Free the Slaves

The mistreatment of residents from Kukdaha was typical of Indian “brick belt” slavery. You might think that once freed, they would never want to make bricks again. But these survivors decided to do in freedom what they did in slavery. Except this time, they’d get paid and use the earnings to build new lives in freedom. Trapped by Vicious Slave Holders Kukdaha slavery survivor Sanjafi remembers the day that slave holders raided his village, and the constant mistreatment that followed. “I saw others’ thatched huts were being torched, and they threw my things in the fire, Sanjafi says. “When we were in slavery, people beat us and we didn’t tell anyone. One laborer in our group died from being beaten so badly at the brick kiln.”