slaveholder

[sleyv-hohl-der]

noun

1. an owner of enslaved people in the institution of chattel slavery.

slaveholder

/ ˈsleɪvˌhəʊldə /

noun

1. a person who owns slaves

Other Word Forms

• slaveholding noun
• nonslaveholding adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of slaveholder¹

First recorded in 1770–80; slave + holder

Example Sentences

By the late 1850s, Northerners were equally fed up with the Supreme Court, which under Chief Justice Roger B. Taney was seen as a rubber stamp for slaveholders’ goals.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

California passed a fugitive slave law — rare among free states — in 1852 that allowed slaveholders to use violence to capture enslaved people who had fled to the Golden State.

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In 2016, Harvard Law School agreed to change a shield that was based on the crest of an 18th Century slaveholder.

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“All men are created equal,” wrote slaveholder Thomas Jefferson, in words that have been a source of consternation ever since.

Read more on Salon

Many white slaveholders, especially in Virginia’s upper-class homes, considered mixed-race people a sort of status symbol, just as some people today think of a flashy car or an expensive new smartphone.

Read more on Literature