My son had to read 12 Years a Slave for his English class. He told me the author was one of the most powerful writers he had ever encountered. The book moved him deeply because it was true. Reading a firsthand account carries a profound impact that fiction rarely matches. I was proud of how thoughtfully it touched him.

His teacher suggested he watch the movie as well, so we sat down as a family one Sunday evening to view it together.

The story follows Solomon Northup, a free man who is kidnapped and sold into slavery. He forms a close bond with another enslaved woman named Patsey. Throughout the film, their master subjects her to relentless physical and sexual abuse. In one heartbreaking scene, Patsey begs Solomon to kill her, saying God would forgive him because it would be an act of mercy. She asks him to take her to the river and hold her under the water until her suffering ends. Solomon, of course, refuses.

My son immediately responded, “Mom, that didn’t happen.” He explained that in the book, Patsey was portrayed as resilient and full of hope for freedom. “Why would they add that?” he asked. I don’t know the screenwriters’ intentions. Perhaps they wanted to depict the depths of her despair. My son felt it was an injustice to her character.

At the end of the film, Solomon embraces Patsey before climbing into a carriage and riding away. It was agonizing to watch. He was leaving her—and all the others—behind to face the brutal punishment for his “betrayal” of their master. They would continue to suffer, and there was nothing more he could do.

As I watched him leave, I thought of how difficult it must have been for Amy to leave home at sixteen. She had to go in order to survive, yet she carried the guilt of leaving me behind. She was still a child herself, but the knowledge haunted her for the rest of her life. In the photo of her kissing me, she had been crying about having to leave. I told her I was okay and that none of it was her fault, but the weight remained with her.

I know Solomon must have carried similar guilt. He had to leave, but a part of him never truly left that plantation. Perhaps he could not save those he left behind, but he could fight to prevent others from suffering the same fate. So he returned home and wrote his story.

I cannot fully imagine the brutality he endured—the horrors too painful to put into words. Slavery was a moral disease that plagued our nation. When one human being can own another and do with them whatever they wish, evil is almost inevitable. Thankfully, we now look back on that era with disgust and sorrow.

The definition of slavery is the ownership of one person by another, rendering them completely subservient. Today, more than a quarter of the world’s slaves are children, yet this reality is rarely discussed. Like so many horrors facing children, it makes people uncomfortable, so it is pushed aside.

Here is a partial list of major companies that have faced accusations of benefiting from child labor. I was shocked when I began researching:

Walmart, Victoria’s Secret, Hershey’s, Nestlé, Disney, Apple, Sony, Samsung, Gap, Godiva, and Kraft.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in China alone, many everyday items are produced with child labor, including shoes, artificial flowers, Christmas decorations, garments, nails, textiles, coal, electronics, and toys. It is sobering to realize that the toys our own children play with may have been made by other children who are essentially owned by someone else.