as in serfdom
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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
The Wilberforce Act covers physical abuse and peonage, which is forced labor.
—Judy L. Thomas, Kansas City Star, 6 June 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
See All Example Sentences for peonage
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
The Wilberforce Act covers physical abuse and peonage, which is forced labor.
—Judy L. Thomas, Kansas City Star, 6 June 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
See All Example Sentences for peonage
Recent Examples of Synonyms for peonage
Noun
-
For them, freedom meant ending serfdom too.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
25 Sep. 2025
-
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
Noun
-
Advertisement The Fifteenth Amendment had prohibited denying or abridging voting rights based on race, color, or conditions of previous servitude.—
Time,
Time,
29 Oct. 2025
-
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.—
JSTOR Daily,
JSTOR Daily,
25 Oct. 2025
Noun
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But by the end of the 19th century—after slavery was abolished in 1888 and coffee production became further industrialized—Paraty slid into a period of extended decline.—
David Amsden,
Travel + Leisure,
5 Nov. 2025
-
Personal family accounts reveal how, despite slavery, Jim Crow and other roadblocks, the Malloy clan became one of Laurinburg’s richest and most powerful.—
Essence,
Essence,
4 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
To us, Nottoway’s transformation in the 1980s – from a brutal site of enslavement to a luxury resort and wedding venue – represented the Southern plantation tourist industry’s tendency to whitewash our past.—
Essence,
Essence,
29 Oct. 2025
-
For the Spanish, in one sense, the justification for the enslavement of Africans was complex and varied.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
23 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
For enslaved people, the Revolution was a fierce campaign to stage the largest exodus out of bondage since biblical times.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
7 Nov. 2025
-
Douglass’s former North Star co-editor, Martin Delany, who had been admitted to Harvard Medical School but was forced out after white students complained, responded to Dred Scott — and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 — by writing a novel whose hero escapes bondage and plots an overthrow of slavery.—
Equal Justice Initiative,
USA Today,
6 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
But Ukraine’s shedding of the yoke of communism and conversion to capitalism allowed the pair to transform their own lives, thanks to their connections and business acumen.—
Miami Herald,
Miami Herald,
7 Nov. 2025
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The characters from Malczewski’s canvases march through successive decades, fighting and fleeing various yokes.—
Zac Ntim,
Deadline,
29 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Peonage.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/peonage. Accessed 14 Nov. 2025.
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