Both chapters under review present the condition of human existence that was long ago abandoned in most of the developed countries. For this reason, the audience that reads about cases of slavery in some of the third-world countries has the feeling of encountering the past – something that, in readers’ understanding, is already a history. Yet, the author’s thorough research and skillful writing regarding modern slavery allows traveling through time and remembering the long-gone events. Indeed, the chapters help the readers from the United States, European countries, and other nations with highly developed slavery institutions in the past to better understand their own history. For instance, the text suggests that probably enslaved laborers in the U.S. South, even though unhappy about their hard work, were generally devoted to their masters similarly to those in Mauritania, thus, unlikely to revolt. Moreover, for some of them, freedom may have been associated with the worse sufferings. Therefore, through the description of how and why modern slavery exists, the readers are not only able to remember the old times but also to reevaluate it.
However, in my opinion, the chapters’ strongest part is the detailed portrayal of enslaved people, which allows readers to imagine the life of this group clearly and empathize with victims. In short, it can be called to live life on the edge, as the name of chapter IV suggests. Hard everyday work, extreme poverty, fear of a master, bad health and, insufficient nutrition are just a few things that old and modern slaves had to experience. For example, the author describes how workers in Brazil have to sleep on the “poles and branches…tied or nailed together to make a crude frame”. These people have neither past nor future as every day is absolutely the same as the other. Thus, the author maintains that all the countries should actively address this problem.