I just finished watching the excellent movie '12 years a slave'. It's a great story that really highlights the brutality and oppression subjected to slaves and African Americans in general during the slave era of America.
As evil as it is, slavery is a big part of human history and continues to blight our species. It's an established truth that there are more slaves alive today than at any other time: 27 million by US estimates.
With that in mind, I'd like to shine a light on this ugly topic in today's Throwback Thursday by throwing up some interesting facts.
1) In 1860 89% of African Americans were slaves. African Americans made up 13% of Americas total population and 33% of the population in the south. It's crazy to think that 1 in 3 people in the south of America were slaves at that time.
2) The American slave force created 9,500 miles of railroad track by 1860. That's 33% of the total modern length and more than belongs to Britain, France or Germany.
3) There are an estimated 5.5 million child slaves alive today. That's almost half the amount of total slaves transported to North America during the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
4) Slavery is still a profitable business. It generates and estimated $32 billion annually for traffickers worldwide.
5) The top five slave countries per capita are Mauritania, Haiti, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Moldova.
6) India tops the list for total amount of slaves with a horrifying number of 14 million. That's roughly the population of the Netherlands.
It's a huge part of history and it still rears it's ugly head today. It will take a global effort to rid this plague on humanity once and for all so that historians in the future wont see us as idle bystanders. Visit the Anti-Slavery website to find out more and how you can help the effort.
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