There are more than 27 million people enslaved in the world today — that's double the amount of people taken from Africa during the entire trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Kristine’s statement is a rhetorical comparison meant to shock contemporary audiences into recognizing the scale of modern slavery. By juxtaposing an estimated present-day figure (often circulated by anti-trafficking organizations) with the widely taught history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the quote argues that slavery is not merely a past atrocity but an ongoing global system—manifesting through forced labor, debt bondage, and sexual exploitation. The “double” claim functions less as a precise demographic calculation than as a moral provocation: if societies rightly condemn historical slavery, they should feel equal urgency about present-day coercion that is frequently hidden in supply chains and informal economies.