Slavery didn't end with Civil War

Some members of Congress are planning to push a resolution soon officially apologizing for slavery. While that may generate controversy for a number of reasons, it may safely be said that most Americans agree the practice that ended with the Civil War is an embarrassing and profoundly disturbing part of American history.

But it is hypocritical and outrageous that Congress would consider an apology while at the same time virtually ignoring the scourge of modern-day slavery.

Our guess is many readers would be surprised to learn that slavery still exists, and that it thrives right here in the United States. And while some people may be aware that women and children worldwide are sold as sex slaves, most probably don't know that for every one sex slave, there are 15 people sold into bondage for labor. That is just one startling statistic quoted in the most recent issue of Foreign Policy magazine. Author E. Benjamin Skinner has spent four years traveling the world, cataloging firsthand how the slave trade thrives, often in places where it is as open as anything one would have seen in the antebellum South.

Skinner writes that there are more slaves in the world today "than at any time in human history." He illustrates his point with a true account of how he flew to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and negotiated to buy a child for $50 from a slave trader. The trader assured him the child could be used for work or for sex, or both.

Skinner, who never actually completed the deal, said the seller easily could have provided documents to make it look as if the child had been adopted, in case he wanted to bring the child slave to the United States. He said an estimated 17,500 people enter the United States each year to work as slaves.

Every now and then, one of these slavery cases enters the news. Right now, Floridians are reading about a family on trial in Fort Lauderdale for allegedly keeping a teenager as a slave. That girl was brought from Haiti in 1999 and finally escaped in 2005. Also, an Associated Press report last week told of how Brazilian authorities raided a sugar cane plantation and freed 61 people who were working as slaves.

These are not workers who earn pitiful wages in sweat shops. They receive no wages, live in inhumane conditions and are kept against their will, usually with the threat of violence.

The U.S. State Department has made a point of bringing human trafficking into the spotlight, negotiating with nations to enact tough laws and eradicate the problem. The United States itself has tough laws against the practice and has successfully convicted many people in recent years. But the efforts aren't nearly enough, and they tend to focus mainly on sexual slavery, ignoring the bulk of the problem.

Skinner estimates as many as 10 million people are slaves in South Asia. Europe, Asia and the Americas are home to about 2 million more.

Apologies are nice. But while Americans dither over something they think ended 143 years ago, they ought to be more concerned about the voiceless victims still held in bondage.