The Changing Face Of Slavery

Without diminishing the misery of slaves in Wilberforce's time, there are some ways in which modern slaves are in even greater danger. According to Free the Slaves, in "old slavery" slaves were extremely expensive to buy, and they were therefore seen as an investment. To protect the investment, it was in the "owner's" interest to ensure the general health of his slaves. The situation is different today. Free the Slaves reports that:

"On average a slave in the American South in 1850 cost the equivalent of $40,000 in today's money; today a slave costs an average of $90. In 1850 it was difficult to capture slaves and then transport them to the US. Today, millions of economically and socially vulnerable people around the world are potential slaves. This "supply" makes slaves today cheaper than they have ever been. Since they are so cheap, slaves are no longer a major investment worth maintaining. If slaves get sick, are injured, outlive their usefulness, or become troublesome to the slaveholder, they are dumped or killed."

An Unending Ethical Challenge

This disposable-man ethic is at the heart of many of our problems today. Slavery, like so many other modern ethical challenges, denies the inherent worth, value, and dignity of every man, woman and child. After denying their essential worth, defenders of slavery then suggest that it is okay to use people and own people— it is okay for the minority to suffer and die as long as the majority benefits. Of course, this involves widespread exploitation of the weak by the strong. In slavery, men abuse women, the rich exploit the poor, the educated deceive the uneducated, and adults injure children. When the slave's utility is exhausted, he or she is discarded or killed.

How is it that over two-hundred years since Wilberforce began his campaign against slavery, and almost 150 years since America's Civil War, we still live in a world where slavery is common and, in some places, accepted? Even in America, slavery thrives in the shadows of our society. Aside from the practice itself, the mentality that gives rise to slavery—the disposable-man ethic—is common in our nation. After all these years, one would hope that we would have come further in respecting universal human dignity, but we have not. Apparently there is something in our fallen nature that will always want to treat others like objects to be owned rather than people to be loved. Therefore, each generation must take Wilberforce's promise personally, "Never, never will we desist till we...extinguish every trace of this bloody traffic...