enslaver

noun

en·​slav·​er in-ˈslā-vər 

en-

plural enslavers

1

: someone or something that forces one or more people into or as if into slavery

The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes …

—Frederick Douglass

The opera's libretto depicts Columbus as hungry for gold and an enslaver of the Tainos …

—Bill Kaufman

… writings and textbooks and pamphlets—some 100 years old—calling tobacco foul, poisonous, an enslaver of the mind and soul.

—Matthew Ebner

2

: slaveholder

Six years after she was enslaved on Spanish Point, Prince's enslaver sold her again to another slaveholder …

—Christopher Michael Blakley

… the Fugitive Slave Act was a source of contention for communities in the North that were torn about whether to comply with returning former slaves to their enslavers.

—Bethany Bump

Examples of enslaver in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This type of education was unusual at the time, as enslavers were often worried that literacy would prompt enslaved individuals to read about freedom and rebel, according to the Encyclopedia Virginia. —Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 Oct. 2024

Ripley became known by enslavers as the place enslaved people went to disappear. —TIME, 2 Dec. 2024

Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium basketball arena is in no way connected to the enslavers, but the family was trustees and donors to the nearby University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where a road on campus remains shamefully named after them. —Chadd Scott, Forbes, 21 Nov. 2024

Several Austin place names have been called into question because their namesakes were racists, enslavers or instigators of ethnic cleansing. —Michael Barnes, Austin American-Statesman, 3 Sep. 2024

His youngest daughter, Julia, married a physician and enslaver named Luke P. Blackburn. —TIME, 4 May 2024

In 1863, the U.S. government was paying enslavers like Campbell up to $300 for each man allowed to enlist. —Mary Ann Ashcraft, Baltimore Sun, 8 Feb. 2024

These houses are tiny and were constructed in a way in which they could be easily taken apart and loaded onto carts, should the residents be forced out by their former enslavers. —Farah Nibbs, The Conversation, 22 Oct. 2024

In January 1864, Smalls returned to his hometown and used the money he’d been awarded for turning over the Planter to buy his enslaver’s mansion. —Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1645, in the meaning defined at sense 1