Welcome to the conversation!


Welcome to the conversation!

Harriet Beecher Stowe's (1811-1896) best-selling anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), made her the most famous American woman of the 19th century and galvanized the abolition movement before the Civil War.

The Stowe Center is a 21st-century museum and program center using Stowe's story to inspire social justice and positive change.

The Salons at Stowe programs are a forum to connect the challenging issues (race, gender and class) that impelled Stowe to write and act with the contemporary face of those same issues. The Salon format is based on a robust level of audience participation, with the explicit goal of promoting civic engagement. Recent topics included: Teaching Acceptance; Is Prison the New Slavery; Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North; Creativity and Change; Race, Gender and Politics Today; How to be an Advocate

This blog will expand the reach of these community conversations to the online audience. Add your posts and comments to keep the conversation going! Commit to action by clicking HERE to stay up to date on Salon and social justice news.

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Thursday, August 15, 2013

How many slaves work for you?

In 2006, Anne Farrow, Joel Lang and Jennifer Frank of The Hartford Courant published the book Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery. Based on a 2002 Courant and Northeast Magazine special titled "Complicity: How Connecticut Chained Itself to Slavery," the book
"reveals the cruel truth about the Triangle Trade of molasses, rum, and slaves that lucratively linked the North to the West Indies and Africa; discloses the reality of Northern empires built on profits from rum, cotton, and ivory–and run, in some cases, by abolitionists; and exposes the thousand-acre plantations that existed in towns such as Salem, Connecticut." 
Both pieces were based on the word "complicity," which they defined as "the fact or state of being an accomplice; partnership in wrongdoing;" their work was meant to explain the North's complicit involvement in slavery. Although 2013 marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, and the anniversaries of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments are on the horizon, slavery still exists today. In fact, according to many estimates and studies, there are more people enslaved today than at any other time in human history (for more information, visit www. FreeTheSlaves.net). But are we still as complicit?

The folks at SlaveryFootprint.org might argue that yes, we are indeed. Their online quiz "How many slaves work for you?" estimates that at least 27 million people are enslave worldwide and through questions about residence,  lifestyle, eating habits, leisure, and more, calculates and exposes how many slaves "work for you." Take the quiz and find out - you'll be shocked at how complicit we all are in modern day slavery.

The quiz concludes with ways you can help end slavery - it's proof that we do not have to be complicit and can help change this incredible injustice.


How many slaves work for you? How will you take action to help end modern day slavery? We encourage you to share your thoughts in the Comments section below. 

1 comment:

Jen said...

I read about this in a NY Times article last year - it's a very powerful survey, quite motivating.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/opinion/how-many-slaves-work-for-you.html?emc=eta1&_r=1&