chattel slavery

[chat-l sley-vuh-ree, sleyv-ree]

noun

1. the enslaving and owning of human beings and their offspring as property, able to be bought, sold, and forced to work without wages, as distinguished from other systems of forced, unpaid, or low-wage labor also considered to be slavery.

Word History and Origins

Origin of chattel slavery¹

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

A recent episode of CNN’s “NewsNight with Abby Phillip” peaked in a screech-fest of far-right talking points as Michaels confidently dispensed misinformation downplaying the lasting impact of chattel slavery in America.

From Salon

But again, these chapters codify the Black American experience as one defined by pain and primarily linked to chattel slavery.

From Salon

This is the same white racist “logic” used to justify Black chattel slavery and over 100 years of American apartheid and racial tyranny in the South, and other parts of the country, under the period of Jim Crow and into the post-civil rights era and beyond.

From Salon

Among Wilson’s controversies are comments he made about chattel slavery in the 1990s, when he claimed there was a “mutual affection between master and slave.”

From Salon

Within months of her 1836 arrival in New York, Ernestine Rose, a Polish-born rabbi’s daughter, began traveling around the United States condemning women’s subjugation, economic inequality, organized religion, and chattel slavery.

From Slate