Its a common occurrence for families to take in poor girls to do house work in exchange for food and lodging. And with the insidious nature of Brazilian racism, they will pretend that she is part of the family. They might even take her on vacations (to work, of course). If you grow up with this mentality it might even be hard for you to see the injustice. Brazil abolished slavery in 1888, the last country in the Amer…
I was repeatedly told in school that Brazil was the last country to abolish slavery, only to find out recently that places like UAE had not abolished slavery until 1967.
Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family
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Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was shocked to read how late even several prominent European countries abolished it. Most northern US states abolished slavery even before Britain, France, Portugal, and (especially) Spain did.
Serfdom wasn't legally abolished in Russia until 1861. Slavery was technically abolished in the late 1700s, but in some areas serfs were still bought and sold like chattel until the end of serfdom. The Ottoman Empire legally abolished slavery in the 1880s, but there was still illicit yet tolerated slavery in Turkey into the 1930s. I think in some areas of the Sahel chattel slavery may still exist as a practical matte…
And, today, in the whole middle east everyone, from governments to individual families, keep getting "embarassed" by having it turn that that they're "holding servants". And then it happens again. And again. And again. Daesh/IS "brought back" slavery (which is one reason bringing back terror brides, some of whom exploited slaves while in the middle east, is such a judicial nightmare. What do you do with a legally Australian girl, now a mother of 4, who lived for 2 years in Iraq, bought and sold slaves, exploited some them to "run the household", and killed/worked to death one of them?)
Slavery is abolished everywhere in the middle east ("except" Daesh/islamic state), and yet this keeps happening. Example after example after example:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/06/12/fifas-world-cup-ignores-...
https://www.freedomunited.org/news/repression-modern-slavery...
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/HRBodies...
https://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2014/12/domestic-servitude-...
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpw5v077nyjo
https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/07/13/i-was-sold/abuse-and-e...
https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/10/22/united-arab-emirates-tra...
https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/08/24/how-can-we-work-withou...
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2017/11/libya-must-e...
Oh and the royal families keep getting caught in "even more embarrassing" incidents.
Here is Saudi Arabia having a royal murder a slave for perceived insults, then forcing UK governments to allow and forgive the murder (by taking nationals hostage then organizing a "prisoner swap")
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9674420/Saudi-...
Or Qatar:
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200619-qatar-prince-accu...
Or Iranian and Iraqi imams and mullahs selling children, girls, but apparently even including the occasional boy, into child prostitution, functioning as pimps and exploiters:
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/W...
Frankly, these days it seems to be quite normal for countries to just sign whatever treaty anyone wants signed ... and just ignore it. Vilifying anyone calling them out on it as culturally insensitive and in all cases ignoring them.
Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family
#183Its a common occurrence for families to take in poor girls to do house work in exchange for food and lodging. And with the insidious nature of Brazilian racism, they will pretend that she is part of the family. They might even take her on vacations (to work, of course). If you grow up with this mentality it might even be hard for you to see the injustice. Brazil abolished slavery in 1888, the last country in the Amer…
> they will pretend that she is part of the family Wasn't there some mild scandal a decade or so ago where wealthy white American families would adopt kids from Africa or Mexico, only to force them to do housework the whole time?
https://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf/774166.pdf
Well, it's classed as child abuse and the perpetrators ("parents") were punished harshly. So pretty bad, but not remotely the same thing as what happens in the middle east or north Africa.
Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was repeatedly told in school that Brazil was the last country to abolish slavery, only to find out recently that places like UAE had not abolished slavery until 1967.
Most people I talk to don’t know that 80% of Russians were slaves until their emancipation in 1861, as well as a significant amount of Ukrainians, Belarusians, Latvians and Estonians. There were no reparations paid, in fact they had to continue working for free for generations to pay bankers for the same land they have been enslaved for. Then just after the former serfs finally paid their “debt” the Bolsheviks came a…
They took the slavery / serf distinction seriously in the Slavic world. While the distinctions might have mattered in the 1800s, by any modern-slavery standard the serfs were slaves, as you rightly say.
Whatever we might now think with hindsight of the communist revolution in Russia, if ever there was a country primed for the peasants to rise up against the ruling class, it was Russia.
Russia might have been a land of art, music, dance and literature, but you were pretty fucked if you weren't in the 20%.
Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family
#185I’m new to HN. How does this relate to the theme of Hacker News?
You’re doing great so far; keep making more comments like this and you’ll fit right in
Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
If she hires people doesn't that just perpetuate the problem?
Hire not enslave! Like how you might hire a driver, or housemaid, or anyone to do a salaried or contract job? How does that perpetuates the problem?
I'm pretty sure there's a reason we frown on people hiring servants in general, such as a driver or a housemaid. It's far too similar to slavery for anyone's comfort
Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes poverty is a factor. But inequality too - it helps to create [the powerless vs the powerful] situations. Even if those on the bottom may not qualify as poor. > Education and a society's culture are certainly important too. Agreed.
In the powerless VS powerful situation, taking aside poverty, what do you mean? The powerful manipulating the justice system with money?
> The powerful manipulating the justice system with money?
That's a good example. Curtailing voter rights is another. And then there's money -> influence on media.
Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
This isn't very surprising. The vast majority of slaves went to the New World, so that's where most of its effects were felt. Of the 12.5M people kidnapped from Africa, only ~9000 went to the Old World. It just wasn't as obvious of a problem in Europe itself . An interesting side-effect of this is that a lot of European countries have two relevant dates: the first being the banning of slave trade , the second being t…
Abducted and enslaved? Doesn't kidnapping imply kids?
It doesn't imply kids (or napping). Nancy Guthrie is 84 https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/fbi-determine...
Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suppose using this logic, murder is legal, because of self defense. Theft is legal because of tax laws. Prisoners aren't 'slaves'. They are being punished for crimes they committed. Very dofferent than being born into it and bought/sold to the highest bidder.
If someone is abducted against their will and forced to do work without (fair) compensation and without being allowed to exercise their human rights, is that person not a slave because they were neither born into it nor bought or sold?
"Abduction against their will" is something that happens when a person is arrested. If you are done for crime I don't think freedoms apply to you anymore.
Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family
#190$40k compensation for 55 years of service...
The crime done here is nearly death penalty levels. Nearly. Jail time for the entire family or stripped of all wealth. Maybe public humiliation is better, release names and address.
You are acting like the case is that the girl was kidnapped or taken from their family against their will. Barring extraordinary circumstances, this is far from the truth here. More likely than not, this is the case of some poor family that couldn't take care of the girl and gave her away.
It is a horrible arrangement, and she should be given a lot more than what she is getting (at the very least, she should be given backpay + pension equivalent to the market rate of her work for all these years), but to treat this case as some sadistic family keeping someone in captivity is overreacting.