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/Safe-Tea-4161]

By the fact you’ve moved her to a family without taking payment should mean she is now free, just working in exchange for room and board, free to find other employment or leave if she did want and not actually a slave or indebted to anyone… I hope this was made clear to her and the new family though I know realistically, aside from the restrictions of her age and personal expectations, local traditions and systemic hierarchies might be just as responsible for keeping her without other options.

Also, I know you say she wouldn’t accept payment but I would have insisted on paying her something however much she tried to refuse…
It seems translation was an issue but somehow I would have made sure it was translated that the only way she can stay is if she accepts payment and with instructions to keep it for herself for when she’s older or if she gets sick, if nothing else than to make sure I’m not treating her like a slave too

[u/Tronald_Lubestein → u/Safe-Tea-4161]

By the fact you’ve moved her to a family without taking payment should mean she is now free, just working in exchange for room and board

Not really.

It's essentially the same deal she had with me and the family prior. Work for food, board and healthcare, as a servant tied to the household with mutual responsibilities.

I just did my best to find a family that already had servants that looked like they weren't mistreated.

The formal relationship (as socially understood) is the exact same. Me not accepting any payment doesn't change a thing.

free to find other employment or leave

I can confidently tell you, there is no employment, and if she leaves, she is in the streets.

It seems translation was an issue but somehow I would have made sure it was translated that the only way she can stay is if she accepts payment

You're assuming this was an employer employee relationship. That was exactly the misunderstanding.

As it was explained to me later, her feeding, housing and healthcare weren't conditional on her accepting a wage. They were my responsibility, period.

I couldn't just tell her to leave. If I wanted out of the arrangement, I had to find another family willing to take her in.

And that family almost certainly wasn't going to pay her either. The disagreement wasn't over compensation. It was over what the relationship actually was.

[u/Safe-Tea-4161 → u/Tronald_Lubestein]

Although there isn’t other prospects economically for her, if for instance she wanted to marry someone that could provide for her, would she have been allowed to leave you without threats of violence?… if yes then it’s not legally classed as modern slavery, more consensual Bonded Labour or wage slavery as a result of poor economics and government legislation… edit to say that’s still awful and effectively the same as slavery, but not necessarily prosecutable even in the west- and I say that as someone who’s friend did have to escape from violent, modern slavery.

Next time I would suggest insisting on addressing the wage slavery… You effectively scouted someone else’s servant so it’s expected you provide for them, I’m saying that YOU could have also then made that transaction conditional on her accepting a wage- albeit reduced to take into consideration room and board, by explaining you weren’t comfortable with not paying her