WAR MAKES SLAVERY A BIG BUSINESS

Warfare proved to be the easiest way for nations to acquire slaves. Egyptian King Thutmose III is said to have brought back 90,000 prisoners after one military campaign in Canaan. The Egyptians put them to work as slaves in mining, building temples, and cutting canals.

Under the Roman Empire, wars also provided slaves in abundance, and the demand for slaves sometimes led to war. It is estimated that by the first century, slaves constituted nearly half the population of Rome. Many Egyptian and Roman slaves were harshly exploited. The life expectancy of slaves in Roman mines, for example was only about 30 years. 

As time went on, slavery did not get kinder. From the 16th century to the 19th  century, the slave trade between Africa and the Americas was one of the  most lucrative businesses on earth.   'It is estimated that between 25 million and 30 million men, women, and children  were abducted and sold,' says a UNESCO report.  Hundreds of thousands are said to have died during the Atlantic crossing. Olaudah Equiano, a slave who survived, reported: "The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable." 

Sadly, slavery is not just a tragedy of history. Some 21 million men, women, and children still work as slaves, under bondage and with little or no pay, according to the International Labor Organization.  Modern-day slaves work in mines, sweat shops, brick factories, brothels, and private homes. Although illegal, this kind of slavery is apparently on the increase.

Next time: ESCAPE TO FREEDOM

From the Watchtower magazine