The New Slaves--Who They Are
America's current use of foreign labor--here or abroad--is only the latest in an assortment of arrangements to obtain cheap labor and make some Americans filthy rich. The original colonists came from England and Europe around the time that peasants were shaking off the yoke of a feudal society organized to hold those peasants in various degrees of serfdom. The earliest colonists brought indentured servants along when they sailed to the new world. Soon after their arrival, colonists began to import slaves from Africa and over time tightened the yoke of slavery as farming with slave labor became increasingly profitable. When we had an agricultural economy, those who suffered worst from slavery were clearly the slaves. Racism rationalized popular indifference to the slaves' plight in a system of bondage that grew increasingly inhumane over time. Free citizens who did not share in the profits of...