slave labor

noun

variants US slave labor or chiefly British slave labour

1

: work that is done by enslaved people or by people who are treated as though they are enslaved

prisoners being forced to do slave labor

a slave labor camp

2

: enslaved people doing work

The pyramids were built by slave labor.

slave laborer noun

(chiefly US) or chiefly British slave labourer

plural slave laborers

… The Statue of Freedom—the figure of a Native American woman warrior that stands on the dome—was cast in bronze by slave laborers in 1863 and hoisted up there.

—Jack E. White

Examples of slave labor in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

What is considered the first commercial apple orchard in the state was planted by a Cherokee woman near Maysville prior to the Civil War and maintained through the use of slave labor. —arkansasonline.com, 23 Nov. 2024

Californians are voting this election on Proposition 6, which prioritizes public safety, rehabilitation and our limited taxpayer resources over prison slave labor. —John Vasquez, The Mercury News, 30 Oct. 2024

This has ranged from slave labor, child survivor benefit, ghetto work, medical experimentation, persecution place and length of persecution. —Linda Chase, Sun Sentinel, 26 Aug. 2024

Want to make carbon-intensive steel with slave labor? —Michael Beckley, Foreign Affairs, 14 Feb. 2022

Word History

First Known Use

1802, in the meaning defined at sense 1