The Slave Experience: The Mental Experience

Broken bones can set, open wounds can heal, and bruises can fade. But the mental scars of slavery linger far longer. When treated like an animal and called an animal, slaves - especially impressionable young children - can easily internalize that message of degradation. Many live in dank settings and must perform the same task for 14 hours a day, seven days a week. Under such circumstances, minds begin to decay and deaden. Often isolated for years, slaves are deprived of love, friendship, affection - even the daily dose of perfunctory civility that most of us take for granted.

The sad truth is this: even if a slave is fortunate enough to become physically separated from her master, he or she may never completely escape the mental bonds of slavery. The following sketches and quotes provide a glimpse into this dark psychological experience.

Siri: Teenage Prostitute, Thailand

Siri was born in Thailand and sold into sex slavery by her parents when she was fourteen. Brutalized by her first client she tried to run away, but was caught, beaten and raped. Later that night she was forced to service a stream of customers until the early morning. The beatings and the work continued, eventually breaking her will. Now a teenager, she is convinced she is a bad person. As Kevin Bales writes: "When I commented on how pretty she looked in a photograph, how like a pop star, she replied, 'I'm no star; I'm just a whore. That's all.'"

Santosh: Carpet Slave, India

At only 5 years of age, Santosh was kidnapped from his home in Bahar. He was taken 400 miles away to Allahabad, the heart of India's "Carpet Belt," and sold into slavery. For 9 years Santosh worked 19 hours a day at the carpet loom. When he was rescued at the age of 14, Santosh was described as being "almost catatonic" with "no emotion left in him."

Francis Bok: Former Slave, Sudan

After he was taken from his village, he was eventually sold to an Arab family in the north. Francis describes his initiation into slavery: "I was given as a slave to Giema Abdullah. He took me to his family, and they beat me with sticks. All of them-the women and children, too. They laughed and called me 'Abeed, abeed' - 'black slave.' For ten years, they beat me every morning. They made me sleep with the animals, and they gave me very bad food. They said I was an animal. For ten years, I had no one to laugh with. For ten years, nobody loved me."

Demba Ba: Former Slave, Mauritania

"When you become friendly with freed [slaves], they treat you just like their superior. They come to your house and want to do the dirty jobs. You have to remind them: 'You sleep with me, you eat with me, whatever we do, we do it together.' But some of them refuse it, and you end up hating them. I talked to those who are in the deepness of slavery. I tell them, 'You can work for your own self and be free, like me.' They say, 'I don't think I can make it without my master. My master gives me food, the clothes I am wearing. What else can I do? I've never been to school. I don't own any property. Where am I going to live if I run away?'"

Mercy Ameyo Senahe: Former Trokosi, Ghana

Given by her parents to the fetish priest at a local religious shrine in atonement for family sins, Mercy was enslaved from age 10 to 23. She reflected on her experience during a conversation with researchers from Columbia University: "I never had the chance to tell the priest how I felt about him. I would have told him that he is the most wicked person on earth… I can't trust anyone in my family now. Of course I blame them for sending me to be punished for a crime I did not commit and for destroying my life. Maybe I could have been a doctor or teacher, but instead I am a single parent of four children from a wicked priest in a wicked system...I believe I can recover, but it is going to be a long and painful road."

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