This article analyzes one of the aspects of the definition of “human trafficking”: slavery or practices similar to slavery. It presents the history of the native category “slave labor”, as currently used in Brazil, to allow correctly differentiating it from the international category of “human trafficking” or from contemporary campaigns against “sex trafficking” and “modern slavery”. It points to the idiosyncrasies of the introduction of the anti-trafficking agenda in Brazil, after the ratification of the Palermo Protocol, particularly its ability to weaken historic concerns of Brazilian society, such as confronting racism and the struggles for agrarian reform and worker rights. © 2016, Universidade Estadual de Campinas UNICAMP. All rights reserved.201647