Five Thousand Years of Slavery

Gr 6—9—This well-researched global survey introduces readers to slavery practices, customs, suffering, uprisings, and revolts as well as antislavery efforts from ancient Greece and Rome to today's world. Organized into 12 chapters, the narrative presents the historical, economic, and cultural contexts of slavery in different regions of the world. Personal accounts are woven into the text. Greatest emphasis is placed on the transatlantic slave trade, which brought almost 12 million Africans to the Americas, eventually sparking British and American abolitionist protests, the American Civil War, and the Civil Rights Movement. The authors promote global awareness and issue a call to action. Descriptions of Chinese mui-tsai, the legal sale of daughters into slavery, and the activist martyrdom in 1995 of 12-year-old Iqbal Masih, a Pakistani child laborer, are heartrending. To eradicate slavery today, the authors recommend proactive strategies like buying labeled "slave-free products," advocating for enforcement of antislavery laws, and learning more from antislavery organizations and websites. Informative documentary photos and factually rich sidebars enhance the text. A timeline lists pivotal moments from the rise of Sumerian cities to the 2001 Cocoa Protocol denouncing child labor on African cocoa plantations. This groundbreaking title brings the disturbing subject into historical and contemporary focus.—Gerry Larson, Durham School of the Arts, NC