There are still a few corners of the world where chattel slavery still exists. Niger is one of them, where it has proven quite difficult to extirpate that ancient evil. (Some years ago the New York Times Magazine ran a horrifying story on slavery in Africa. One quotation stuck in my mind: when a journalist interviewed a slave in secret, it took several attempts to ask the question of whether she had been raped by her master. After several rephrasings, she responded, “You mean, when they would come to breed us?” It apparently did not occur to her that there was any violation in the process. As the interpreter explained, “That’s what happens after five hundred years of slavery.”)
