Peons were either persons forced to work off debts or criminals. See the full definition for slavery in the English Language Learners Dictionary, Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for slavery, Nglish: Translation of slavery for Spanish Speakers, Britannica English: Translation of slavery for Arabic Speakers, Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about slavery. It also was found in 9th-century Iraq, among the Kwakiutl Indians of the American Northwest, and in a few areas of sub-Saharan Africa in the 19th century. In addition the institution of slavery had a significant impact on the society’s institutions, such as the family, and on its social thought, law, and economy. Also essential was an economic surplus, for slaves were often consumption goods who themselves had to be maintained rather than productive assets who generated income for their owner. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. They tended to merge with felons because people in both categories were considered criminals, and that was especially true in societies where money fines were the main sanction and form of restitution for crimes. As there are limits in most societies on the extent to which animals may be abused, so there were limits in most societies on how much a slave could be abused. Workers, including many children, were relocated by force from the upper to the lower South. What made you want to look up slavery? Around 1815 he began composing poems in his head, saying them aloud and “selling” them to an increasingly large crowd of buyers at the weekly Chapel Hill farmers market. An 1836 letter from landowner Levi F. Hall of Florida, Missouri, to Jemima Hall, the wife of his slave Washington. Some people were enslaved as a punishment for crime or debt, others were sold into slavery by their parents, other relatives, or even spouses, sometimes to satisfy debts, sometimes to escape starvation. The product of a slave’s labour could be claimed by someone else, who also frequently had the right to control his physical reproduction. Slaves often were a consumption-oriented status symbol for their owners, who in many societies spent much of their surplus on slaves. Corrections? Thus, the felon who could not pay his fine was an insolvent debtor. Although slavery existed almost everywhere, it seems to have been especially important in the development of two of the world’s major civilizations, Western (including ancient Greece and Rome) and Islamic. Probably the most frequent was capture in war, either by design, as a form of incentive to warriors, or as an accidental by-product, as a way of disposing of enemy troops or civilians. Slavery was a species of dependent labour differentiated from other forms primarily by the fact that in any society it was the most degrading and most severe. Thus, like an ox or an ax, the slave was not ordinarily held responsible for what he did. Slavery was a form of dependent labour performed by a nonfamily member. No relatives could stand up for his rights or get vengeance for him. Abolitionist Movement for kids Andrew Jackson was the 7th American President who served in office from March 4, 1829 to March 4, 1837. A person became an indentured servant by borrowing money and then voluntarily agreeing to work off the debt during a specified term. Frederick Douglass was central advocate for the abolition of, The Black Lives Matter movement has emboldened those who reject any celebration of a leader who reintroduced, Land inequity has been an issue for Black Americans since, In the summer of 1855, William Walker, a ruthless, ambitious, famously short Tennessean, invaded Nicaragua with a private militia, declared himself president, and reintroduced. Do you believe that the Bible is the word of God? A variant on the selling of children was the exposure, either real or fictitious, of unwanted children, who were then rescued by others and made slaves. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Serfs could be called upon by the state to pay taxes, to perform corvée labour on roads, and to serve in the army, but slaves usually were exempt from all of those obligations. Free land, and more generally, open resources, were often a prerequisite for slavery; in most cases where there were no open resources, non-slaves could be found who would fulfill the same social functions at lower cost. Racism, also called racialism, the belief that humans may be divided into separate and exclusive biological entities called “races”; that there is a causal link between inherited physical traits and traits of personality, intellect, morality, and other cultural and behavioral features; and that some races are innately superior to others. The most common has been what is called household, patriarchal, or domestic slavery. Others were kidnapped on slave-raiding or piracy expeditions. Nevertheless, there is general agreement among historians, anthropologists, economists, sociologists, and others who study slavery that most of the following characteristics should be present in order to term a person a slave. American Civil War, four-year war (1861–65) fought between the United States and 11 Southern states that seceded to form the Confederate States of America. Slavery existed in a large number of past societies whose general characteristics are well known. It was rare among primitive peoples, such as the hunter-gatherer societies, because for slavery to flourish, social differentiation or stratification was essential. It arose out of disputes over slavery and states’ rights. In a slave-owning society, slaves were present but in smaller numbers, and they were much less the focus of the society’s energies. In the past a serf usually was an agriculturalist, whereas, depending upon the society, a slave could be employed in almost any occupation. Slavery, condition in which one human being was owned by another. Some indentured servants alleged that they were treated worse than slaves; the economic logic of the situation was that slave owners thought of their slaves as a long-term investment whose value would drop if maltreated, whereas the short-term (typically four years) indentured servants could be abused almost to death because their masters had only a brief interest in them. Take this quiz. When antislavery candidate Abraham Lincoln was elected president (1860), the Southern states seceded. As an “outsider,” “marginal individual,” or “socially dead person” in the society where he was enslaved, his rights to participate in political decision making and other social activities were fewer than those enjoyed by his owner. It seems clear that it was quite possible for a slave society to exist without productive slavery; the known historical examples were concentrated in Africa and Asia. Slavery, condition in which one human being was owned by another. The History of Slavery in North America Quiz. Popular Sovereignty and the Slavery Issue for kids: The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act Popular Sovereignty was an important feature of the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act which was drafted by Stephen A. Douglas and created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and opened new lands for settlement. In 1792, a state law was passed making all healthy slaves under the age of 45 free, and between 1810 and 1820, After the Civil War, Black men emerged from shackles and, Yet the insurrection sputtered, its alleged leaders were burned at the stake, and nearly a century passed before, During his final months in office, President Abraham Lincoln moves forward to end the Civil War, unite the country and abolish, Post the Definition of slavery to Facebook, Share the Definition of slavery on Twitter, On 'Eminent' and 'Imminent' (and 'Immanent'), Getting Up to Speed on (the History of) 'Speed'. Many slaves were the offspring of slaves. 2021. How to use slavery in a sentence. The slave was removed from lines of natal descent. Peons, who were the Latin American variant of debt slaves, were forced to work for their creditors to pay off what they owed. Legal relationships between slaves and free strangers, Attitudes toward slavery: the matter of race, https://www.britannica.com/topic/slavery-sociology, American Battlefield Trust - Slavery in the United States, Encyclopedia Virginia - Slave Ships and the Middle Passage, Smithsonian - The National Museum of American History - The Business of Slavery, slavery - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), slavery and serfdom - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). 'Nip it in the butt' or 'Nip it in the bud'. Learn a new word every day. Maryland and Virginia viewed themselves as slave producers, seeing "producing slaves" as resembling animal husbandry. Learn more. Author of. Slave definition is - a person held in servitude as the chattel of another. There is no consensus on what a slave was or on how the institution of slavery should be defined. The other major type of slavery was productive slavery. In some societies indentured servants probably differed little from debt slaves (i.e., persons who initially were unable to pay off obligations and thus were forced to work them off at an amount per year specified by law). Which of England’s American colonies became the first to recognize slavery as a legal institution? Although domestic slaves occasionally worked outside the household, for example, in haying or harvesting, their primary function was that of menials who served their owners in their homes or wherever else the owners might be, such as in military service. Russia did not know the “first enserfment”; serfdom began there gradually in the mid-15th century, was completed by 1649, and lasted until 1906. “Slavery.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slavery. The term serfdom is much overused, often where it is not appropriate (always as an appellation of opprobrium). Jemima had been freed by her owner, Mary Davidson Rodgers, presumably in 1836 when the Rodgers family moved from Missouri to Illinois. But throughout the centuries man has invented other forms of dependent labour besides slavery, including serfdom, indentured labour, and peonage. These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'slavery.' Perhaps as many as half of all the white settlers in North America were indentured servants, who agreed to work for someone (the purchaser of the indenture) upon arrival to pay for their passage. 'All Intensive Purposes' or 'All Intents and Purposes'? Legally, and often socially, he had no kin. This included a “second enserfment” that swept over central and some of eastern Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. Most of these conditions had to be present in order for slavery to exist in a society; if they all were, until the abolition movement of the 19th century swept throughout most of the world, it was almost certain that slavery would be present. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Last, some centralized governmental institutions willing to enforce slave laws had to exist, or else the property aspects of slavery were likely to be chimerical. Practices varied, but indenture contracts sometimes specified that the servants were to be set free with a sum of money, sometimes a plot of land, perhaps even a spouse, whereas for manumitted slaves the terms usually depended more on the generosity of the owner. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Slavery was usually, but not always, involuntary. It is also clear that most of the slave societies have been concentrated in Western (including Greece and Rome) and Islamic civilizations. Accessed 10 Mar. Another source of slavery was self-sale, undertaken sometimes to obtain an elite position, sometimes to escape destitution. The serf, moreover, was usually bound to the land (the most significant exception was the Russian serf between about 1700 and 1861), whereas the slave was always bound to his owner; i.e., he had to live where his owner told him to, and he often could be sold by his owner at any time. Despite pleas from her husband to return to Missouri, Jemima remained in Illinois with the Rodgers family until her death in 1875. In a slave society, slaves composed a significant portion (at least 20–30 percent) of the total population, and much of that society’s energies were mobilized toward getting and keeping slaves. The debt peon had to work for his creditor, and the labour of the criminal peon was sold by the state to a third party. Belief Systems Definition. Canonically, serfdom was the dependent condition of much of the western and central European peasantry from the time of the decline of the Roman Empire until the era of the French Revolution.
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