The situation is this. A woman starts buying up slaves in Africa, and then giving them their freedom. Anti-slavery organizations denounce her for doing this, claiming that she is actually supporting the slave trade, and encouraging more slaves to be put on the market. Who's right here? Is the slave-freer just making the situation worse?

I don't know. It's sort of a tough one. We don't have all of the information. Definitely, we can say that being freed helps slaves on an individual basis. So a certain number of slaves benefit. What about the rest? Well, in the article which I am basing this on, the anti-slavery organizations do not give any hard numbers that the slave trade is increasing because of this woman. They do give arguments. The first is that freed slaves often are re-captured, and sold again. No statistics given. The second is, that if the woman buys up all of the slaves, others will see an opporunity, and expand the market, thus putting potential slave on the block who would otherwise remain free. No statistics given. The third reason, is that buying a slave is morally wrong, no matter what you do with him. You cannot barter money for human life. No statistics given.

I feel that the argument of the anti-slavery organizations could have merit. But since they do not provide evidence, their arguments are useless. There is a visible and concrete benefit to the service that this woman is providing. There are no substantiated drawbacks. With regards to their second reason, it would seem that quite a large number of slaves would have to be purchased by the woman before it had any sort of effect on the market of an entire nation. And with regards to the third point, well, if I were a slave, and in order to be set free, somebody had to buy me and do it....well, I'd be begging anybody to do it. I don't think their moral argument really washes. Ah.....that's it! What do you guys think?


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