Great Wall of China

[Great Wall of China][Slave Trade][Working Conditions][Geography][Audience]

China, in earlier times, had slaves work on government projects. One major one was the Great Wall of China. Many slaves died building the Great Wall of China. The Great Wall of China is a proven symbol of China’s long reign. It is over 4,000 miles long and is the only structure built by man that can be seen from space with the naked eye. It was built for 100 years during 770-476 B.C., which was from the 16th to 17th centuries. The people who built the Great Wall of China were not volunteers; they were slaves. They were prisoners who China conquered; soldiers, farmers, and ordinary civilians. They were forced to work laboriously day and night. Due to this, many died of starvation, exhaustion, or disease that spread through quickly around the overpopulated area. Anything that they could find were used to make the wall – including the corpses. Thousands died, and even more grieved because of deaths that slavery caused. The building of the Great Wall of China was built to protect China from the Mongols, but less might’ve died if they had let the Mongols conquer them. China used their people as slaves, which make them different from other places.