We’re “Historians Against Slavery” because:
We’re convinced that sustained historical study is essential for understanding modern slavery in all its forms and for combating it intelligently and effectively. Our task is at once unequivocally academic and unapologetically engaged with urgent moral questions
When, in the past, slavery systems have been formally eliminated, that’s never the end of the story. We agree with the great New England abolitionist Wendell Phillips who observed with the passage of the 13th Amendment “We have abolished the slave. The master remains.”
When slavery is declared illegal, it becomes much harder to define, describe and expose. But it most certainly does not disappear. Our commitment is to illuminate this process by recovering the histories that have generated and continue to sustain modern forms of slavery all over the globe. The more we learn about the historical roots of today’s slavery, the more informed we will become in our efforts to combat it.