Slavery in America
By: Emily Mabe & Macie O'Brien
Option 3
how were slaves treated and how are modern slaves treated and kept in slavery in spite of slavery being illegal and compared to slaves of the past?
Before the Civil War slaves were treated unfairly and cruelly, though it mostly depended on the master(s) of the slave. Back then they were forced to do the work of the white people. Slaves back then either worked in the fields from morning to night, they always had chores to do and if they aren’t accomplished then they would get harsh punishments. Slaves back then were sold off, often times their families are all sold off so that they’ll never see each other again.
Modern slaves now are treated almost the same as back then, they are still bought and treated like property and not human beings. They aren’t paid. There are different types of human trafficking unlike back then though. There is force labor, debt labor, child labor and domestic servitude.
What was the government stance on slavery in the 1840s 1850s?
The government thought that slavery was a great idea in the 1840s and 50s because that meant more money for all of the whites and proslavers. Most of the heads in the government were from the south. The government thought that there was nothing bad about slavery and were unaware of the conditions slaves were put in.
How does our modern government’s stance on slavery compare with that of the administration in the 1840s and 1850s?
How does the TVPA (Trafficking Victims Protection Act) affect the economies of the countries that traffic slaves into the U.S.?
Although trafficking victims are allegedly protected by the TVPA, oftentimes their lack of documentation leads them to be mistreated by legal officials and prosecuted as illegal immigrants. How does this affect the human trafficking problem?
The trafficking victims, due to the lack of documentation, makes the officials mistreat the victim and this isn’t helping the human trafficking problem. This is affect the trafficking problem because then legal officials don’t know who to help because they don’t know if they are trafficking victims or illegal immigrants. The officials can get easily confused between them. This also allows the human traffickers harder to get caught since the officials don’t know who is the victim of the human trafficking so then they can’t trace the human trafficker back as easily. This also means that the officials can’t know the exact number of people that are victim to the human trafficking.
What is the benefit of trading human beings for labor or profit?
The benefits of trading human beings for labor or profit is that the economy will go up because the owners of the plantations do not pay the slaves, so they get free labor. With this free labor, more crops can be sold. Another benefit is that the slaves get housed and fed. Even though these rations were small and not desired, they had food on their table and a roof over their head. The slaves also had medical care. The plantation owners needed their workers to work at the best of their ability, so when they were sick or injured the owners had a doctor come and take care of them. Today, human trafficking benefits the owner of the victim but not the victim himself. The owner gets free labor from the victim while the victim works in horrible condition. This boosts the economy like it did in the past.