peonage

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of peonage The Black community’s relationship with growing food is colored by exploitive practices, from slavery to sharecropping, tenant farming and peonage, or debt servitude. Lyndsay C. Green, Detroit Free Press, 27 Nov. 2024 Further, this much control over the autonomy of an athlete’s rights to their own NIL rights combined with a financial obligation could also trigger scrutiny under the 13th Amendment, which, in addition to abolishing slavery, placed prohibitions on peonage (i.e., working against your will). Joe Sabin, Forbes, 10 Oct. 2024 Convict leasing, also called peonage, juxtaposed the infrastructure of the Old English debtor’s prison with the barbarism of chattel slavery to bolster American capitalism. Phillip Vance Smith, JSTOR Daily, 1 Feb. 2024 The Wilberforce Act covers physical abuse and peonage, which is forced labor. Judy L. Thomas, Kansas City Star, 6 June 2024 See All Example Sentences for peonage
Recent Examples of Synonyms for peonage
Noun
  • Kollwitz’ life also coincided with the final days of aristocratic feudalism and serfdom in Germany and the nation’s economic transition to Industrialism.
    Chadd Scott, Forbes.com, 24 Apr. 2025
  • Their desire for freedom was at the same time a denunciation of serfdom.
    Michael Bruening, The Conversation, 25 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • There was, however, a fateful exception: slavery or involuntary servitude would remain permissible as punishment for crimes.
    Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 30 June 2025
  • Later that year, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution formally abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime.
    Maura Fox, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 June 2025
Noun
  • Born into slavery in 1850, Goode was freed at the end of the Civil War in 1865 and moved to Chicago.
    Kori Rumore, Chicago Tribune, 14 July 2025
  • David Bond offered a class called The Atlantic World, much of which involved the history of slavery and the slave trade.
    Brooke Allen, New Yorker, 12 July 2025
Noun
  • Slavery was protected by law, and the Fugitive Slave Act criminalized helping people escape bondage.
    Tom Debley, Mercury News, 4 June 2025
  • Beneath the bondage and demands, there’s genuine caring between Ray and Colin, like when the former assembles his crew to celebrate the latter’s birthday, or when Ray helps a grieving Colin collect himself.
    Glenn Garner, Deadline, 18 May 2025
Noun
  • The telescopic arms of the yoke enable smooth adjustments so the headphones can fit a variety of head shapes and sizes.
    Mark Sparrow, Forbes.com, 1 July 2025
  • On its second test flight, however, the pilot was not available and Smolinski and Blake decided to take the wheel/yoke.
    Scott Lafee, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 June 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Peonage.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/peonage. Accessed 25 Jul. 2025.

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