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
  • Even after the ratification of the 13th Amendment, Black people were often forced into other forms of servitude and new types of enslavement.
    Andrea Wurzburger, People.com, 18 June 2025
  • There was, however, a fateful exception: slavery or involuntary servitude would remain permissible as punishment for crimes.
    Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 30 June 2025
Noun
  • In 2022, Musk was accused of corporate slavery, perpetuating work abuse and job burnout.
    Bryan Robinson, Forbes.com, 4 Aug. 2025
  • While many narratives about Black Americans from this time period focus on southern sharecroppers and other cultural offshoots of slavery, The Gilded Age offers a peek inside another facet of Black life.
    Evan Nicole Brown, Architectural Digest, 25 July 2025
Noun
  • Adding all this up, odds seemed good that my family lacked a connection to the horrors of human bondage.
    Krista Kafer, Denver Post, 31 July 2025
  • The end of bondage was ostensibly codified in the 13th Amendment ratified later that year.
    Timothy Welbeck, The Conversation, 16 June 2025
Noun
  • No team in the NFL carries the yoke of a playoff-victory drought that long.
    Miami Herald, Miami Herald, 31 July 2025
  • Smart leaders have prepared their businesses to navigate the bumps and built strong teams with their hands on the yoke to successfully fly on.
    Ryan Kunkel, Forbes.com, 23 June 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Peonage.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/peonage. Accessed 15 Aug. 2025.

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