peonage
Labor for debts
Peonage is a system of forced labor in which debtors are bound to work for creditors until debts are repaid—debts often structured to be inescapable.
The term derives from peon, a laborer of low status.
Historically associated with Latin America and the post-Civil War American South, peonage was a means of controlling workers through perpetual indebtedness: The sharecropper found himself trapped in peonage, owing more each season than he could ever earn.
Farm rent in produce
- reconstructionRebuilding after destruction
- antebellumBefore a war's start
- plantationLarge-scale farming operation
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
slavery · indentured · colonialism · cotton · tobacco · sugar · manumission · fiefdom
Illegal transport for profit
- debt bondageCoerced labor repaying loans
- sweatshopExploitative manufacturing workplace
- forced laborCompelled toil, no consent
- labor campsDetention facilities requiring toil
Coerced labor under duress
- debt bondageCoerced labor repaying loans
- coercionPressured compliance through threats
- human traffickingCriminal trade in people
- prosecutionPursuing legal charges
civil rights · legislation · court ruling · plaintiff · defendant · testimony · abolition · federal statute
Forcing into submission
- thrallOne held captive
- yokeCrosspiece binding draft animals
- bondageInvoluntary subjugation to another
- enslavementForced human ownership
helotry · indenture · captivity · oppression · subjection · dependence · unfreedom · chattel
Self-perpetuating financial burden
- company storeEmployer-operated retail outlet
- wage theftEmployer withholding earned compensation
- unfree laborCompelled toil without consent
- bonded laborWork forced by debt
forced labor · exploitation · coercion · contract · advance · foreman · field work · agricultural
sharecropping
Farm rent in produce
- reconstructionRebuilding after destruction
- antebellumBefore a war's start
- plantationLarge-scale farming operation
emancipation · slavery · indentured · colonialism · cotton · tobacco · sugar · manumission · fiefdom · serfdom
trafficking
Illegal transport for profit
- debt bondageCoerced labor repaying loans
- sweatshopExploitative manufacturing workplace
- forced laborCompelled toil, no consent
labor camps · bracero · passport confiscation · modern slavery
involuntary servitude
Coerced labor under duress
- debt bondageCoerced labor repaying loans
- coercionPressured compliance through threats
- human traffickingCriminal trade in people
prosecution · civil rights · legislation · court ruling · plaintiff · defendant · testimony · abolition · federal statute · indictment
subjugation
Forcing into submission
enslavement · helotry · indenture · captivity · oppression · subjection · dependence · unfreedom · chattel · compulsion
debt trap
Self-perpetuating financial burden
- company storeEmployer-operated retail outlet
- wage theftEmployer withholding earned compensation
- unfree laborCompelled toil without consent
bonded labor · forced labor · exploitation · coercion · contract · advance · foreman · field work · agricultural · domestic work
- exploitationexploit, predatory, sex trafficking, take advantage, human trafficking
- labor systemsbonded labor, chattel slavery, child labor, compulsory labor, contract labor
- Southern HistoryDeep South, Antebellum, Old South, Dixie, Confederate
- Spanish coloniesSpanish conquest, Spanish crown, viceroys, viceroyalties, Spanish colony
- labor abusewage theft, unpaid wages, unpaid overtime, worker exploitation, withheld wages
- social systemspolitical systems, capitalism, feudalism, economic systems, socialism
peonagefreedom
Absence of constraint
liberty · emancipation · self-determination · liberation · autonomy
peonagewage labor
Work exchanged for payment
fair employment · self-employment · free enterprise · collective bargaining · worker empowerment
peonagemastery
Complete skill or control
lordship · proprietorship · landownership · sovereignty · aristocracy