has laws prohibiting slavery. We no longer expect to see human beings publicly auctioned in town squares or transported in ships with iron chains around their ankles. We have international conventions, human rights organizations, government departments, and institutions dedicated to protecting human dignity. We have become sophisticated in our language about freedom, equality, and human rights. But has the human desire to exploit another human being disappeared?
I once found myself seated in an aircraft, looking at the people on board. As I observed the passengers, a rather disturbing thought crossed my mind. Could this be a slave flight? Yes, a slave flight! It may sound strange because when we think about slavery, we imagine people in chains, crowded into ships, guarded by armed men, and transported against their will. We rarely associate slavery with modern airports, comfortable aircraft seats, business-class lounges, or first-class tickets. Yet I began thinking about the possibility that some of the people travelling in that aircraft could have been victims of modern slavery.
Nowadays, slaves do not necessarily travel with chains around their wrists. Some travel with passports, work permits, employment contracts, and airline tickets. They may even board an aircraft with a first-class ticket. They arrive in countries where they expect to find opportunities, improve their living standards, support their families, and build better futures. Unfortunately, some discover that the freedom they imagined was merely an attractive promise used to recruit them.
They may be taken into domestic work, construction, agriculture, factories, hospitality, or other demanding occupations. Some have their travel documents confiscated. Others are threatened with deportation, denied their wages, forced to work excessive hours, or prevented from leaving their employers. Some are trapped by debts they can never realistically repay. Others are threatened with violence or harm to their families if they attempt to escape.
Of course, not everyone who travels abroad to perform difficult or poorly paid work is a slave. Many people voluntarily accept demanding employment and enjoy the freedom to change jobs, negotiate their conditions, and leave when they wish. The distinction is important. However, when a person is compelled to work through threats, coercion, deception, or abuse of vulnerability, we are no longer discussing ordinary employment. We are discussing exploitation that can amount to modern slavery.
This is where my thoughts return to the aircraft. Perhaps some of the passengers were travelling towards opportunities, while others were travelling towards exploitation. They might have been seated next to each other, sharing the same cabin, eating the same meals, and watching the same in-flight entertainment. One passenger could have been going on holiday, another attending a business meeting, while someone else was unknowingly heading into a situation from which escaping would be extremely difficult.
The aircraft would not distinguish between them. Their tickets might look similar, their passports might carry the same immigration stamps, and their destinations might be identical. Yet their experiences after landing could be worlds apart.
What makes modern slavery particularly disturbing is that it can hide behind respectable institutions and ordinary economic activities. A company may advertise itself as a legitimate employer while exploiting migrant workers. A household may appear respectable while keeping a domestic worker in conditions that deny them basic freedom. A business may offer products at attractive prices without consumers knowing that the people involved in producing them are working under coercive conditions.
Sometimes, we are beneficiaries of exploitation without knowing it. We purchase cheap products, enjoy inexpensive services, and celebrate businesses that make impressive profits. Rarely do we stop to ask how those products were made, who performed the work, what they were paid, or whether they had the freedom for a better pay.
This raises another uncomfortable question: Can we honestly celebrate human progress when our comfort may depend on another person's suffering? Perhaps the greatest deception of modern slavery is that it does not always look like slavery. The victim may not be wearing chains, but fear can become a chain. Debt can become a chain. Threats can become chains. Confiscated documents can become chains. Isolation, language barriers, and immigration vulnerabilities can become chains. A person may walk freely into a workplace every morning but have no genuine freedom to refuse the work or leave the employer.
In the past, a slave owner might have displayed ownership through physical force. Today, an exploiter may exercise control through manipulation, intimidation, deception, and economic dependence. The methods have changed, but the underlying injustice remains: one human being is using another human being as a tool for personal benefit.
I also wonder whether we have become too comfortable congratulating ourselves for abolishing slavery. We point to historical dates, celebrate abolition movements, and condemn the actions of people who lived centuries ago. Yet we sometimes overlook the suffering taking place within our own generation. It is easy to condemn a slave trader from the nineteenth century while remaining indifferent to a modern employer who withholds a worker's passport and wages. History should not merely teach us what happened. It should challenge us to recognize what is happening.
The abolition of slavery was a significant achievement in human history, but passing a law is not the same as eliminating an injustice. Laws require enforcement, institutions require accountability, and societies require people who are willing to challenge exploitation even when doing so is inconvenient.
We must also examine our understanding of freedom. Is a person free simply because they can board an aircraft, cross an international border, and enter another country? Is a worker free simply because they signed an employment contract? Is someone free because they receive a salary if they cannot leave their employer without facing threats or punishment?
Freedom is more than movement. It is more than possessing a passport, holding a job, or living in a country where slavery is illegal. Genuine freedom includes the ability to make choices without coercion, to receive fair treatment, to retain one's dignity, and to walk away from an abusive situation.
I began by looking at passengers in an aircraft and wondering whether I was witnessing a slave flight. Perhaps I will never know the circumstances of those particular passengers. But the thought has remained with me because it exposes an uncomfortable reality: slavery may have disappeared from our streets in its old form, but exploitation has not disappeared from our world.
We have removed the chains from the wrists of many people, but have we done enough to remove the chains from their lives? Perhaps the next great abolition movement should not be about declaring slavery illegal. That battle has largely been fought. It should be about ensuring that no human being is secretly living as a slave in a world that proudly calls itself free.
