enslaver

noun

en·​slav·​er in-ˈslā-vər 

en-

plural enslavers

1

: someone or something that forces one or more people into or as if into slavery

The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes …

—Frederick Douglass

The opera's libretto depicts Columbus as hungry for gold and an enslaver of the Tainos …

—Bill Kaufman

… writings and textbooks and pamphlets—some 100 years old—calling tobacco foul, poisonous, an enslaver of the mind and soul.

—Matthew Ebner

2

: slaveholder

Six years after she was enslaved on Spanish Point, Prince's enslaver sold her again to another slaveholder …

—Christopher Michael Blakley

… the Fugitive Slave Act was a source of contention for communities in the North that were torn about whether to comply with returning former slaves to their enslavers.

—Bethany Bump

Examples of enslaver in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In 1775, his first enslaver sold him to the commander of Framingham's Minute Men, who emancipated him, and Salem went on to fight at Lexington and Concord. — Catherine Messier, The Providence Journal, 4 July 2026

The people in the margins Reading the grievances also illuminates a diverse cast of characters, one different from the 56 white men who signed the declaration, of whom nearly all were wealthy and of whom the majority had been enslavers. — Robert Parkinson, The Conversation, 24 June 2026

Starting in 1835, Jacobs spent seven years hiding in a crawlspace in her grandmother’s house to escape the abuses of her enslaver before fleeing to the North and becoming an abolitionist. — Alex Knapp, Forbes.com, 10 Apr. 2026

But, as historian Matthew Karp writes, at its birth the party was itself a rebellion, channeling popular fury over the oligarchic power of enslavers into a national electoral force. — Livia Gershon, JSTOR Daily, 7 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1645, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for enslaver

• disfavor
• engraver
• lifesaver
• palaver
• papaver
• aver
• braver
• craver
• favor
• favour
• flavor
• flavour