enslaved

1 of 3
en·​slaved

past tense and past participle of enslave

enslaved

2 of 3

adjective

en·​slaved in-ˈslāvd How to pronounce enslaved (audio)
en-
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

enslaved

3 of 3

noun

Phrases
the enslaved
plural in construction
used collectively for people held in slavery and especially those captured, sold, or born into chattel slavery
King Charles has for the first time signalled his support for research into the monarchy's historical links with transatlantic slavery. But more should be done to listen and respond to the descendants of the enslaved.Brooke Newman
A steady stream of escaped enslaved men and women threatened the defense of chattel slavery, as the formerly enslaved unsettled the ideological foundations of the South with their own lives and testimony.Jamelle Bouie

Examples of enslaved in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Adjective
Originally commissioned in 2020 by Georgetown (where Simon is an assistant professor of composition), and supported by the university’s Committee for Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation, the cycle takes up the story of the 272 enslaved people sold by the university in 1838 to pay its debts. Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 15 Mar. 2024 For some, the search for fun may also double as a sort of resistance movement to the white control of beaches that once belonged to the diaspora of enslaved Black people. Patrik Jonsson, The Christian Science Monitor, 14 Mar. 2024 In Pennsylvania, enslaved people had to be freed after six months of residency in the state. Lizz Schumer, Peoplemag, 5 Mar. 2024 In North America, wealthy rice planters whose plantations lined the Lowcountry—a region along Georgia and South Carolina’s coast that includes the Sea Islands—paid a premium for enslaved people from Sierra Leone. Joshua Kagavi, Smithsonian Magazine, 29 Feb. 2024 Peddlers greet customers in Belize’s official language, English, or Kriol, the patois formed centuries ago when Britons brought enslaved Africans to what is now Belize. Simon Romero Alejandro Cegarra, New York Times, 28 Feb. 2024 Prior to that, there were 10 generations of enslaved Black Americans and four generations of segregation laws. Julie Kratz, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2024 The group wanted a chance to push back on House Bill 7, which included, among other changes, new curriculum standards requiring instruction on how enslaved people benefited from their bondage. Lauren Costantino, Miami Herald, 29 Feb. 2024 When slave ships docked, local newspapers reported their arrivals and made sure readers knew the enslaved people on board were from a part of Africa famed for its rice cultivation. Joshua Kagavi, Smithsonian Magazine, 29 Feb. 2024
Noun
Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard involved two of the country’s oldest public and private universities, both of which were financed to a significant degree with the labor of the enslaved and excluded slavery’s descendants for most of their histories. Nikole Hannah-Jones, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2024 Across the nation, multiple landmarks were built by the enslaved. Rodney Coates, The Conversation, 14 Aug. 2023 Walking along the Lowcountry, Turner interviewed descendants of the enslaved, made careful notes about their dialect and songs, and took photos. Joshua Kagavi, Smithsonian Magazine, 29 Feb. 2024 The home, which at one time housed more than 40 enslaved people, is believed to have possibly belonged to enslaved overseer Jerry Manokey, the Maryland Department of Transportation said in a news release. Gina Martinez, CBS News, 15 Feb. 2023 Often, the enslaved lived in complete isolation in wet climates very different from the rest of the United States, separated by rivers, swamps, and waterways. Tanay Howard, Parents, 17 Feb. 2024 These words seem to situate Truth among the enslaved of the South, a region to which she is never known to have traveled until after the Civil War. Cynthia Greenlee, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 Feb. 2024 But the jobs that are special to him involve building memorials to the enslaved or the forgotten, including at the University of Virginia and in projects underway at the University of Richmond, the Jackson Ward neighborhood of Richmond and several other places. Ellie Silverman, Washington Post, 30 Dec. 2023 One Jesuit, Joseph Carbery, once a student at Georgetown, had advocated for providing a degree of independence to the enslaved and enabling them to work as tenant farmers, as that would increase productivity and improve living conditions, and his arguments were enumerated again at the debate. Paul Elie, The New Yorker, 27 June 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'enslaved.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Adjective

from past participle of enslave

Noun

derivative of enslaved entry 2

First Known Use

Adjective

1618, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun

1647, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of enslaved was in 1618

Dictionary Entries Near enslaved

Cite this Entry

“Enslaved.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enslaved. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

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