debt slavery

noun

variants or less commonly debt-slavery

ˈdet-ˈslā-v(ə-)rē 

: debt bondage

Debt slavery involves ranchers employing poorly paid workers and then forcing them to pay exorbitant prices for basic goods and transportation, ensnaring them in ever-deepening debt.

—Michael Astor

The Roman Catholic Church estimates that at any given moment at least 25,000 Brazilian workers are held in debt slavery, most of them in remote areas of the Amazon jungle. Typically, recruiters go to poor rural areas and guarantee peasants good wages and benefits, but renege on those pledges once the laborer has arrived at the jungle workplace and is guarded by gunmen.

—Larry Rohter

debt slave noun

plural debt slaves

The draft plan calls for increased federal presence to stem illegal logging and land seizures, and social programs to help poor families and prevent landowners from turning workers into debt slaves.

—Alan Clendenning

Word History

First Known Use

1851, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for debt slavery

• proslavery
• unsavory
• antislavery
• bravery
• knavery
• savory