Ending Slavery

"I felt terrible, I mean I felt really terrible because I couldn't imagine, not even in my slightest imagination, that in this day and age someone would treat somebody's child the way she was treated. It made me sick in my stomach." (p80)

Like most other people, I am ignorant of the existence of slavery. I thought that after the Civil War and Emancipation Proclamation it really ceased to exist because that's the impression I got from history textbooks. After reading this book, I realized that slavery was only made illegal, not gone from existence. Corrupt officials and greed for profit encourage the illegal smuggling of slaves. I am unaware that it could be happening right in front of me. When I walk into a department store, I do not stop and think whether the merchandise were made through slave and child labor probably on the other side of the world of whether the waitresses at restaurants are prostitutes at night.

I agree with Louis, one of the people Bales writes about whose thoughts were expressed in the quote above. It really is sad how people can treat other humans so inhumanely. In the book, it said that the enslaved field worker who cost the equivalent of $40,000 in 1850 costs less than $100 today. It is unbelievable that price tags are put on people whose lives are of infinite worth. Their worth has diminished so much that they are considered disposable; they are even worth less than products that you could find at a mall.

Hearing of the conditions of slaves made me feel thankful of my life. Its pathetic how I complain about petty things while others are suffering more; slaves are beaten, starved, and have lost their pursuit for happiness. I also reflected on what I want to do with my life; I thought that one of the things that I would want to do is be like missionaries that travel to countries like Southeast Asia and rescue children that have been forced into slavery. Louis said that even though he was supporting the girls that he rescued, he was happy because he knew that he did the right thing. He was overjoyed seeing the smiles of the relatives of those girls when he showed them video footage that they were alive. People's smiles, like those of the kids on the cover can be more rewarding than money itself.