debt slavery

1 of 2

noun (1)

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

slavery

2 of 2

noun (2)

slav·​ery ˈslā-v(ə-)rē 

plural slaveries

1

a

: the practice or institution of holding people as chattel involuntarily and under threat of violence

In reality, though, African forms of slavery didn't compare with the racialized industrial variants that Western empires unleashed upon the world. … Here in the United States … the enslaved were relegated to subhuman status for generations.

—Julian Lucas

Slavery officially ended in New Jersey in 1804, but in practice some people remained slaves until 1865, when the ratification of the 13th Amendment formally abolished slavery in the United States.

—Suzanne Travers

see also chattel slavery

b

: the state of a person who is forced usually under threat of violence to labor for the profit of another

[Frederick] Douglass … escaped from slavery at the age of twenty and quickly emerged as a major orator and leader of the antislavery crusade.

—Manning Marable

The organization says it has helped 135 victims escape sex slavery over the past 10 years.

—Audrey McAvoy

c

: a situation or practice in which people are coerced to work under conditions that are exploitative

… the unit has freed more than 26,000 workers nationwide from debt slavery. Under the practice, common in the Amazon, poor laborers are lured to remote spots where they rack up debts to plantation owners who charge exorbitant prices for everything from food to transportation.

—Vivian Sequera

… a labor union for prisoners that aims "to end prison slavery," announced the start of a nationwide strike inside U.S. prisons. Wages for incarcerated workers are typically measured in cents per hour, and several states … use the labor of prisoners without paying them at all.

—Daniel A. Gross

see also wage slavery

2

: submission to a dominating influence

slavery to habit

… it will probably be left to the next administration to act hopefully in a bold and visionary manner to free us from our slavery to oil.

—Alon Ben-Meir

Synonyms of debt slavery

Noun (2)

• enslavement
• servitude
• bondage
• captivity
• yoke

Examples of debt slavery in a Sentence

Noun (2)

Frederick Douglass was central advocate for the abolition of slavery.

My dad put up with the slavery of working in the coal mines every day of his adult life.

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Lower taxes: Tax on another man’s sweat equity is a form of debt slavery. —Erika I. Ritchie, Oc Register, 6 May 2026

Noun

Those marching orders left opponents and free speech advocates in disbelief, wondering how park employees were supposed to put a sunny spin on monuments acknowledging slavery, Jim Crow laws and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. —Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times, 29 May 2026

For Black voters, this history can be clearly traced back through slavery, Jim Crow, and the long obstruction of civil rights enforcement. —Bruce Sibley, Time, 29 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

Noun (1)

1851, in the meaning defined above

Noun (2)

1548, in the meaning defined at sense 1b

Phrases Containing debt slavery

• anti-slavery
• chattel slavery
• wage slavery
• white slavery

Rhymes for debt slavery

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