as in slavery
the state of being an enslaved person
having known the misery of enslavement first hand, Frederick Douglass went on devote his life to the cause of making others free
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Recent Examples of enslavement
For the Spanish, in one sense, the justification for the enslavement of Africans was complex and varied.
—
Literary Hub, 23 Oct. 2025
The National Museum of the American Indian recalls how Indigenous peoples suffered theft, loss of their homelands, enslavement, death, forced displacement and disrupted cultural traditions due to European settlement.
—Jenna Prestininzi, Freep.com, 12 Oct. 2025
Nearby, the Legacy Museum takes visitors through the journey from enslavement to mass incarceration.
—Kurt Streeter, New York Times, 8 Oct. 2025
Since 2017, Rosales has turned that absence into a bold visual language—one that not only centers West African spirituality but also traces its survival through colonization, enslavement, and the transatlantic slave trade.
—Yola Robert, Forbes.com, 19 Sep. 2025
As for the enslavement of my African ancestors, who literally built the economic infrastructure of America with forced, free labor, from 1619 to 1865—246 years—this section of the American journey was reduced to mere paragraphs.
—Gordon G. Chang, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 Aug. 2025
From the days of enslavement, there are stories of Black women forming a safety net of people around them to help protect themselves, their friends, and their children.
—Sarah Rex, JSTOR Daily, 20 Aug. 2025
Part of the enslavement process was the erasure of language, culture, family and religion.
—Damenica Ellis, Charlotte Observer, 6 Aug. 2025
Literary Hub, 23 Oct. 2025
The National Museum of the American Indian recalls how Indigenous peoples suffered theft, loss of their homelands, enslavement, death, forced displacement and disrupted cultural traditions due to European settlement.
—Jenna Prestininzi, Freep.com, 12 Oct. 2025
Nearby, the Legacy Museum takes visitors through the journey from enslavement to mass incarceration.
—Kurt Streeter, New York Times, 8 Oct. 2025
Since 2017, Rosales has turned that absence into a bold visual language—one that not only centers West African spirituality but also traces its survival through colonization, enslavement, and the transatlantic slave trade.
—Yola Robert, Forbes.com, 19 Sep. 2025
As for the enslavement of my African ancestors, who literally built the economic infrastructure of America with forced, free labor, from 1619 to 1865—246 years—this section of the American journey was reduced to mere paragraphs.
—Gordon G. Chang, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 Aug. 2025
From the days of enslavement, there are stories of Black women forming a safety net of people around them to help protect themselves, their friends, and their children.
—Sarah Rex, JSTOR Daily, 20 Aug. 2025
Part of the enslavement process was the erasure of language, culture, family and religion.
—Damenica Ellis, Charlotte Observer, 6 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for enslavement
slavery
Noun
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Once freed from slavery, Washington toiled in coal mines, worked as a janitor in exchange for formal education and became a great American orator and leader of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.—
Jennifer Smith Richards,
ProPublica,
22 Oct. 2025
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How the stakeholders juggled those diametrically opposed ideas—liberty and self-governance but also slavery and their horrific treatment of the Native American population—is the part of the human experience that Burns is most interested in exploring.—
Carlo Versano,
MSNBC Newsweek,
22 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Enslavement.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/enslavement. Accessed 28 Oct. 2025.
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