Consider the work and writings of Alexander von Humboldt, and compare and contrast his findings on the issue of slavery in the 18th and 19th century to those of today’s researchers. It is my contention that slavery is alive and well in the 21st century and exists in the heartland of the so called free world.
Enslavement is a contravention of fundamental human rights, yet the tentacles of slavery continue to maintain their reach, even into the minds of free people. I hope to show that as corporate and institutional powers seek to find ever more sophisticated means to keep their workers docile and co-operative– even in our own high technology, pluralistic societies – a new form of
enslavement has emerged. I present this paper as both an academic concerned
with the historical and contemporary enslavement experience and as an
“expert by experience,” as someone who has survived a form of attempted
enslavement within the workplace.
In 2004 we commemorate the bicentenary of the meeting between Alexander von Humboldt and President Thomas Jefferson of the United States of
America. We are also celebrating the last visit by Alexander von Humboldt to
Havana, Cuba, from March to April 1804, where, with the authorization of
the Spanish Crown, he observed (in 1799, 1800 and 1804) the society of one
of the “Spanish Sugar Colonies.” This is where according to Humboldt
(1826, 44), by 1825 the slave population of the island had a total of 260,000
and by 1877 a total of 200,000 (Zeuske 2002, 136). Coincidently, 2004 has
also been proclaimed by the United Nations as the year against slavery
