slavery

/ˈsleɪvəri/

/ˈsleɪvəri/

Other forms: slaveries

Slavery is the brutal and immoral practice of forcing someone into servitude without paying them.

Slavery is when one person is owned by another person and forced to work without pay. It's a cruel system where people are treated as property, not as individuals with rights. Slavery has been a part of history for centuries, but it's widely condemned today as a violation of human rights.The word slavery comes from the Latin sclava, meaning “Slavonic captive,” referring to the 9th-century slavery of Slavonic people, but it came to mean anyone in captivity, not just Slavs.

Definitions of slavery

1. noun

   the state of being under the control of another person
   synonyms: bondage, thraldom, thrall, thralldom

   types:

   bonded labor

   a practice in which employers give high-interest loans to workers whose entire families then labor at low wages to pay off the debt; the practice is illegal in the United States

   servitude

   state of subjection to an owner or master or forced labor imposed as punishment

   serfdom, serfhood, vassalage

   the state of a serf

   villainage, villeinage

   the legal status or condition of servitude of a villein or feudal serf

   type of:

   subjection, subjugation

   forced submission to control by others
2. noun

   the practice of owning slaves
   synonyms: slaveholding

   type of:

   pattern, practice

   a customary way of operation or behavior
3. noun

   work done under harsh conditions for little or no pay
   type of:

   labor, labour, toil

   productive work (especially physical work done for wages)