Experts say Slavery is Not Consigned to History, but Alive and
Well Today Americans tend to think of slavery as a piece of
long-ago history settled by the Civil War. Not only is that not
true, it is not even true in the United States. “We’re talking
about more people—in raw numbers—enslaved today than at any time
in history,” declared Luis CdeBaca, (below) ambassador-at-large,
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, U.S.
Department of State. He was among four expert panelists invited
to discuss the ongoing and vastly misunderstood problem of
trafficking in human beings, mostly women and children, for
sexual or other exploitative purposes around the world. The
program, “Child Trafficking: America’s Role in the Problem and
Solution,” was sponsored by Catholic University’s Columbus
School of Law at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on
April 7, 2011. Organized and moderated by law school professor
Mary Leary, the symposium offered a startling look at the scope
and prevalence of a social di