5 Inspiring Quotes for Modern Day Abolitionists

If you’re playing a part in seeing slavery come to an end once and for all, then consider yourself a modern day abolitionist! No matter how much or how little of your time, energy and financial support you’ve contributed to this cause, your efforts help to make a difference in so many lives around the world. Here are six inspiring quotes that will hopefully spur you on in doing such noble work!

“It surprises people that there’s actually a very large number of slaves in the world today — our best estimate is 27 million. And that is defining a slave in a very narrow way; we’re not talking about sweatshop workers or people who are just poor, we’re talking about people who are controlled by violence, who cannot walk away, who are being held against their will, who are being paid nothing. It’s as if all identity has been stolen from them, except their identity as slaves.

Slavery is what slavery’s always been: About one person controlling another person using violence and then exploiting them economically, paying them nothing. We have to make it clear to the multi-nationals that slavery is too high a price to pay for cheap goods.”

– Kevin B. Bales is a co-founder of Free the Slaves in Washington, D.C., the U.S. sister organization of Anti-Slavery International (the world’s oldest human rights group).

“We must show new energy in fighting back an old evil. Nearly two centuries after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, and more than a century after slavery was officially ended in its last strongholds, the trade in human beings for any purpose must not be allowed to thrive in our time.”

– George W. Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009, and as the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000.

“In the same way that we today think that the slave trade and colonial exploitation were inhuman and inconceivably bestial ways of acquiring riches, there is no doubt that coming generations will think that our form of world trade and distribution of the world’s benefits were just as inconceivable and inhuman.”

– Erik Dammann is a Norwegian author, environmentalist, and government scholar, most known for founding the Norwegian-based organization, The Future in Our Hands.

“Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”

– Fannie Lou Hamer was an American voting rights activist, civil rights leader, philanthropist and organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

“It’s easier to be ignorant and say I don’t know about the problem. But once you know, once you’ve seen it in their eyes, then you have a responsibility to do something. There is strength in numbers, and if we all work together as a team, we can be unstoppable.”

– Craig Kielburger is a Canadian author, columnist, social entrepreneur, and activist for children’s rights, having co-founded the international organization, Free the Children.

If those words ignited something in you, and you have a desire to play a more active role in bringing slavery to an end, check out Restavek Freedom’s resources to find out how you can help!