Yesterday's Run for Freedom in Hamilton brought out a crowd of some 400 people who joined together to oppose the modern blight of human trafficking.

In the interests of full disclosure, The Royal Gazette had a small role to play in helping with this event, while, among others, the wife of Editor of this newspaper, Dawn Zuill, was deeply involved in it along with founder Charlotte Wilberforce, a descendant of the great William Wilberforce, and Gavin Smith.

Nonetheless, this newspaper and countless others would not have supported it if it was not a worthy cause, which both looks back both at Bermuda's history with slavery and its shameful legacy, and seeks to end modern human trafficking, which still affects millions of people.

Governor Sir Richard Gozney, who as a diplomat in Asia and Africa in particular, has spent decades grappling with the problem, spoke eloquently on the issue and noted that just as Wilberforce and the anti-slavery movement of two centuries ago used "publicity, publicity" publicity" to make legal slavery illegal, so we must use the same tools today.

Bermuda is fortunate that there is little evidence of modern slavery in our society, although it is such an insidious practice that it may well be happening under our noses. Certainly it is happening in almost every large country in the world in one form or another.

And it is a trade that always preys on the most vulnerable in any society – women, children, the poor and the uneducated — those who are least able to fend for themselves. At best, they lose their human dignity; at worst, their lives.

Bermuda, perhaps more than almost any other country, is perfectly placed to use public pressure to join the movement to stop it. The slave trade was abolished in the British Empire 200 years ago and full Emancipation took place a little over two decades later. But we are still dealing with the effects of slavery and segregation.

What better community could there be to fight against modern slavery and to save others from the centuries-long effects of this pernicious evil than one that is all too familiar with it? It was heartening yesterday to see a great cross-section of Bermudian society turn out. Young and old, people of all races, Bermudians and non-Bermudians came together in a spirit of peace and tolerance.

It was also no accident that the Race began and ended at Barr's Bay Park, where the slave ship Enterprise docked in Bermuda after emancipation and where there was a great effort in this community to successfully free the slaves who made up its so-called "cargo". That was an episode of which Bermuda can be justly proud.

Bermuda can produce another such proud chapter in its history if it can play its part in ending modern slavery. Yesterday's Run for Freedom was just the beginning that effort.