In the year 1865 the US was embroiled in a vicious civil war, the reason it started is somewhat debatable but at the end it was about one singular issue. Slavery. It’s one of the most vile and evil acts a human being can push on another. This issue was solved formally in the US in 1865 however it continued on in one way or another for many years afterwards. Many historians aptly refer to this as the Darkest stain on America’s history. Today we have a relatively free and equal society in America however this is not the case everywhere in the world. This is why I am speaking to you today, to bring your attention to the fact that the disgusting violation of human rights is still happening in our world today.
First it is important to note two things, slavery is illegal in every single country on the face of the earth, however it is also important to consider that nearly 40 million people are still enslaved in one fashion or another. A large percentage of the worst offenders, countries like Mauritania and Libya are already facing blowback from some supranational organization whether the UN or the AU (the african union). However many still refuse to comply. For example Mauritania, the last country to abolish slavery as an institution in 1981, passed anti-slavery laws in 2007, however they are largely useless and in the years since have convicted a grand total of 2 cases against slave owners. With renewed pressure from the AU a third was pushed through and with new sanctions against them it is hoped that the 50 cases in judicial gridlock will finally be seen by a judge. Keep in mind, this is not a significant number of cases at all, there are between 43,000 and 600,000 slaves in Mauritania.
In dealing with slavery and abolitionism in the modern world I feel that looking back on the history of the 19th century would shed some light on the subject. Anti-Slavery legislation began in 1833 with the outlawing of slavery in all of the british empire except for that owned by the east india company, although this too became illegal ten years later. These were relatively effective in the abolition of slavery in the empire but did little to affect the outside world, that is until Britain began actively seeking out and attacking slave ships and the slave trade the world over. The royal navy was highly successful in its efforts. This goal was pursued by “the west african squadron” a group of ships which searched and pursued every ship departing west africa seizing and freeing any slaves they found and punishing the slavers harshly, often they were convicted as pirates and hung. This eventually extended to ships of other nations too, through multiple treaties and international agreements. This did notably decrease the amount of slaves involved in the transatlantic slave trade. This however is where they stopped. And notably slavery still continues to this day.
So in the 19th century it took the stepping in of a global superpower with the greatest military the world had ever known to stop slavery. If only we had a nation like that today but with an even larger obsession with freedom and foreign intervention, oh wait. The US it would seem is the perfect candidate for the job. So you may be asking why would the US involve itself in these efforts and I would respond simply, in the words of the late Ronald Reagan “The United States has an obligation to its citizens and to the people of the world never to let those who would destroy freedom dictate the future course of life on this planet” with this in mind we should do all in our power to stop this vile blight on humanities soul. First it is necessary to pursue diplomatic avenues. Further pressuring the mauritanian government and it’s ilk to fight against slavery, however if their efforts are lackluster or ineffective I would not be remiss in urging America to put it’s own men and women on the line to fight against this horror. By no means a full scale invasion but the mailed fist may have better luck at dislodging slavers than the velvet glove. This may sound crazy or aggressive but I would reference a great man, William Wilberforce, one of Britain's staunchest advocates of abolitionism, who said “If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large”.
So how would this be carried out? The US has failed in most large scale restructuring programs, like those seen in Iraq and Afghanistan. This was caused by one large problem, a lack of cultural incentive, places like Iraq and Afghanistan have never had a true democracy so it’s effects and the usage of the freedom it provided were minimal in those places. This is true in places still practicing slavery. It was legally supported in mauritania from its founding to 1981, this means that after the US left those freed slaves would likely once again be enslaved. So it would seem, a simple solution is to remove those slaves from mauritania and other places like that, so where would these people come? I believe that freedom dictates we must not pressure those freed to live anywhere in particular but allow and facilitate them living in any country they should wish to. Many of these slaves lack any education and can neither read nor write, so we should help them right the wrong done to them by providing at the very least cursory education to them allowing them to work and prosper.
Many of these slaves, particularly in Libya and north africa are a result of the civil wars that were rife in the region for many years. This caused many people to flee the war and persecution and become refugees, many “freedom fighters” in places like Libya were low on the cash to continue their warring and decided that slavery was a fast way to make a buck. I believe the best way to end this is to cut it off at the source. We should seek to protect those seeking refugee status as well as helping those who are in danger of being enslaved escape to more stable states like Kenya and Nigeria. Refugees are required to seek refugee status at the first country they come to after leaving their home country under the UN this should changed so that it makes refugee status unattainable in states currently at war preventing those trying to escape war from running straight into another one.
The US military has already developed and honed it’s hearts and minds skill through many years of anti-insurgency warfare in the middle east.This is imperative because it is exactly the type of military action required to fix places like Mauritania. I firmly believe that we could and should take action if those victimizing their fellow human beings are not brought to justice. These people are the most villainous and despicable filth on the surface of the planet, the fact that we have the power to help those they oppress and haven’t is the only thing that is possibly more grotesque. I would like to leave you all with a simple message, once said by the man I mentioned earlier William Wilberforce “you may now choose to look the other way but you can never again say that you did not know”
Works Cited:
Fisher, Max. “This Map Shows Where the World's 30 Million Slaves Live. There Are 60,000 in the U.S.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 17 Oct. 2013,
Hodal, Kate, and Annie Kelly. “Mauritania Failing to Tackle Pervasive Slavery, Says African Union.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 29 Jan. 2018, www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jan/29/african-union-mauritania-failing-to-tackle-pervasive-slavery.
Quackenbush, Casey. “Libyan Slave Trade: Here's What You Need to Know.” Time, Time, 1 Dec. 2017, time.com/5042560/libya-slave-trade/.
Sobik, Jakub. “New Mauritanian Anti-Slavery Law Is Worthless If Not Implemented.” Anti-Slavery International, Anti-Slavery International, 25 Jan. 2017, www.antislavery.org/new-mauritanian-anti-slavery-law-worthless-not-implemented/.
Walk Free Editors. “Understanding Modern Slavery - Walk Free Foundation #EndSlavery.” Walk Free Foundation, Walk Free Foundation, 2018, www.walkfreefoundation.org/understand/.
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