slavery

noun

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

b

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

[Frederick] Douglass, born a slave in Maryland in 1818, 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 entrapped (as by debt) and exploited

… 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

Many members of my own family, including my mother and father, fled their work as sharecroppers in the South. They left for good reason: the profession offered no future and was little more than wage slavery.

—Will Allen

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

• bondage
• enslavement
• servility
• servitude
• thrall
• thralldom
• thraldom
• yoke

Examples of slavery in a Sentence

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

Only when slavery was abolished did the era of national immigration control get underway. —TIME, 5 Apr. 2024

The history of slavery and its effects on the Black family. —Colman Domingo, Variety, 1 Apr. 2024

Nearly 150 years later, Abreu was researching how slavery was remembered along the Rio de Janeiro coastline when, at the mouth of the Bracuí, the story of the Camargo again found her. —Rafael Vilela, Washington Post, 31 Mar. 2024

Some 50 million people worldwide are trapped in modern-day slavery as of 2022 according to the United Nations. —Chadd Scott, Forbes, 29 Mar. 2024

The history of the Bray School and the stories of the children who were students there is a window into their lives beyond slavery. —Rayna Reid Rayford, Essence, 28 Mar. 2024

The survey also highlighted items whose origins lay outside the context of colonialism and slavery, including ancient funerary urns that may contain ashes or bone fragments, early-20th-century dental samples and, at Houghton Library, the Houssaye book. —Julia Jacobs, New York Times, 27 Mar. 2024

The dislodging of Key's monument on Juneteenth, the holiday celebrating the end of slavery, came at a time of racial reckoning in the U.S. Key had come from a slaveholding family and had bought slaves himself. —Sarah Al-Arshani, USA TODAY, 26 Mar. 2024

Imagine Kendrick telling Drake to take a five-year break, then come back with an 18-track concept album about being a vice-addled consequence of patriarchy and slavery. —Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 27 Mar. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1548, in the meaning defined at sense 1b

Phrases Containing slavery

• chattel slavery
• debt slavery
• sex slavery
• white slavery
• wage slavery
• anti-slavery

Kids Definition

slavery

noun

slav·​ery ˈslāv-(ə-)rē 

1

: drudgery, toil

2

a

: the state of being a slave

b

: the practice of slaveholding