Chattel

In legal terms, a chattel is a piece of personal property. The term is often used to refer to slaves, who were considered to be the personal property of their owners. In this context, chattel slavery refers to a system of slavery in which people are owned as property, and they can be bought, sold, or traded like any other piece of personal property. Chattel slavery was common in many parts of the world throughout history, and it was particularly prevalent in the Americas during the 18th and 19th centuries. Despite the widespread abolition of slavery in the 19th century, chattel slavery still exists in some parts of the world today.

 

 

Stronger Labor Laws Could Combat Human Trafficking
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Stronger Labor Laws Could Combat Human Trafficking

Author Melissa Hope Ditmore suggests that current political attention on human trafficking is performative rather than practical. In her new book, she makes the case for enforcing and expanding labor laws.  There’s an ugly truth about what powers the United States economy, says Melissa Hope Ditmore. Our economic system depends on exploited labor and forced…

Stop human trafficking by fixing border, raising public awareness
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Stop human trafficking by fixing border, raising public awareness

Addressing the wickedness of slavery in 1850, the great American abolitionist Frederick Douglass said the practice “violates the great law of liberty, written on every human heart.” Further, he said, it “contravenes the laws of eternal justice, and tramples in the dust all the humane and heavenly precepts of the New Testament.” In 1865, America…

Movement grows to abolish US prison labor system that treats workers as ‘less than human’
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Movement grows to abolish US prison labor system that treats workers as ‘less than human’

Hundreds of thousands of incarcerated people work in US prisons as part of their sentences, often without basic protections and for little to no pay For more than two decades imprisoned in California, Samual Brown worked more than a dozen different jobs and was transferred between penitentiaries throughout the state – earning less than a…

Slavery rejected in some, not all, states where on ballot
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Slavery rejected in some, not all, states where on ballot

Voters in four states have approved ballot measures that will change their state constitutions to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime, while those in a fifth state rejected a flawed version on the question. The measures approved Tuesday could curtail the use of prison labor in Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont. In…

Slavery rejected in some, not all, states where it was on the ballot
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Slavery rejected in some, not all, states where it was on the ballot

Voters in three states approved ballot measures that will change their state constitutions to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime, while those in a fourth state rejected the move. The measures approved Tuesday curtail the use of prison labor in Alabama, Tennessee and Vermont. In Oregon, “yes” was leading its anti-slavery ballot initiative, but…

More US Employers Are Trapping Workers in a New Form of Indentured Servitude – Truthout
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More US Employers Are Trapping Workers in a New Form of Indentured Servitude – Truthout

  Bosses in industries such as retail, health care and logistics are reverting to an old tactic and trapping people in miserable jobs by threatening to saddle them with debt if they quit. Workers across the United States in fields ranging from nursing to trucking have been discouraged from leaving jobs they hate or can’t…

Human trafficking victims and a one-month-old: Florida and Texas migrant transports moved over a dozen kids (Editor’s note: this is NOT human trafficking.)
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Human trafficking victims and a one-month-old: Florida and Texas migrant transports moved over a dozen kids (Editor’s note: this is NOT human trafficking.)

Editor’s note: this news topic is “hot” in America. Human trafficking requires Action, Means, and Purpose. “Purpose” has to be for a commercial benefit. Here is a set of articles to review:  Are DeSantis and Abbott Breaking Human Trafficking Laws by Sending Migrants to Blue States? (Spoiler: no.) No, Transporting Undocumented Migrants to Martha’s Vineyard…

UN expert says contemporary forms of slavery affecting minority communities, urges action
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UN expert says contemporary forms of slavery affecting minority communities, urges action

GENEVA (15 September 2022) – Minority communities in all regions of the world are subjected to contemporary forms of slavery, a UN expert said in a report presented to the Human Rights Council today. “Deep-rooted and systematic discrimination often resulting from historical legacies such as slavery, colonisation, systems of inherited status, and formalised and State-sponsored…

The Perils and Promise of America’s Third Reconstruction
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The Perils and Promise of America’s Third Reconstruction

Credit – Illustration by Ajubel Studio for TIME W.E.B. Du Bois is perhaps best known for introducing the term “double consciousness” into the lexicon of the Black experience. The term described the duality of being a Black American—neither fully African nor completely American, an enduring “problem” to be fought over in times of war and…

The 5 states with ballot initiatives to abolish slavery in 2022
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The 5 states with ballot initiatives to abolish slavery in 2022

(Getty Images) Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio. It’s 2022, and five states have ballot initiatives to abolish slavery. Yes, you read that right. In the “land of the free,” the states of Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont have an opportunity to…