Book Review: Not For Sale

Posted by Rachel on: 05.15.2007 /

“The book of Ecclesiastes is one of the extraordinary pieces of ancient wisdom literature. The author beautifully expressed the desperation of the powerless: ‘I saw all the oppressions that are practiced under the sun. Look, the tears of the oppressed - with no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power’ (Eccles. 4:1).

“In our world today, 27 million individuals live as slaves. Frankly, power is on the side of the oppressors at the moment, but a wave of abolitionists is on the rise. They will wipe away the tears of the oppressed and deliver justice to the oppressors.”

To learn more about modern day slavery, I recently read David Batstone’s excellent new book Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade - and How We Can Fight It. David Batstone is a professor of ethics and an award-winning journalist who traveled all over the world preparing to write this book. I found this well-researched and passionately written book to be both heartbreaking and inspiring.

In it Batstone gives both statistical and policy information, as well as first hand accounts. He outlines the massive scope of this global crisis; there are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today, more than in the four centuries of the transatlantic slave trade combined. He explains the main types of modern slavery - sex trafficking/forced prostitution, bonded labor, and captive child soldiers. And he details actions that are being undertaken and need to be undertaken by governments and institutions to fight against this scourge.

But he also tells the heartbreaking personal stories of individuals who endured the agony of slavery. I cried many times while reading about the suffering of women, children and the powerless poor who were exploited and abused. And I rejoiced as Batstone told the stories of the courageous abolitionists who helped to bring about their liberation. The book was painful and disturbing to read but it also gives cause for hope. As the author writes,

“I had steeled myself emotionally to end up in the depths of depression and despair…But my journey did not end at the station of despair. The prime reason: I met a heroic ensemble of abolitionists who simply refuse to relent. I felt like I had gone back in time and had the great privilege of sharing a meal with a Harriet Tubman or a William Wilberforce or a Frederick Douglass.

“Like the abolitionists of old, these modern heroes do not expend their energy handicapping the odds stacked against the antislavery movement. They simply refuse to accept a world where one individual can be held as the property of another.”

Like Batstone, I was encouraged by the wonderful work of individuals like Gary Haugen of the International Justice Mission and Annie Dieselberg of NightLight Design. And I was inspired by the stories of those who have survived and escaped slavery and courageously rebuilt their lives.

In the concluding chapter of the book, Batstone urges the reader to join the modern day abolitionist movement. He gives numerous examples of practical things that ordinary citizens have done and can do to help fight slavery. To learn more, visit the Not for Sale Campaign.