GLC Panel Discussion: “Prosecuting Slavery in a Time of Freedom: Late 20th Century Enforcement of the 13th Amendment”

What does it mean to “traffic” in humans? This panel explores the problem of forced labor, sexual servitude and debt peonage in the late twentieth century, a critical turning point in the campaign against modern human trafficking. The panelists served as federal Civil Rights prosecutors from 1975-1995 and directed the Involuntary Slavery and Servitude Program. Significantly, they reshaped U.S. law and practice from 13th Amendment anti-slavery roots to broader definitions of human trafficking, including sex slavery. The influential US Trafficking Victims Protection Act and international UN “Palermo” Protocol today reflect their global impact in the fight against the trafficking scourge.

Introductions: David W. Blight, Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center; Class of 1954 Professor of American History, Yale University

Moderator: Karin Zipf, Professor of History, East Carolina University

Panelists (all former Involuntary Servitude and Slavery coordinators in the Civil Rights Division):

* Bruce Berger (Professorial Lecturer, Department of Literature, American University)

* Susan King (Deputy Attorney General, ret., State of California)

* Luis C.deBaca (GLC Robina Fellow in Modern Slavery; head of the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons during the Obama Administration)

Event Media 

Prosecuting Slavery on Youtube | Photos | Article from Yale MacMillian Center

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