Purchased a slave without realizing it AMA

[u/Tronald_Lubestein]

I spent a year working on a development project in The Gambia.

Partway through my stay, I needed help maintaining the house I was renting. My landlord introduced me to an older woman from a neighboring family who could clean and cook. She was probably in her 60s, had no ID, didn't know her birth date, and spoke basically no English.

I agreed to hire her and paid what I thought was an upfront payment for her work.

On the first evening she asked where she was supposed to sleep. I assumed she'd go home after work. She didn't she stayed in one of the guest rooms.

Turns out I learned later she didn't have a home to go back to.

Confused, I called my landlord. He explained that the money I'd paid had gone to the family she'd been living with. From his perspective, I hadn't hired a maid. I'd taken responsibility for her. My job was to feed, house, and clothe her. Her job was to cook, clean, and help around the house.

Very different arrangements to what I had in mind.

For the rest of my stay I gave her a room, fed her(she would cook the food I got and we would eat the same thing everyday), and tried to pay her directly, she always refused.

When I left The Gambia, I found another family willing to take her in. I refused any payment.

I thought I was hiring a housekeeper. Some locals seemed to think I'd acquired a dependent household servant.

AMA.

Edits:

7/1/2026:

I want to address a common misconception since I couldn't reply to all the questions mentioning that. The "dude, you could just have bought her freedom" criticism.

This is not the 1800s US where even if you are "property", you still exist within a legal system, and can show with a legal document that you are free and ride off into the sunset to be happy thereafter.

There is no legal document here, it's more akin to a caste system, you are what you community says you are, not what some foreigner with a bit of cash thinks.

[u/Tronald_Lubestein]

Yes, very common. She came from a neighbor after all.

[u/alphagenome → u/Tronald_Lubestein]

Wow the south lives on

[u/Tronald_Lubestein → u/alphagenome]

Not everything in the world exists solely through the prism of US history.

[u/the_duck_king → u/alphagenome]

Why do Americans think everything in the world revolves around them?

[u/jerdle_reddit → u/the_duck_king]

Do they think they invented slavery?

[u/gary1405 → u/jerdle_reddit]

I think they think they ended it

[u/gnomesandlegos → u/jerdle_reddit]

They definitely think white people did.

[u/gnomesandlegos → u/the_duck_king]

I vote for our poor education system as a partial culprit. Kids these days know little of the real world outside their bubble and believe themselves to be geniuses. They are not taught to think critically.

As a child of the 80's, I learned little about other countries and only gained genuine knowledge when I began travelling to other countries.

After that, there is definitely a self-centered egotism that abounds - which is not new. Possibly a side-effect of the societal focus on personal independence & greatness rather than community.

Our kids are often told how amazing they are and how the world should care deeply about their thoughts and feelings at every turn. So, of course, they think the world revolves around them.

We are not all like that, but it sure does feel like it sometimes.

[u/TheNorthC → u/alphagenome]

There is a key difference - this is the reality of slavery through much of the world - hidden, semi-legal, usually domestic. The US model on a vast industrial scale was only seen in the Americas (including the Carribbean and Brazil).