1
: held involuntarily and forced under threat of violence or death to work without pay for the profit of another
… a trove of historical records—birth registries, bills of sale, manumissions, wills and estate inventories—to demonstrate that in the late 1700s and early 1800s, dozens of enslaved people lived in what's now Cedar Grove …—Shane Paul Neil
Much of the existing literature is about what enslaved people experienced, but if we attempt to add their engaged understanding, this narrative changes. Enslaved people … had very particular ideas about their value, ideas that differed greatly from their enslavers.—Daina Ramey Berry
Slavery is not an indefinable mass of flesh. It is a particular, specific enslaved woman, whose mind is active as your own, whose range of feeling is as vast as your own; who prefers the way the light falls in one particular spot in the woods … and knows, inside herself, that she is as intelligent and capable as anyone.—Ta-Nehisi Coates
2
: of, relating to, involving, or used for slavery or enslaved people
As demand for cotton grew as a result of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, so too did the demand for enslaved labor in the South and, in turn, the demand for new land to cultivate.—Jamelle Bouie
A Gullah interpreter of enslaved life at Boone Hall Plantation & Gardens, she [Gloria Barr Ford] tells stories and sings spirituals outside of the nine brick cabins that used to be slave quarters.—Tracey Teo
Cite this Entry
“Enslaved.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enslaved. Accessed 23 Mar. 2025.
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