U.S. Capitol One of Many Buildings Built By Slaves

Over 200 years after the fact, Congress has finally admitted that the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., which serves as the seat of Congress, was in fact, built by enslaved Africans. This week, they honored those slaves with a plaque and a ceremony commemorating their work on the famous building. But slavery in construction is not, as some would like to believe, a thing of history. The Capitol is only one of many buildings built by slaves, and much of that construction is happening today.

The effort to recognize the role of slave labor in building the Capitol was led by Congressman John Lewis, a pivotal figure in the civil rights movement. He created and led a bipartisan task force that spent 10 years researching the role of slavery in developing the infrastructure of Washington, D.C. and America. Now, the results are in and are pretty unsurprising: African slaves played a large role in the construction of some of Washington's most prominent and historic buildings, including the Capitol. And until today, they never were recognized.

But one thing Lewis's campaign, the commemorative plaques, and all the nice ceremonies have done without realizing it is assume that slavery is merely historical. Yet today, in the U.S. and around the world, enslaved men, women, and children in the construction industry are still building structures which will be used for years to come. They are forced to work long days in often dangerous conditions for little or no pay. Some, like the slaves who built the Capitol, are bound by paperwork tying them to their master as a debtor. Others are kept in chains by threats of violence, deportation, harm to their families. But they are no freer than the men hauled stones from southern Virginia to Washington over two hundred years ago.

There are more slaves in the world today than there were in the 1790s, when the Capitol building was built. They are not only building office complexes, churches, and hotels, they are harvesting food and sewing clothes and assembling cell phones. Slavery is so deeply woven into the fabric of our lives today, that in 200 years, we won't have enough plaques to commemorate all the slaves who built the world we're living in.

Maybe that means we need a more proactive approach than the plaque.

Photo credit: rpongsaj