Aristides D. answered • 09/11/20
La excelencia es lo primero
The unfortunate who entered the slavery circuit lived, alone in their arrest and transfer, a nightmare. Africans were captured by other Africans and transported to the coast to be sold. The captives - mostly adult males, the most in demand - were treated like cattle. They were kept in fences until the arrival of the European slave traders. Once the ship was loaded, the journey began, known as "the middle passage."
The destinations used to be Brazil and the Caribbean islands (Cuba was the most important), where they were sold. The slave traders were only paid for the slaves who arrived alive, so they had an interest in seeing as many as possible. Even so, they made them travel in appalling conditions: chained, crowded, unable to sit upright due to the very low ceilings, in intolerable heat and hardly any oxygen, surrounded by filth. Brutality was also the norm. Historians estimate that between 15% and 25% of the captives perished in transit. The UN figures in one in six those who did not survive the journey and the exhausting work that followed.
Slaves were considered "movable property", "things", "objects", so they could be bought and sold as merchandise. ... If they had children, these were also slaves and could be sold and separated from the parents according to the wishes and interests of the owners.
Traditional slavery was described as "reduction of the person to the status of livestock" since the owners of the slaves could treat them as part of their property, like livestock or furniture, and sell or transfer them to third parties. These practices are very infrequent today and the criterion of ownership can overshadow some of the other characteristics of slavery that have to do with the absolute control to which the victim of slavery is subjected by another human being, and which is implicit in the formula "attributes of property rights or some of them" used in the Slavery Convention.
When we talk about other forms of slavery throughout human history, modern slavery is currently included, which is that condition by which a person is forced to work in subhuman conditions without being able to refuse due to coercion, threats or abuse of power, among others. Through its exploitation, the person who is in the position of power makes profit or takes any kind of profit at the expense of his work regardless of the working conditions in which he finds himself.
There are different types of slavery in the world today, among the most prominent are:
• Bonded labor: refers to people who take out a loan or have a debt and are forced to work long hours, under terrible conditions and for a ridiculous salary to meet these payments.
• Forced labor: people who are forced to work by force by organizations, governments or individuals in different contexts such as concentration camps, farms, factories, davit boats ...
• Sexual exploitation: it is the exploitation of women, children and girls to practice prostitution and exchange sexual services in exchange for money.
• Human trafficking: it is based on deception by the trafficker who, through lies, coercion or abuse and taking advantage of the unfavorable situation of the victims, achieves a position of domination and control over them.
• Child labor: in the world there are 168 million boys and girls working, despite being boys ...
• Child and forced marriage: affects all women and girls who are forced to marry without choice. Many times these marriages occur because of interests and frequently implicit in a situation of servitude and even mistreatment.
