Gunther Peck on Race, Empire, and History in Contemporary Campaigns to Abolish Human Trafficking

Gunther Peck joins Slavery and Its Legacies to discuss the long history of human trafficking and its relationship to the evolution of racial ideology, humanitarian intervention, and immigration policy.

Gunther Peck is an Associate Professor of History at Duke University and the Gilder Lehrman Center’s 2017-18 Robina Fellow on human trafficking. His research focuses on the long history of human trafficking and its relationship to the evolution of racial ideology, humanitarian intervention, and immigration policy. Gunther is the author of Reinventing Free Labor: Padrones and Immigrant Workers in the North American West, 1885-1930, published by Cambridge University Press. He is currently working on two books, “Trafficking in Race: White Slavery and the Rise of a Transatlantic Working Class” and “The Shadow of White Slavery: Innocence, Rescue, and Empire in Contemporary Human Trafficking Campaigns.”

Recommended Resources:

Annette Gordon-Reed. The Hemingses of Monticello : An American Family (New York: Norton, 2008). https://www.amazon.com/Hemingses-Monticello-American-Family/dp/0393337766

Edwin Morgan. American Freedom, American Slavery: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (New York: Norton, 1975). https://www.amazon.com/American-Slavery-Freedom-Edmund-Morgan/dp/039332494X

Nell Painter. History of White People (New York: Norton, 2010). https://www.amazon.com/History-White-People-Irvin-Painter/dp/0393339742

“Slavery and Its Legacies” is available on iTunes and SoundCloud. Email comments and suggestions to gilder.lehrman.center@yale.edu with subject line “podcast.”