slaveholder
noun
slave·hold·er
ˈslāv-ˌhōl-dər 
variants
or less commonly slave holder
plural slaveholders also slave holders
: someone who holds one or more people involuntarily and under threat of violence within a system of chattel slavery
In the teaching of American history, perhaps the most difficult lesson to convey is that slavery once held the entire country in its grip. It was not just the business of enslaved black people, slaveholders, or the South.—
Karen E. Fields and Barbara J. Fields
Karen E. Fields and Barbara J. FieldsEach slaveholder's inventoried listing of the number of human beings claimed as owned … was associated with their specific census data, and has, in this age of trillions of pages of digitized historic records, become a lamp shining light on the painful lost family history of many Black Americans.—J. W. Sayles
J. W. SaylesBy allowing Southern states to count their slaves … for purposes of representation, while denying those slaves all other civil or human rights, the Constitution granted slave holders magnified political power, while creating an incentive to acquire more slaves.—Peter Sagal
Peter Sagalcalled also slave owner
Examples of slaveholder in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
An homage to millions of anonymous victims, the work implicitly rebukes the nearby figurative sculptures of slaveholders.
—Julian Lucas, New Yorker, 24 Oct. 2025
At most, a slaveholder might deserve just compensation for the loss of his slave property—an issue that could be litigated in court after the fact of immediate emancipation.
—Akhil Reed Amar, Time, 22 Sep. 2025
The play sees Whelan portray Elizabeth Van Lew, Mary's former slaveholder, while Grandy plays a war reporter.
—Wesley Stenzel, Entertainment Weekly, 12 Sep. 2025
Here, as elsewhere, Black people were responsible for maintaining life—of slaveholders’ families, of agricultural animals like mules, oxen, and horses—even as they were denied the conditions to nurture their own survival.
—Bitter Kalli
august 19, Literary Hub, 19 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for slaveholder
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Julian Lucas, New Yorker, 24 Oct. 2025
At most, a slaveholder might deserve just compensation for the loss of his slave property—an issue that could be litigated in court after the fact of immediate emancipation.
—Akhil Reed Amar, Time, 22 Sep. 2025
The play sees Whelan portray Elizabeth Van Lew, Mary's former slaveholder, while Grandy plays a war reporter.
—Wesley Stenzel, Entertainment Weekly, 12 Sep. 2025
Here, as elsewhere, Black people were responsible for maintaining life—of slaveholders’ families, of agricultural animals like mules, oxen, and horses—even as they were denied the conditions to nurture their own survival.
—Bitter Kalli
august 19, Literary Hub, 19 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for slaveholder
Cite this Entry
“Slaveholder.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slaveholder. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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slaveholder
noun
slave·hold·er
ˈslāv-ˌhōl-dər
: someone who holds one or more people in forced servitude
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