SLAVERY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Slavery

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/slˈeɪvəri/ Listen

noun

Slavery n. (pl. slaveries)

The condition of a slave; the state of entire subjection of one person to the will of another. "Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, slavery, said I, still thou art a bitter draught!" "I wish, from my soul, that the legislature of this state (Virginia) could see the policy of a gradual abolition of slavery. It might prevent much future mischief."

A condition of subjection or submission characterized by lack of freedom of action or of will. "The vulgar slaveries rich men submit to." "There is a slavery that no legislation can abolish, the slavery of caste."

The holding of slaves.

Synonyms: Bondage; servitude; inthrallment; enslavement; captivity; bond service; vassalage.

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Etymology of 'Slavery'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Slavery" Quotes from Famous Books

... I really don't see how It betters present times with me or you." "No?" quoth the other; "yet you will allow By setting things in their right point of view, Knowledge, at least, is gained; for instance, now, We know what slavery is, and our disasters May teach us better to behave ...

— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 6 • Lord Byron

... possession of discernment of good and evil [or having attained the age of discretion] (3) purity of the water and (4) absence of legal or material impediments.' (Q.) 'What is belief?' (A.) 'It is divided into nine parts, to wit, (1) belief in the One worshipped (2) belief in the condition of slavery [of the worshipper] (3) belief in one God, to the exclusion of all others (4) belief in the Two Handfuls[FN249] (5) belief in Providence (6) belief in the Abrogating and (7) in the Abrogated (8) belief in ...

— The Book Of The Thousand Nights And One Night, Volume IV • Anonymous

... thickened up With toils of field and shop, where whirring wheels resound, And hammers clink. The anvil and the plough Belong to you; the very ox construes your speech, And turns him to obey you. All this toil We deem a slavery too heavy to be borne, And which our tribes revolt at. Oft we stand To view the reeking smith, who pounds his iron With blow on blow, to fit it for the beast That drags your ploughshares through the rooty soil. The very streams—bright ribbons of the woods!—are yoked, ...

— The Myth of Hiawatha, and Other Oral Legends, Mythologic and Allegoric, of the North American Indians • Henry R. Schoolcraft

... entire literature of the world is becoming tinctured with contradictions of the dogmas upon which society in this section is built. Human rights is, of all subjects, the one upon which this community is most violently determined to hear no discussion. It has pronounced that slavery and caste are right, and sealed up the whole subject. What, then, will they do with the world's literature? They will coldly decline to look at it, and will become, more and more as the world moves on, a comparatively ...

— The Grandissimes • George Washington Cable

... embezzlement of public money, have ended in a sort of political treason, disavowed only by General Cass; a Cabinet, in the last extremity, still essaying to continue its former course by killing with its veto the bill adopted by the Legislature of Nebraska to prohibit slavery in its Territory; a Government falling apart by piecemeal, for fear of compromising itself by resisting some part of the South: do you know of any thing so shameful? Mr. Buchanan will end as he began: for four years, he has been struggling to obtain an extension ...

— The Uprising of a Great People • Count Agenor de Gasparin

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