Slavery & Human Trafficking
property" of the slaveholder, despite the obvious and grievous violation of human rights that this practice entailed. The abolition movement in western Europe and the Americas began in the late 18th century and was chiefly responsible for creating the emotional climate necessary for ending the transatlantic slave trade. Although slavery no longer exists as a legal phenomenon recognized by a political authority or government, human trafficking—a form of modern-day slavery that involves the illegal transport of individuals by force or deception for the purpose of labor, sexual exploitation, or financial gain—is a growing international phenomenon that affects people of all ages.
Slavery & Human Trafficking Encyclopedia Articles
Featured Articles
Haitian Revolution
Haitian Revolution, series of conflicts between 1791 and 1804 between Haitian slaves, colonists, the armies of the British and French colonizers, and a number of other parties. Through the struggle, the...
comfort women
Comfort women, a euphemism for women who provided sexual services to Japanese Imperial Army troops during Japan’s militaristic period that ended with World War II and who generally lived under conditions...
slavery
Slavery, condition in which one human being was owned by another. A slave was considered by law as property, or chattel, and was deprived of most of the rights ordinarily held by free persons. There is...
fugitive slave
Fugitive slave, any individual who escaped from slavery in the period before and including the American Civil War. In general they fled to Canada or to free states in the North, though Florida (for a time...
American Civil War
American Civil War, four-year war (1861–65) between the United States and 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. The secession of the Southern states...
human trafficking
Human trafficking, form of modern-day slavery involving the illegal transport of individuals by force or deception for the purpose of labour, sexual exploitation, or activities in which others benefit...
Dred Scott decision
Dred Scott decision, legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court on March 6, 1857, ruled (7–2) that a slave (Dred Scott) who had resided in a free state and territory (where slavery was prohibited) was...
Toussaint Louverture
Toussaint Louverture was the leader of the Haitian independence movement during the French Revolution (1787–99). He emancipated the enslaved people and negotiated for the French colony on Hispaniola, Saint-Domingue...
Third Servile War
Third Servile War, (73–71 bce) slave rebellion against Rome led by the gladiator Spartacus. Spartacus was a Thracian who had served in the Roman army but seems to have deserted. He was captured and subsequently...
John C. Calhoun
John C. Calhoun was an American political leader who was a congressman, the secretary of war, the seventh vice president (1825–32), a senator, and the secretary of state of the United States. He championed...
slave rebellions
Slave rebellions, in the history of the Americas, periodic acts of violent resistance by Black enslaved people during nearly three centuries of chattel slavery. Such resistance signified continual deep-rooted...
Solomon Northup
Solomon Northup was an American farmer, labourer, and musician whose experience of being kidnapped and sold into slavery was the basis for his book Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a...
Bartolomé de Las Casas
Bartolomé de Las Casas was an early Spanish historian and Dominican missionary who was the first to expose the oppression of indigenous peoples by Europeans in the Americas and to call for the abolition...