Slavery in the Twentieth Century

The Evolution of a Global Problem

Suzanne Miers

• Publisher: AltaMira Press
• Year: 2003
• eBook ISBN: 9780759116160
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

In her new book, well-known Africanist Suzanne Miers places modern slavery in its historical context, tracing the phenomenal development of the international anti-slavery movement over the last hundred years. She demonstrates how the problems of eradication seem greater and more intractable today than they had ever been, showing how slavery has expanded to include newer forms from 1919 to 2000, some of them crueler than the chattel slavery so familiar to the public mind. Miers describes the targets of ongoing anti-slavery campaigns, including forced labor, forced prostitution, forced marriage, the exploitation of child labor and of migrant and contract labor. She centers her story on Great Britain's efforts to suppress the slave trade since the late eighteenth century, and draws upon her extensive work in Africa, where slavery has attracted the greatest humanitarian and international attention. This book is a valuable resource for those interested in world history, slavery, race and ethnic history, international human rights, and labor in the world economy.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations and Acronyms
• 1 The Rise of the British Antislavery Movement
• 2 Forging a Treaty Network against the Slave Trade
• 3 Emancipation in Theory and Practice
• 4 From Slavery to New Forms of Exploitation
• 5 New International Machinery
• 6 Ethiopia, the League of Nations, and Slavery
• 7 Slavery in Hijaz
• 8 The Temporary Slavery Commission and the Expanding Definition of Slavery
• 9 The Slavery Convention of 1926
• 10 The International Labor Organization and the Forced Labor Convention
• 11 The League of Nations and Slavery in the British Empire
• 12 The Problems of a Moral Foreign Policy 1925–1932
• 13 The Committee of Experts on Slavery
• 14 The Advisory Committee of Experts on Slavery
• 15 Slavery in a Changing World 1932–1939: Ethiopia
• 16 Slavery in a Changing World 1932–1939: Arabia, the Red Sea, and Persian Gulf
• 17 The Advisory Committee of Experts on Slavery 1936–1939
• 18 The Slavery Question From 1939 to 1949
• 19 The Cold War and the Supplementary Slavery Convention of 1956
• 20 The End of Slavery in Arabia and the Persian Gulf 1950–1970
• 21 Slavery at the United Nations 1956–1966
• 22 The Final Struggle for a United Nations Slavery Committee 1966–1974
• 23 Epilogue: The UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery
• 24 Contemporary Forms of Slavery
• 25 Conclusion: The Antislavery Campaign in the Twentieth Century
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author