Weekly Writing Prompt 3: Slavery in Central-Asia Today
Prompt: Connect a current event to a historical event you have studied.
Slavery has been around for a very long time; it dates all the way back to Ancient Egypt. Recently in World History, we were taught about slavery during the Age of European Exploration and Conquest, and how it played a vital role in the success of European Colonies. Slave labor was frequently used for farming and on plantations in colonies, which caused industries to thrive in the Americas. The arrival of African slaves in the Americas was made possible through the Atlantic Slave Trade, and there were over millions of slaves distributed throughout America by the 1800s. Slavery had a significant part in progressing the American economy, especially towards the end of the 18th Century when the economy depended on the profitable Cotton Industry. Cotton is still essential today. Lately, there have been concerns about the production of Cotton in Central-Asia under forced-labor. According to a recent news published by CNN, Citizens of the nations Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have been forced into labor organized by the government. Every year, the nation's government obligates the citizens to work during the Cotton Harvests. Tens and thousands of children and adults in Turkemenistan, as well as millions in Uzbekistan, have been forced to pick cotten under unsanitary, dangerous and torrid conditions, as did the enslaved African Americans did two hundred years ago. Slavery has in no way declined since Colonial America; instead, slave labor has in fact grown and expanded, and has become even more discreet since it is now universally acknowledged as immoral. The economies of both countries in Central Asia are deeply rooted in the system of forced labor, and what's even more shocking is that the profits do not benefit the citizens, but rather the private government elites. The fact that the cotton are produced under forced-labor has not discouraged cotton trade with Uzbekistan and Turkemnistan, nor has it prevented countries from investing in those nations. This is just a glimpse of modern-day slavery, for there are far more areas in the world today in which people are still suffering from forced activity.