slave owner
noun
variants
or less commonly slaveowner
plural slave owners also slaveowners
: someone who holds one or more people involuntarily and under threat of violence within a system of chattel slavery : slaveholder
As the fugitive slave and later abolitionist James W. C. Pennington noted, every change in the financial, social, and personal affairs of a slave owner and his or her children could have traumatic consequences for enslaved people.—
Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers
Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers… as the debate about reparations for slavery intensifies, it is important to remember that slaveowners, far more than enslaved people, were always the primary beneficiaries of public largess.—Tera W. Hunter
Tera W. HunterExamples of slave owner in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
For most of the former slave owners, all this had to stop.
—Gary Franks, Hartford Courant, 26 Apr. 2025
The comedy will follow an African-American intern who plays a slave actor at a local history museum who discovers that the ancestors of his white girlfriend were slave owners of some of his relatives.
—Michael Saponara, Billboard, 1 Apr. 2025
The post was about a Juneteenth event that portrayed slave owners as refugees.
County leaders have spent the subsequent years studying how leaders at other former plantations have confronted the past.
—Ashley Mahoney, Axios, 20 Mar. 2025
Far too many people overlook this distinction and end up like the German Christians and the antebellum slave owners, trying to find a heavenly origin for things that have nothing to do with the character of their God.
—B.g. White, Hartford Courant, 18 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for slave owner
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Gary Franks, Hartford Courant, 26 Apr. 2025
The comedy will follow an African-American intern who plays a slave actor at a local history museum who discovers that the ancestors of his white girlfriend were slave owners of some of his relatives.
—Michael Saponara, Billboard, 1 Apr. 2025
The post was about a Juneteenth event that portrayed slave owners as refugees.
County leaders have spent the subsequent years studying how leaders at other former plantations have confronted the past.
—Ashley Mahoney, Axios, 20 Mar. 2025
Far too many people overlook this distinction and end up like the German Christians and the antebellum slave owners, trying to find a heavenly origin for things that have nothing to do with the character of their God.
—B.g. White, Hartford Courant, 18 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for slave owner
Cite this Entry
“Slave owner.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slave%20owner. Accessed 29 Apr. 2025.
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