Fact: No country is as anti-Slavery as the USA.
Slavery was outlawed in parts of the USA before anywhere else in the world... and has one of the lowest rates of slavery today.
When having a discussion about a topic — any topic — having good, easy to digest, data is critical.
Let’s take a look at data involving slavery — both modern and historical data — and state a few simple, easily verifiable facts based on that data.
While any amount of slavery is a bad thing, these facts make the USA look better than any other nation on Earth when it comes to fighting slavery.
Slavery Fact #1: The United States of America has one of the lowest rates of slavery in the entire world (lower than all of Europe).
Here is a map that shows — in a nice, visual way — which countries have high (and low) rates of slavery.
Note the extremely light color of the USA. This represents 1.3 / 1,000 people impacted by some type of modern slavery (as defined by the Global Slavery Index). Compare with 93 / 1,000 for Eritria (in Africa), 6.4 /1,000 for Ukraine, and 2.1 / 1,000 for United Kingdom.
In fact, the USA has a lower rate of slavery than any nation of Europe.
Slavery Fact #2: Africa has, as a continent, the highest rates of slavery in the world. By a large margin.
You’ll note, once again, that the Americas in general have the lowest rates of slavery. The difference between the Americas and the rest of the world is rather extreme.
Slavery Fact #3: The United States of America has, arguably, the strongest government response to fighting slavery of any nation on Earth.
More laws. More punishments for those engaged in the slave trade. More resources dedicated to fighting slavery.
Slavery Fact #4: Portugal and the United Kingdom were roughly 10 times more active in the Tans-Atlantic Slave Trade than the United States.
It doesn’t get brought up often, but while the USA was certainly active in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (1500s through 1800s)… it was significantly less active than many European nations. Moving roughly 1/10th the number of slaves as both Portugal and the United Kingdom. And 1/4 the number as France.
In fact, the USA accounted for roughly 2.4% of the total (12,521,337) Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
Slavery Fact #5: Slavery began the process of being outlawed in the USA before any other country on Earth.
With the combination of Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment, in the 1860s, slavery became illegal in the United States. Well over 150 years ago.
In fact, the process of abolishing slavery started long before that — with several states making slavery illegal following the American Revolution and then with The Northwest Ordinance (which outlawed slavery in several states) in 1787. 236 years ago.
The very first nation on Earth to outlaw slavery? Vermont, in 1777. At that time Vermont was an independent nation.
That’s right, what is now a state within the USA led the entire world in banning slavery.
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