Modern Slavery Characterisation through the Analysis of Energy Replenishment

Abstract

The Brazilian economy was, until the end of the 19th Century, based on slave labour. However, in this first quarter of the 21st Century, the problem persists. These situations tend to be mistaken with “simple” violations of labour laws. This work aims to establish Occupational Health and Safety parameters, focusing on energy needs, to distinguish between the breach of labour legislation and modern rural slavery in the 21st Century in Brazil. In response to this challenge, bibliographical research was carried out on the feeding and energy replenishment conditions of Brazilian slaves in the 19th Century. Obtained data were compared with a sample where 392 cases of neo-slavery in Brazil are described. The energy spent and the energy supplied was calculated to identify the enslaved workers’ general feeding conditions in the two historical periods. The general conditions of food and water supply were analysed. It was possible to identify three comparable parameters: food quality, food quantity, and water supply. It was concluded that there is a parallelism of energy replenishment conditions between Brazilian slaves and neo-slaves of the 19th and 21st centuries, respectively, different from that of free workers. This difference can help authorities identify and punish instances of modern slavery.