The Amazing Change

I've just signed up to a website called The Amazing Change. It is part and parcel of all that is to do with the bicentennial of the abolition of slavery and the new film coming out next year called Amazing Grace. You can go to the website here. I'm going to be blogging about slavery as i remember - it's something that is hard to ignore when you start finding out the facts.

The following is some info taken from the website:

What Is Slavery?

Common characteristics distinguish slavery from other human rights violations. A slave is:

Forced to work -- through mental or physical threat; owned or controlled by an 'employer', usually through mental or physical abuse or threatened abuse; dehumanised, treated as a commodity or bought and sold as 'property'; physically constrained or has restrictions placed on his/her freedom of movement.

--Source: AntiSlavery.org

What Types of Slavery Exist Today?

Slavery exists. Whether we call it trafficking, bonded labor, forced labor, or sex slavery, it exists: globally, nationally, and locally.

Bonded labour affects at least 20 million* people around the world. People become bonded labourers by taking or being tricked into taking a loan for as little as the cost of medicine for a sick child. To repay the debt, many are forced to work long hours, seven days a week, up to 365 days a year. They receive basic food and shelter as 'payment' for their work, but may never pay off the loan, which can be passed down for generations.

Early and forced marriage affects women and girls who are married without choice and are forced into lives of servitude often accompanied by physical violence.

Forced labour affects people who are illegally recruited by individuals, governments or political parties and forced to work -- usually under threat of violence or other penalties.

Slavery by descent is where people are either born into a slave class or are from a 'group' that society views as suited to being used as slave labour.

Trafficking involves the transport and/or trade of people -- women, children and men -- from one area to another for the purpose of forcing them into slavery conditions. Human Trafficking is now ranked as the second largest criminal industry globally?second only to drug smuggling, and tying with illegal weapons transactions. The U.S. Department of State estimates that between 15 and 20 THOUSAND individuals are trafficked into the United States to become slaves EACH YEAR! This does not include those U.S. citizens trafficked from city to city within our borders.

--Source: AntiSlavery.org and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.