Shirts made by bruised hands

Growing up in America, we’ve been told the great and prideful story of how we as a nation abolished slavery–how we fought and how we triumphed, reining in a new age of our nation’s enlightenment. This is a nice, comforting American thought declaring an anthem of freedom and liberty.

A nice thought, yes, but one that is short-lived and reflects our ignorance of the nature of our country. In this land of the free, we adorn ourselves daily with the products of slavery. We wear clothes sewn by slaves; we use products manufactured by slaves. We support the practice of slavery in every sense of the word–in our everyday lives.

Not much has changed since 1865, when slavery was abolished in the United States. It has merely evolved; we have found easier and more cost-effective ways to engage in its practice. Today, all we have to do is build a factory in another, poorer country, or hire a non-U.S. company to do the job for us. After all, they don’t have the 13th Amendment overseas.

Most people have heard the terms “sweatshop” and “child labor,” and while those practices are detestable in their practice and are used in slave environments, it is simply far more common to find a straightforward slave operation. First of all, the term “slave” isn’t used so much anymore. Instead, other terms-like human trafficking or involuntary servitude–are used. However you want to put it, violence, imprisonment, sickness and disease are inflicted upon the workers who make our clothes and other day-to-day products.

The only comparable conduct is how we treat animals, and even then, in the United States, we do not allow such treatment.

The country of Jordan is a good example, but it is not an anomaly in its practice. Human trafficking is the name of the game there, where thousands of workers, mostly from Bangladesh, are transported there under deceitful practices. Some actually pay to work there for periods of years. When they arrive, they go to factories such as Al Safa, Topaz Garments, Al Shahaed, Western Factory, among many others. Their passports and other national documentation are taken, preventing them from ever leaving. From then on, their days are spent working.

Workers are kept packed in dorms with scarce water, toilet paper or other facilities in the few hours they are not laboring. Sickness is easily spread in these conditions.

The workers in Jordanian factories work more than 100 hours a week. They can be paid, but only when the management feels like doing so. When they are paid, they’re commonly shorted their earnings, averaging about 2 cents an hour. Collapsing from exhaustion is common, and is met with physical abuse. Violence is used when goals are not met, or when people complain or try to leave. Sexual abuse and rape is more than common for girls and women.

In 2005, a young woman hung herself after being allegedly raped by her manager in the Al Safa garment factory.

Violence, rape and abuse for the things we buy. But not you, right? You wouldn’t support this. If you have shopped at any major retailer in the United States, chances are you have, and still do. Wal-Mart (obviously), Target, Kohls and Kmart, to name a few, stock their shelves with slave-driven products. Companies like Gloria Vanderbilt, L.L. Bean and Limited Brands, which owns the Limited, Express, Victoria’s Secret and Bath and Body Works, all offer you garments and products made by the hands of slaves. The list doesn’t stop there; basically, if the tag says it was made outside the United States, chances are it was constructed under inhumane practices. Jordan is just one place where this is happening.

Buying American-made products used to make people feel proud. In modern times, it is increasingly more difficult to buy those products. Now, there is extra incentive to buy American: no slave labor. If you want to pay more attention to what you buy and where, there are great resources, such as the National Labor Committee (www.nlcnet.org) and Co-op America (www.coopamerica.org), where they monitor such activities and companies.

When you are purchasing your clothes or other products, remember what it takes to get so much on the shelves of stores. What it really does come down to is this: Do you feel comfortable wearing clothes that someone was beaten, raped and abused to make?