People have always had a sweet tooth. In the mid-17th century, sugarcane was introduced to the New World by the Dutch, who, using slaves, saw the opportunity to profit in the British West Indies. Sugar, as well as slaves, played a vital role in the Atlantic triangular trade between the Americas, Europe, and Africa. Slaves were the labor force in this trade network because they harvested the crops that circulated in the Atlantic Ocean. A form of slavery very similar to that on Caribbean sugar plantations is child labor in the modern cocoa industry. Cocoa trees thrive only in humid regions near the equator, which is why two West African countries, Ivory Coast and Ghana, provide more than half of the world's total cocoa. To keep up with the demand for cocoa, African farmers employed around 15,000 boys aged between 12 and 16 who were sold into slavery to harvest and process cocoa beans "under inhumane conditions and extreme abuse" ( Chanthavong 1). Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world, the process begins when businessmen called “locateurs” scout villages for lonely children who appear lost or beggars and trick them into a “great job” that promises to bring them money for their needs. families. Overnight they are kept in a locked warehouse from where they are transported the next day and distributed to farmers for a low price of around $35. The boys, who are at first suspicious and uncertain that they have been sold, immediately begin work the next day, from 6:00 to 18:30, cutting cocoa beans from cocoa trees, cutting them into slices, collecting the seeds , spreading them on mats and covering them to ferment. They are not adequately paid, fed and children up to 18 years old... half the paper... the delay should no longer be associated with something of the past, therefore child slavery, which is already illegal, must be recognized and provided with means more effective working methods. Works Cited Robbins, John. “Is there slavery in your chocolate?” John Robbins official website. Np, 19 April 2010. Web. 23 October 2011. .Chanthavong, Samlanchith. "Chocolate and slavery: child labor in Côte d'Ivoire". TED Case Studies 1 (2002): 1-14. American University. Network. October 23, 2011. Douglass, Frederick. An account of the life of Frederick Douglass. New York: Dover Publications, 1995. Print.Raghavan Sudarsan and Sumana Chatterjee. "A taste of slavery." Knight Ridder Newspapers [San Jose] June 24, 2001: 1. Print.