Synonyms of enslavement

enslavement

noun

as in slavery

the state of being an enslaved person

having known the misery of enslavement first hand, Frederick Douglass went on devote his life to the cause of making others free

Synonyms & Similar Words

• slavery
• servitude
• bondage
• yoke
• servility
• thralldom
• thrall
• subjugation
• captivity
• serfdom
• peonage
• subjection
• imprisonment
• dependence
• incarceration
• enchainment

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• freedom
• liberty
• liberation
• emancipation
• independence
• manumission
• sovereignty
• autonomy
• enfranchisement
• self-government

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of enslavement

With polished prose and impeccable research, historian Philbrick unravels the Golden State’s ties to profit, enslavement and white supremacy. — Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times, 1 Oct. 2026

Earling gives a voice to the young girl Sacajewea, creating a shattering first-person account of her enslavement, her grief, and her endurance, re-centering her in a brutal history. — The Week Us, TheWeek, 28 Sep. 2026

Probably not his community of freedmen, anxious to escape the stigma of an enslavement that had ended less than ten years prior. — Julian Lucas, New Yorker, 21 Sep. 2026

Stealing America dramatically expands this history by tracing Indigenous enslavement and land dispossession throughout the full range of American history. — Literary Hub, 11 Sep. 2026

Some were written by people who experienced enslavement, others were dictated, and some were preserved through oral traditions. — Reginald David, Hartford Courant, 16 Aug. 2026

While Homer followed warriors sailing home from Troy, the playwright Euripides — writing some three centuries later — turned to the city’s ruins and its women, forced into exile and enslavement. — ABC News, 9 Aug. 2026

Barbados and other Caribbean nations have pushed reparatory justice beyond a historical argument about enslavement and toward a broader debate over development, debt, ownership and the continuing economic consequences of colonial extraction. — Richard Fowler, Forbes.com, 29 July 2026

The National Park Service has quietly updated a Philadelphia historic site by installing controversial displays that critics say downplay the brutality of slavery and gloss over President George Washington's enslavement of people. — Phaedra Trethan, USA Today, 21 July 2026