To force someone into slavery or to make them completely unable to control their own life.
From en- (to put into) + slave (from Old Norse sláfr, meaning captive). The word evolved in English around the 1600s to mean both literal bondage and metaphorical loss of freedom.
The word 'slave' itself likely comes from 'Slav' because medieval European slave traders often captured Eastern European Slavic peoples, making their ethnicity synonymous with enslavement—a tragic reminder of how language preserves historical injustices.
Slavery disproportionately targeted women and girls for sexual enslavement alongside labor. Women's reproductive autonomy was violently controlled; this dimension is often erased from slavery narratives.
Use with awareness that enslavement affected genders differently. Acknowledge sexual bondage and reproductive coercion when historically accurate.
Women's resistance to enslavement—from organizing networks to protecting children—remains underrepresented in historical accounts.
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