Slavery And Human Trafficking Poem by Deanna Samuels

Slavery, something of the past,
a human misery that has knowingly happened
since the World evolved from the last Ice Age of
nearly 12,000 years ago when modern man,
Homo Sapiens, evolved and walked this Earth.
It's over now, something of the distant past.
That inhumaneness finished, done with that,
we are enlightened, it is no longer part of our
culture, of our lives in the twenty-first century.

WRONG!

Human slavery is now more prevalent than ever.
It is hard to believe, but it is a fact.
We may no longer see human beings openly
chained and beaten, used and abused.
Human trafficking - slavery has continued to
prosper, no longer openly in town markets
where human souls were sold unashamedly
to other humans to use as wished but now,
quietly happening behind closed doors
in every country in the world.

Young girls and also boys, stolen or tricked,
trapped into prostitution or slave labor,
given drugs or beaten into submission
to do the will of their abductors.
Yes, there is child labor and slavery,
sold for a few dollars, starved, raped,
used, abused, until their tiny lives expire,
often their fate never recorded.

Adult slave labor - modern day slavery,
bonded to another through debt, exploited.
Sweat shops - men, women and children
used for a pittance of a salary, no respite.
Women exploited as house help,
passport taken away or non-existent,
imprisoned in a house to clean and cook,
do whatever is bade by members of family.

Human trafficking occurs in every neighborhood.
Yes, your own neighborhood where you may live.
There is human exploitation and brothels,
could be right on your street, next door.
Watch out for signs, men coming and going,
a woman in distress, ask her, she may need help.
Teenage girls or even younger, are prize
acquirements for traffickers as huge price paid
for their first initiation, often to older men.

The foregoing is but a brief indication of
slavery today, of human trafficking.
Current profits estimated from this inhumane
trade amount to $150 BILLION dollars a year -
yes, $150 BILLION dollars,
which gives good indication of the measure
of poor innocent souls who are enveloped into
this obscene, hideous and heinous exploitation.

It does not appear therefore, that we have
moved on at all from those dark ages of bygone
centuries of slavery

- In fact, we have regressed.


Shame.


Written at Courtice, Ontario (with heavy heart) - 29th March 2026