International Day for the Abolition of Slavery

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International Day for the Abolition of Slavery

Published: 02 Dec. 2025, 00:05

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Roh Jung-tae

The author is a writer and senior fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.

John Brown was a white man who spent much of his life moving from place to place as he struggled to support a large family. He came to despise slavery early on. In 1849, he settled in a Black farming community in North Elba, New York, where he felt a sense of solidarity and began to turn toward armed resistance.

In 1855, Brown moved with five of his sons to Kansas Territory and joined the antislavery forces there. The United States was already drifting toward violent conflict over slavery. After pro-slavery mobs looted the town of Lawrence in 1856, Brown escalated his own tactics.

A photograph of John Brown taken by Augustus Washington between 1846 and 1847. [WIKIPEDIA]

His most famous action came on Oct. 16, 1859, when he led 16 white and five Black followers in a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry. Brown hoped the attack would spark a larger slave uprising. His group seized the weapons depot and kidnapped about 60 prominent local residents, calculating that the shock might push enslaved people in the region to rise up.

The plan collapsed within days. State and federal troops surrounded the armory and crushed the revolt. About 10 of Brown’s followers, including two of his sons, were killed. Brown was wounded and captured.

Charged with murder, inciting slave insurrection and treason, Brown refused to soften his stance. Through his trial and up to his execution on Dec. 2, 1859, he used the courtroom to denounce slavery in uncompromising moral terms. His hanging made him a symbol for the growing abolitionist movement.

Ninety years later, on Dec. 2, 1949, the United Nations adopted the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. Thirty-six years after that, it designated Dec. 2 as the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. The UN gives no official explanation for choosing the date, but given that Brown’s raid helped ignite the Civil War three years later, the overlap is unlikely to be accidental.

Slavery has long been outlawed, yet forced labor remains a global problem, including in Korea. In April, the United States banned imports of sun-dried salt from a company in the Shinan region, citing forced labor concerns. The Korean government says the abuses occurred in 2021 and have since been corrected. Thorough oversight remains essential to prevent such controversies from recurring.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.