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

Restrictions have been placed on library books, as well as curriculum that highlights the nation’s history of slavery, racial inequities and LGBTQ+ issues. —Ryan Fonseca, Los Angeles Times, 16 Apr. 2024

The first Gladiator won Russell Crowe a best actor Oscar, and told the story of a Roman general sold into slavery and forced to fight as a gladiator, all while turning his growing popularity with the people against the murderous Commodus. —Aaron Couch, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Apr. 2024

Many of the Black families that make up the Shiloh community have owned their land since the end of slavery. —Maia Rosenfeld, ABC News, 11 Apr. 2024

So this is a community that has a very steeped history in the institution of slavery. —Mackenzie McCarty, The Christian Science Monitor, 11 Apr. 2024

One reason most Californians look askance at cash reparations is that this state was never a center of slavery. —Thomas D. Elias, Orange County Register, 9 Apr. 2024

The new tangerine packaging and arched logo is a full reimagining of a line of foods often consumed during the eight days a year when Jews commemorate their liberation from slavery in ancient Egypt. —Jaclyn Peiser, Washington Post, 4 Apr. 2024

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

Word History

First Known Use

1548, in the meaning defined at sense 1b

Phrases Containing slavery

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