Latest Slavery News

Britain's foreign secretary says slavery reparations not about cash transfer

Nov. 04, 2024 10:15 AM EST

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Britain’s foreign secretary said Monday that reparations for the U.K.'s role in the slave trade are not about the “transfer of cash” and reiterated his country's position that leans toward focusing on the future. There have been calls from some of...

Calls for reparations for Britain's slave trade are rooted in dark legacy

Oct. 25, 2024 12:56 PM EDT

LONDON (AP) — A debate about reparations for Britain’s role in the slave trade overshadowed a summit in Samoa of the Commonwealth, many of whose member nations were once British colonies. Britain insists it will not pay to make amends for the historic wrong, but both King Charles...

Altogether fitting and proper? Trump repeatedly compares himself to Abraham Lincoln

Oct. 25, 2024 12:04 PM EDT

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Four score and seven years from now, the mystic chords of memory may recall the way Donald Trump compared himself to Abraham Lincoln, lauded him one day and lambasted him the next. It is altogether fitting and proper that our descendants would examine why the 45th...

King Charles tells summit the past can't be changed as leaders ask Britain to reckon with slavery

Oct. 25, 2024 04:34 AM EDT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — King Charles III told a summit of Commonwealth countries in Samoa on Friday that the past could not be changed as he indirectly acknowledged calls from some of Britain’s former colonies for a reckoning over its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. ...

Voters in California and Nevada consider ban on forced labor aimed at protecting prisoners

Oct. 15, 2024 12:35 PM EDT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California and Nevada voters will decide in November whether to ban forced prison labor by removing language from their state constitutions rooted in the legacy of chattel slavery. The measures aim to protect incarcerated people from being forced to work...

Sweden charges a woman with war crimes for allegedly torturing Yazidi women and children in Syria

Sep. 19, 2024 10:48 AM EDT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Swedish authorities on Thursday charged a 52-year-old woman associated with the Islamic State group with genocide, crimes against humanity and serious war crimes against Yazidi women and children in Syria — the first such case on trial in the Scandinavian country. ...

New York City lawmakers approve bill to study slavery and reparations

Sep. 12, 2024 19:25 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City lawmakers approved legislation Thursday to study the city's significant role in slavery and consider reparations to descendants of enslaved people. If signed into law, the package of bills passed by the City Council would follow in the footsteps of...

Trinidad and Tobago reckons with colonialism in a debate on statues, signs and monuments of its past

Aug. 29, 2024 22:36 PM EDT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — In a small auditorium in the seaside capital of Trinidad and Tobago, Christopher Columbus and other colonial-era figures came under scrutiny late Wednesday in a lengthy debate punctuated by snickers, applause and outbursts. The government had asked...