The Myth of Slavery Abolition

Abstract

The successful legal abolition of slavery and the slave trade of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is a central and dominant narrative of international human rights law, a framework that is based on fundamental ideals of liberty, equality, and human dignity. While international law did abolish de jure and de facto slavery and the slave trade, these crimes persist in practice globally. As in some of the worst slave trades of the past--namely, the Trans-Atlantic and East African Slave trades in which millions of Africans were abducted and forcibly removed to the Americas, the Middle East, and Asia global capitalist economy remains dependent upon slave trade and slavery institutions, systems, and practices in which perpetrators exercise ownership powers over human beings in order to extract labor or otherwise subjugate them.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-7-2025

Source Publication

Race, Racism and the Law

Disciplines

Law | Law and Race

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