slaveholder

noun

slave·​hold·​er ˈslāv-ˌhōl-dər 

variants or less commonly slave holder

plural slaveholders also slave holders

: someone who holds one or more people involuntarily and under threat of violence within a system of chattel slavery

In the teaching of American history, perhaps the most difficult lesson to convey is that slavery once held the entire country in its grip. It was not just the business of enslaved black people, slaveholders, or the South.

—Karen E. Fields and Barbara J. Fields

Each slaveholder's inventoried listing of the number of human beings claimed as owned … was associated with their specific census data, and has, in this age of trillions of pages of digitized historic records, become a lamp shining light on the painful lost family history of many Black Americans.

—J. W. Sayles

By allowing Southern states to count their slaves … for purposes of representation, while denying those slaves all other civil or human rights, the Constitution granted slave holders magnified political power, while creating an incentive to acquire more slaves.

—Peter Sagal

called also slave owner

slaveholding

ˈslāv-ˌhōl-diŋ 

adjective or noun

plural slaveholdings

Examples of slaveholder in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

For nearly 250 years, African Americans in the United States were beholden to their White slaveholders and were often forced to live apart. —Martha Ross, The Mercury News, 11 Sep. 2024

Of course, the frequency of the interactions is not determinative: after all, white slaveholders in the United States constantly interacted with their black slaves. —Graham K. Brown, Foreign Affairs, 1 Mar. 2015

Consider the case of Philip Schuyler, a Revolutionary War hero and a politician who was also a slaveholder. —Laura A. MacAluso & Karim M. Tiro / Made By History, TIME, 2 July 2024

Slave traders also forced enslaved Africans onto ships bound for North America, where slaveholders compelled them to work the land. —Amanda Bellows, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 June 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1769, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

slaveholder

noun

slave·​hold·​er ˈslāv-ˌhōl-dər 

: someone who holds one or more people in forced servitude

slaveholding

-diŋ 

adjective or noun