as in serfdom
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Recent Examples of peonage
Its darkest depths -- the rise of racial terrorism, convict leasing, debt peonage and more -- are only now being reassessed by millions of Americans whose racial awakening came through the crucible of Floyd's murder and the demonstrations that followed.
—
Peniel E. Joseph, CNN, 6 Oct. 2021
Many drivers stick around for the full year to avoid those fees, enduring what amounts to debt peonage.
—Andrew Kay, WIRED, 17 Jan. 2023
Redemptionists stymied Black progress toward economic independence through sharecropping and a debt peonage system that encumbered Black farmers with overwhelming financial burdens.
—Time, 15 Sep. 2022
For many years, prosecutions based on alleged violations of the 13th Amendment — passed in 1865 to outlaw slavery and involuntary servitude — focused on peonage cases, the use of financial debt as a loophole to enslave workers.
—San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 July 2022
See all Example Sentences for peonage 
Peniel E. Joseph, CNN, 6 Oct. 2021
Many drivers stick around for the full year to avoid those fees, enduring what amounts to debt peonage.
—Andrew Kay, WIRED, 17 Jan. 2023
Redemptionists stymied Black progress toward economic independence through sharecropping and a debt peonage system that encumbered Black farmers with overwhelming financial burdens.
—Time, 15 Sep. 2022
For many years, prosecutions based on alleged violations of the 13th Amendment — passed in 1865 to outlaw slavery and involuntary servitude — focused on peonage cases, the use of financial debt as a loophole to enslave workers.
—San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 July 2022
See all Example Sentences for peonage
Recent Examples of Synonyms for peonage
Noun
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Russian officers still treated their peasant soldiers as little better than serfs (and serfdom would not be abolished in Russia for another 50 years).Antony Beevor, Foreign Affairs, 29 Dec. 2022
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That book, Caliban and the Witch, traces the emergence of witch hunts throughout medieval Western Europe amid the transition from serfdom to proto-capitalism.Hazlitt, Hazlitt, 4 Sep. 2024
Noun
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The Black community’s relationship with growing food is colored by exploitive practices, from slavery to sharecropping, tenant farming and peonage, or debt servitude.Lyndsay C. Green, Detroit Free Press, 27 Nov. 2024
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Similar constitutional amendments have been adopted in recent years in states including Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont, removing exceptions that allowed slavery or involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime.Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 6 Nov. 2024
Noun
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By the end of the decade, the Republican Party brought together a lot of Michigan politicians opposed to the expansion of slavery, Marvin said.Clara Hendrickson, Detroit Free Press, 4 Dec. 2024
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Rankin moved from Tennessee to Ohio to escape the influence of slavery.TIME, TIME, 2 Dec. 2024
Noun
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The contest has been framed by the Moscow-leaning incumbent government as a choice between war and peace, and by the Western-facing opposition as a choice between freedom and bondage.David Brennan, ABC News, 25 Oct. 2024
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In fact, Kamala Harris’ candidacy is great reminder of the need to see the roots and consequences of human bondage that existed across the Americas.Ana Lucia Araujo / Made by History, TIME, 4 Nov. 2024
Noun
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And the expectation that Iranians, Lebanese, Palestinians, and Yemenis are going to rise up immediately and throw off the yoke of their brutal oppressors seems more like wishful thinking than informed analysis.Shalom Lipner, Foreign Affairs, 25 Nov. 2024
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Participants in Passover Seders imagine that they themselves were freed from the pharaoh’s yoke.Marc Tracy, New York Times, 24 Nov. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near peonage
Cite this Entry
“Peonage.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/peonage. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.
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