The average person in our society today thinks of Rome as a distant past, a place to be learned about, but its fatal problems are reflected in our world today. A burning example is the ridiculously high rate of slavery in the Middle East and Africa. There, innocent children are sold into brutal slavery, sometimes as toddlers. The slaves work tirelessly from dusk to dawn, toiling over kilns and looms, which they are often chained to. Rome was even guiltier of this terrible crime, as all citizens relied on numerous slaves. This appalling practice is more often than not originated from parents in desperate poverty. While westerners/patricians waste all their money on non-essential creature comforts, many plebeians/residents of Africa, Asia, and South America suffer in the shadows, never knowing what life was truly like. A crucial difference, however, is the fact that while Rome succumbed to these difficulties, we continue to combat it.

In our complicated history, almost no other society practised slavery as much as Ancient Rome. They accepted it as a vital part of the sophisticated economy. However, despite popular belief, Romans were not the most slave-dependant culture. This could be compared to keeping pets in our “more benevolent society”. We view it as part of everyday life, but in a few thousand years my distant descendant could be reading off a holographic projector and thinking,

“Those pitiless, exceedingly cruel savages, trapping vulnerable animals and exploiting them without a fleeting thought to their rights.” Perhaps the worst side of this is the fact that most of these slaves were born into their profession, a life of excruciating pain and hardship. Mahatma Gandhi said “The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave, his fetters fall. Freedom and slavery are mental states.” However, his noble saying is trumped by Abraham Lincoln’s equally benevolent words, “Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried upon him personally.” Roman slaves attempted many uprisings over the long years of imprisonment, but they were quickly and brutally dealt with. Eventually, the high rate of slavery helped to bring about the downfall of Rome, a fitting end for their cruel oppressors.

Rome’s demise did not exterminate slavery, though, far from it. Over the centuries, almost every culture imaginable practiced slavery in one form or another. The Middle East and parts of Africa still have an extremely cluttered slave trade. Innocent children like Iqbal were forced to toil endlessly for one rupee a day, at the most. The parents of these children, often wanting to escape poverty, sell their children to a feudal employer. Their children, in turn, work as debt slaves and are forced to carry the burden of a tremendous financial obligation that may take the average Pakistani generations to pay off. Western Africa has also seen the resurrection of child slavery. Youngsters are denied an education and sold into sex dens or set to work as unpaid domestic servants for often less than 100 dollars. There isn’t even the fleeting hope of escape, and suicide was the only way out. What all slaves had in common was the fact that they were maltreated and unpaid. Female children are in the most danger, as they suffer sexual and physical abuse from men. I somewhat despise quotes, but Jean Jacques Rousseau’s saying is very true, “Slaves lose everything in their chains, even the desire of escaping from them.”

One possible solution to correct this dilemma is to spread the word. It may sound simple, but after all, knowledge is power. With enough people donating and volunteering their help, slavery will be exposed to the general public and shady feudal employers will not be able to continue their “covert operations.” Spreading the word may not be enough, however, and a solid follow-up to this is to encourage absolutely everybody to get involved. In fact, this plan is being carried out right now, by noble citizens just like you and me.

A second, more drastic theoretical solution is to completely open our borders. That way, every citizen on Earth will be equal under the common law, and slavery will, for the most part, cease to exist. This plan will need to be smoothed out and streamlined before use, as it will be extremely hard to commence. Terrorism will also be a large problem, for I doubt that every person on earth can be forced to share a single religion. You may have noticed by now that the first plan is more practical, while the second one is more permanent. As Leo Tolstoy said, “Today, nobody sees, or wishes to see, that in our time the enslavement of the majority of men levied on land and otherwise, which are collected by government from the subjects.”

In conclusion, slavery is what I personally regard to be the most demeaning part of society, its forces potent enough to strip a person of every basic human right. Even after centuries, humans still have not learned from this terrible mistake, continuing to enslave their fellow citizens. All in all, there’s one message that just may be stronger than any other. Slavery is bad!