To Plead Our Own Cause: Personal Stories by Today's Slaves

by Kevin Bales (Editor), Zoe Trodd (Editor)

Boys strapped to carpet looms in India, women trafficked into sex slavery across Europe, children born into bondage in Mauritania, and migrants imprisoned at gunpoint in the United States are just a few of the many forms slavery takes in the twenty-first century. There are twenty-seven million slaves alive today, more than at any point in history, and they are found on every continent in the world except Antarctica. To Plead Our Own Cause contains ninety-five narratives by slaves and former slaves from around the globe. Told in the words of slaves themselves, the narratives movingly and eloquently chronicle the horrors of contemporary slavery, the process of becoming free, and the challenges faced by former slaves as they build a life in freedom. An editors' introduction lays out the historical, economic, and political background to modern slavery, the literary tradition of the slave narrative, and a variety of ways we can all help end slavery today. Halting the contemporary slave trade is one of the great human-rights issues of our time. But just as slavery is not over, neither is the will to achieve freedom, "plead" the cause of liberation, and advocate abolition. Putting the slave's voice back at the heart of the abolitionist movement, To Plead Our Own Cause gives occasion for both action and hope.

Genres: Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Why I had to write Blood and Earth ...

For years I traveled the world meeting people in slavery trying to understand the depth and truth of their lives. What I saw, heard, and learned changed me, and led me deeper into the work of ending slavery, but I was missing something important. Where there are slaves, the environment is under assault, forests are being destroyed, endangered species are dying, and climate change is worsening – and all of this destruction is driven by profits from products we buy.

Children, especially, are suffering: in the fish camps of Bangladesh, in the mines of Eastern Congo feeding the electronics industry, in mercury-saturated gold pits in Ghana, and when brutally used and disposed of by criminals decimating the Amazon forest. And beside the children, endangered species are being wiped out, or pressed to fight back - like the ‘protected' Bengal tigers that prey on child slaves in fishing camps.

After seven years of research and travel we now know that if slavery were a country it would be the third largest producer of CO2 in the world after China and the USA, though its population is only the size of Canada’s. The scale of this joint disaster has been too big to see, until now. Yet, it is precisely the role that slaves play in this ecological catastrophe that opens a new solution, one that unleashes the power of abolition to save and preserve the natural world.

To hear more about Blood and Earth tune in to NPR’s Fresh Air on Tuesday 19 January, and check out an excerpt in Scientific American HERE.

I'm a guy that grew up in Oklahoma thinking if the whole world is as quiet as this place I better cram life to the fullest. The good news: the world is often much more interesting than Oklahoma. I lived a long time in London, and now live in DC. For the last 14 years all my work has been about modern slavery - real slavery, not sweatshops, or bad marriages, or not being able to stop shopping. Back in 1999 I published a book about contemporary slavery that changed my life. It went into 10 languages, got made into a movie, won some prizes, stuff like that. Since then I've published three more books, and three more will come out in 2008.

In Sept 2007 I published a book that is a plan for the eradication of global slavery. It's called Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves. This is what people said about it:

“None of us is truly free while others remain enslaved. The continuing existence of slavery is one of the greatest tragedies facing our global humanity. Today we finally have the means and increasingly the conviction to end this scourge and to bring millions of slaves to freedom. Read Kevin Bales' practical and inspiring book and you will discover how our world can be free at last.” -- Archbishop Desmond Tutu

“I was enslaved at age 11 as part of a human trafficking plot. I know modern slavery from the inside, and since coming to freedom I am committed to end it forever. Every human life has value. People have been sold for far too long and it's time to stop it. This book shows us how to make a world where no more childhoods will be stolen and sold as mine was.” Given Kachepa, former child slave in the United States.

“Ever since the Emancipation Proclamation, Americans have congratulated themselves on ending slavery once and for all. But did we? Kevin Bales is a powerful and effective voice in pointing out the appalling degree to which servitude, forced labor and outright slavery still exist in today's world, even here. This book is a valuable primer on the persistence of these evils, their intricate links to poverty, corruption and globalization--and what we can do to combat them. He's a modern-day William Lloyd Garrison.”
--Adam Hochschild, author of Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves


Here's the other bio. stuff: My book Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy published in 1999, was nominated for the

Reviews

[Hannah Gallacher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful book which found a balance between personal narratives from the victims of slavery, and concrete empirical statistics about the nature of modern slavery. This book certainly changed how I think about slavery, and has made me realize the true gravity of the modern global slave trade in the 21st century. A must-read!

[Tiffany Beaver · Rating 5 out of 5]

As one who has used this book to teach colleges courses, and who wrote a dissertation on modern slavery, I cannot recommend this book enough. I have read countless books with facts and stats about modern slavery, but reading these stories from the slaves who have lived them is something entirely different. You can turn away from a list of stats. It's a lot more difficult to turn away from real people who are telling heartbreaking stories about their own lives. If you want to engage as a global citizen (as opposed to burying your head in the sand), then this book is a must read. It's not happy, but it's true.

[Witoldzio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shocking and unforgettable. Not a vacation read, but everybody should read it.

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one nearly killed me. the personal stories are from countries all over the globe. Between 600,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year. All ages, both genders, all nationalities. Huge percentages in the US. There is more slavery in the world today than ever in history. Includes all three major types of slaves.

The way I got through this book was to read a chapter, then reward myself with a chapter of Fair and Tender Ladies, to ease my soul and mind. I would recommend the slavery book, but warn you to be strong as you read it.

[Linda]

Review first posted at Lincoln Heights Literary Society

[Mariana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrible stories about contemporary slaves. Children and young people don't recover well when they are set free.