enslavement
Being held captive
Enslavement is the act of making someone a slave—reducing a person to property that can be bought, sold, and forced to labor.
The word covers both the historical institution and individual acts of subjugation: the enslavement of captured peoples, her enslavement to an abusive employer.
Figuratively, enslavement describes being controlled by something: enslavement to debt, enslavement to addiction.
Involuntary subjugation to another
- chainsLinked metal restraints
- shacklesMetal bonds for prisoners
- fettersAnkle restraints, often metal
- manaclesWrist shackles for prisoners
confinement · imprisonment · dungeon · restraint · subjection · thrall · yoke · servitude
Unjust exercise of power
- abuseCruel or violent treatment
- forced laborCompelled toil, no consent
- sweatshopExploitative manufacturing workplace
- human traffickingCriminal trade in people
child labor · debt bondage · indentured · overwork · suffering · coercion · manipulation · profit
Large-scale farming operation
- chattelMovable personal property
- transatlanticSpanning the ocean between continents
- Middle PassageTransatlantic slave trade crossing
- auction blockPodium for public sales
abolition · emancipation · antebellum · overseer · fugitive · maroon · freedman · Reconstruction
Forcing into submission
- dominationSupreme authority held
- colonialismDomination through foreign settlement
- imperialismExtending dominion over others
- tyrannyOppressive, absolute governance
oppression · conquest · occupation · hegemony · totalitarianism · authoritarianism · annexation · control
bondage
Involuntary subjugation to another
manacles · confinement · imprisonment · dungeon · restraint · subjection · thrall · yoke · servitude · coercion
oppression
Unjust exercise of power
- abuseCruel or violent treatment
- forced laborCompelled toil, no consent
- sweatshopExploitative manufacturing workplace
human trafficking · child labor · debt bondage · indentured · overwork · suffering · coercion · manipulation · profit · extraction
plantation
Large-scale farming operation
- chattelMovable personal property
- transatlanticSpanning the ocean between continents
- Middle PassageTransatlantic slave trade crossing
auction block · abolition · emancipation · antebellum · overseer · fugitive · maroon · freedman · Reconstruction · Jim Crow
subjugation
Forcing into submission
- dominationSupreme authority held
- colonialismDomination through foreign settlement
- imperialismExtending dominion over others
tyranny · oppression · conquest · occupation · hegemony · totalitarianism · authoritarianism · annexation · control · resistance
- slaverybondage, chattel, thrall, Middle Passage, slaveholders
- abusemistreatment, domestic abuse, elder abuse, maltreatment, cruelty
- exploitationexploit, predatory, sex trafficking, take advantage, human trafficking
- oppressionoppression, tyranny, racism, repression, secret police
- captivity crimeskidnapping, abduction, false imprisonment, hostage-taking, human trafficking
- Guiana slaverySuriname, French Guiana, Demerara, maroons, plantation economy
enslavementfreedom
Absence of constraint
liberty · emancipation · liberation · manumission · free will
enslavementemancipation
Release from legal bondage
liberation · freeing · manumission · release · enfranchisement
enslavementsovereignty
Supreme independent authority
independence · self-government · self-rule · autonomy · national liberation