I linked this article ‘When Did Slavery Start In America?’ to a friend and she shot back the following response.

“Great article, Jim. Thanks for sharing. Of course, a counter-question, and a somewhat rhetorical one, that I would ask is, Why didn't slavery end in America? And why isn't anyone talking about it?”

-Lana

Currently over 60,000 people [of the 30 million world wide] are being held as chattel for forced labor and sexual exploitation in the United States. I think the 60,000 is far too low, but have no source to cite for a higher figure. I have gleaned the following information from rt.com. in 2013:

Worldwide value of people sold into slavery in 2012: 42 billion dollars

Common occupations of slaves: sex object; domestic servant; panhandler

Notable countries of origin for slaves: Russia and other former Soviet republics; Eastern Europe; Black Africa; China; the Philippines

Slaves are known to be shipped to and owned in non-black Islamic Nations, Isrаel, and the United States of America.

My previous claim that at least 1 million slaves reside in the U.S. was arrived at by taking the estimate of illegal aliens residing in the U.S. cited in the following report and extrapolating that 1 in 10 of these people are [as some Russians and Salvadorans that I have known] are here as earners for criminal syndicates.

Also, most Americans are wage slaves. This is not just a quaint term. Working for a wage was considered a form of slavery in various times and places, and, most importantly, American industrialists were keen on abolishing Southern plantation slavery because it was not efficient enough. They wanted a wage slave to power the industries coming on line, not some piece of living property that they would have to feed and house! When you read these 19th Century CEOs writing about wage work it is clear that the idea of wage work was to pay people less than it would cost to feed and house them; poverty by design. Our current reducing wage scales have now made this a reality. An American laborer cannot afford to feed and house him or herself.

The biggest form of slavery still going is the income tax. The personal income tax was considered unethical even by the people who thought owning people was okay! 120 years ago someone working for hourly wages was considered quite fucked enough, and the thought of taxing his meager earnings was entertained by only the basest criminal politicians. The modern American pays roughly one third of his earnings to state and federal governments, the same amount a medieval serf had to cough up for his lord and master. If you look at your check and say that this is an exaggeration, it is only because you never see the taxes your employer pays the State for employing you; money that would otherwise be available to compensate you, indeed has not been offered you as an inducement as it has already been claimed by your slave master, who, ironically enough, resides in a big white house!

People think that wage work and taxation do not constitute slavery as the slave is free to quit the job, leave the country, or drop out of the economy. To correct any such notions permit me to outline the practice of slavery in America.

The American colonies were established using the slave labor of abducted children who were starved, worked and beaten to death, and were free to leave. Any kidnapped street urchin from the gutters of London with two good legs could head for the hills—the Appalachian Mountains to be exact—and promptly be killed by wild Indians.

Eventually these rebellious white slaves were replaced with blacks who did not have friends living in the hills and did not look like free whites to confuse the issue. These slaves were starved, beaten and worked to death, and were free to go. No fences or walls surrounded the plantations. Only slaves temporarily held by a soul driver or slave catcher were chained. The rest could try and escape. They usually got as far as the poor white people, who had no job, because the slave masters’ black slaves did the work cheaper and just as well. The poor whites would be enslaved or fined or even hanged for not catching the slaves, and would be paid for catching them. Slave catching was often the only job there was—and it was mandatory.

Today we are no longer starved, worked or beaten to death. Instead we are indoctrinated into the sacral cult of our servitude.

Just like the slave of old we may travel nowhere without identification.

Just like the slave of old, if you quit your job and become homeless you will be preyed upon by the vast criminal population generated by the welfare state, urban schools, and corrections institutions.

Just as the white trash back woodsman of old lacked opportunities that drove him to prey on escaping slaves, the modern criminal is likewise ready to attack any non criminal homeless person seeking to escape the system. Being homeless is a crime in almost every U.S. municipality. The cops will get you too.

And the crowning link in the invisible chain that binds you is: if you decide to work but refuse to pay taxes you will be imprisoned with the world’s most violent people.

In many ways this later day system seems to provide more leverage against the slave, who has no promised land to flee to, as all nations are run on this model now. There is no outer wilderness occupied by savage Indians, or by the slave masters’ dispossessed inferiors, but an inner wilderness where savage criminals and abusive cops await the social dropout.

People will not talk about their condition truthfully, for the truth has been denied them by the parents, teachers, social workers, media and politicians who have indoctrinated them. Our children are even forced to work for free ‘at charitable community service’ tasks before they are permitted release from the sham school that is a prison for their mind. In my experience most women and increasing numbers of men wish deeply to be owned by someone. This yearning, of course, is named something else: love, patriotism, responsibility, or ‘giving back.’ At root, what makes most people good slaves is their innate laziness. It is mentally and emotionally much easier to believe they are free than to be free. Subconsciously we know this, and that is why we adore fictional criminals; why John Dillinger was lionized by the destitute slaves of his day.

The lash is no longer made of leather to strike our back Lana, but is fashioned of words to lash our mind.

Slavery has evolved.