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
The Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1863, but slaveholders in Texas, which was part of the Confederacy, were inconsistent in following it.
—Maya Wilkins, Chicago Tribune, 20 June 2025
Texas, geographically remote and lightly occupied by Union forces, became a haven for slaveholders fleeing stricter enforcement elsewhere.
—Ed Gaskin, Boston Herald, 18 June 2025
Moreover, Washington was a slaveholder, problematic in a revolution dedicated to freedom.
—Frederic J. Fransen, Twin Cities, 11 June 2025
The study also concluded that 17 of Pope Leo's ancestors were Black, while 12 were slaveholders, owning between one and 20 people.
—James Bickerton, MSNBC Newsweek, 13 June 2025
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Maya Wilkins, Chicago Tribune, 20 June 2025
Texas, geographically remote and lightly occupied by Union forces, became a haven for slaveholders fleeing stricter enforcement elsewhere.
—Ed Gaskin, Boston Herald, 18 June 2025
Moreover, Washington was a slaveholder, problematic in a revolution dedicated to freedom.
—Frederic J. Fransen, Twin Cities, 11 June 2025
The study also concluded that 17 of Pope Leo's ancestors were Black, while 12 were slaveholders, owning between one and 20 people.
—James Bickerton, MSNBC Newsweek, 13 June 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 5 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
slaveholder
noun
slave·hold·er
ˈslāv-ˌhōl-dər
: someone who holds one or more people in forced servitude
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